Market Square Mural: Stop No. 1

The Story

The Market Square Mural was a project of the Manheim Area Chamber of Commerce. Ideally, they wanted someone from Manheim to create the mural, and that’s one reason they reached out to Hannah Weston. Hannah has a degree in fine art from Wheaton College and is accomplished in many areas, including design, watercolor, and photography. But it was her exceptional talents in calligraphy that led to her being chosen for this project.

Hannah was given the phrase “Welcome to Manheim’s Historic Market Square” along with the difficult task of creating lettering that had an old-timey feel but with a nod to modern calligraphy. And she found that balance perfectly.

Horst Arts helped with the process of process of priming the wall and also handled the task of drawing Hannah’s finished design onto the wall. There were not a lot of options for transferring the design. Often projection is used, but with the location of the mural being quite high off the ground, that wasn’t an option. Instead, the old-school method of gridding was used. Using the lift, a photo was taken level with the center of the mural wall. The artwork was added atop of that photo digitally. The brick patterns were then used as a natural grid with every fifth brick being marked with painter’s tape both vertically and horizontally.

Hannah Weston then handled the entire process of painting the design onto the wall.