A color by numbers wall mural we created for Facebook

Facebook asked us to create this enormous custom wall mural for the cafe in their new data center in Fort Worth, Texas.

We illustrated a jamboree of Texas and Texan food themed pictures including things like a Texas Longhorn bull, a BBQ smoker, hot sauce, a prickly pear cactus, cowboy boots, a cowboy hat, a Texan ranch and a jalapeno.

The design features a prominent ‘Cowtown Cafe’ sign, which we hand illustrated before working into the digital illustration file. The font is based on American wood type. Following an expansion in the commercial printing industry at the start of the 19th century, typefaces were etched into hardwood with each character on its own block, to be used in letterpress printing.

The arrows and zigzags in the design also reference American wood type printing, ornamental arrows and borders can be found in wood type catalogues from the late 19th century when the wooden type was being mass produced by a handful of American designers.