Manu Startup House Art Decor

Manu Startup House is a hostel and co-working place ideal for digital nomads who are building their own ventures as they travel, located in Atasehir, Turkiye. During my volunteering stay there, I was responsible for developing the concept for the art that would go on the walls, and later paint them. As with any art and design project, this large-scale project was divided into different smaller stages. 

My research and inspiration consisted of searching up the lifestyles of digital nomads, as well as their associated imagery, how the concept of startups may be communicated visually, gathering information on the most important monuments of Istanbul to include in my work, as well as searching up how different hostels, especially those catered to digital nomads, approach their interior design. My work was not only to figure out the design that would go on the walls, but also to figure out which walls are best to use and how, depending on what they have around them. This meant making interior design considerations that would tie the whole place together. 

Later, I went on to the research on different art styles I could apply, taking into account visual examples the client (the owner of the place) was sending me himself, followed by making sketches that I would frequently discuss during my check-ins with my client. While taking into consideration what he wanted to change or add, I would make iterations until I presented to him what he was comfortable with going forward using. 

While initially the plan was that I would paint murals directly on the walls, since he later left for vacation that lasted most of my volunteering period, he ended up assigning me canvas work instead. I will still include my earlier conceptualization for the mural plans at the end of this page. 

The first project was a series of 3 same-size canvases that each had a different Istanbul monument on it. The monuments were painted in minimal style, with further incorporation of the brand colors through window light and a recurring motif of the orange sun in all three pieces. Since I had to leave before the canvases got installed on the walls, I had to resort to mockups only. 

The second project was more complicated and challenging, since I was tasked with creating a composition across a multitude of canvases. However, the biggest issue was that I didn't have prepared canvases to work on, but rather, a big canvas roll on which I had to map out the sizing and positions of the later-to-be-cut canvases. This meant I had to leave space between each frame to account for canvas stretching. The project was more challenging than I thought it would be for that reason, as it was difficult to see the bigger picture from this. 

After drawing the lines and later painting over them and layering details, I then added paint drops in the brand colors to make the piece more dynamic and exciting. After this, I cut out all the pieces. This experience was a great learning opportunity for me that gave me the chance to problem-solve many different hurdles that may unexpectedly come up during a project, and it allowed me to work in greater scale than I usually do, all the while testing out an unfamiliar art style. Once again, since I left because the canvases were stretched, I can only imagine how they would look on the wall with a mockup.