How to Choose a Mural Style for Your Brand | Wall Screen Printing
A wall mural is one of the most visible brand investments you can make. It greets every person who walks through your door, shows up in every photo taken in your space, and sets the tone for how people feel about your business. But a mural that doesn’t align with your brand identity can do more harm than good — it creates visual confusion, undermines professionalism, and wastes a prime surface. Choosing the right mural style starts with understanding what your brand actually communicates.
Start With Your Brand Guidelines
If you have a brand style guide, that’s your starting point. Pull out your primary and secondary color palette, your typography hierarchy, your logo usage rules, and any defined visual motifs. These elements should inform every decision about the mural — from the background color to the illustration style. If you don’t have formal brand guidelines, look at your existing materials: your website, your packaging, your signage. The mural should feel like it belongs in that same family. Our design and file prep team can help translate existing brand assets into wall-ready artwork.
Photographic vs. Illustrative vs. Typographic
The three most common mural styles for commercial spaces are photographic, illustrative, and typographic — and each sends a different message. Photographic murals work well for hospitality, real estate, and lifestyle brands that want to evoke a specific place or feeling. Illustrative murals suit creative agencies, restaurants, and retail brands that want personality and energy. Typographic murals — featuring quotes, values, or mission statements — are popular in offices and coworking spaces where culture messaging matters. The style you choose should match the emotional register of your brand, not just your personal taste.
Color Psychology Matters More Than You Think
Color isn’t decoration — it’s communication. A tech startup printing a mural in warm earth tones sends a very different signal than one using high-contrast blues and whites. Before selecting colors for your mural, consider what your brand palette already communicates and whether the mural should reinforce that or provide intentional contrast. Dark backgrounds with light graphics feel premium and focused. Light backgrounds with bold color accents feel energetic and open. If your space has specific lighting conditions, factor that in — we cover this in detail in our post on color, lighting, and finishes.
Placement Drives Style Decisions
Where the mural lives in your space should influence its design. A lobby logo wall behind a reception desk calls for clean, centered, high-contrast design that reads well from 15–20 feet away. A hallway mural can afford to be more detailed and narrative because people engage with it at close range while walking. A conference room feature wall should be visually interesting without being distracting during meetings. Map out the sightlines in your space before committing to a style — the mural needs to work from every angle people will actually see it.
Scale and Density
One of the most common mistakes in mural design is cramming too much into the space. A wall mural isn’t a brochure. It needs breathing room. Large-scale graphics with generous negative space almost always outperform busy, detail-heavy compositions — especially in commercial environments where the mural competes with furniture, signage, and foot traffic. If your design has fine detail, consider reserving that for a smaller accent wall and keeping the primary mural bold and simple.
Industry Context
Your industry sets expectations. A law firm with a graffiti-style mural will confuse clients. A skate shop with a minimalist sans-serif logo wall will feel sterile. Look at what competitors and adjacent brands are doing — not to copy them, but to understand the visual language your audience already associates with your category. Then decide whether to lean into those conventions or intentionally break them. Both approaches work, but only if the choice is deliberate. Browse our work across retail and restaurant environments and office interiors to see how different industries approach mural style.
Getting From Concept to Wall
Once you’ve narrowed your style direction, the next step is producing wall-ready artwork. That means vector files for logos and type, high-resolution rasters for photography (minimum 150 DPI at print size), and a clear layout that accounts for wall dimensions, obstacles, and viewing distance. If you’re not sure where to start, request a quote and include photos of your wall plus any brand assets you have. We’ll help you develop a concept that fits your brand, your space, and your budget — then print it directly onto your wall with zero seams and zero compromise.