No More Frangipanis: Local Artists Design Stickable Murals For Car and Home

PRLog (Press Release) – Sep 17, 2008 – Nearly one year ago Newcastle based wildlife illustrator Liz Wallis found herself out of university and jobless.  With limited opportunities in her specialised field, she decided the only way to find a suitable job was to create one for herself and possibly others.  Liz, with government support through NEIS (New Enterprise Incentive Scheme) opened a small business and called it Murlize.  According to Liz “this is not your typical paint on the wall, traditional mural business” but rather one that accommodates to a more modern lifestyle, “although our product is hand-designed we wanted it to be easy to put up, removable, affordable and reusable”.  So, Liz and contracted illustrator Greg Slevin created their own lines of self-adhesive wall art.
      Recently wall decals have become a huge commodity in the U.S, however they are relatively unknown in Australia. “I wanted the perfect product so I spent ages looking for it, unfortunately I could not find a quality adhesive vinyl manufactured in Australia so I looked internationally,” says Liz, who eventually chose a product from the U.S.  The paper is a lightweight fabric, rather than the shiny vinyl used by other manufactures, so that it actually looks like the mural is apart of the wall. More importantly, the product adheres great to any flat surface without peeling the paint off the wall.  This makes them perfect for people who rent or just want to change their minds.  Other similar products on market in Australia have to be wall papered with adhesive, rubbed on like an appliqué, removed with special spatulas, or are one time use only.   Muralize stick-ons have none of these draw backs they are simply “peel and stick” without damaging the walls.
      Liz and Greg both graduated from the University of Newcastle in the Wild Life illustration Honours program and Liz went on to complete here Masters studying and illustrating local orchids.   Liz says, “there are often plants and animals involved in our mural designs and our skills come in to good use”.   Although their mural scenes are geared toward children, adults still appreciate them because of their detail. According to customer Kylie Bates, “ I wanted something different for my girls that was not mass marketed by Disney and so I chose to put up some of Muralize fairies in my home”.   Liz designed a fairy woodland scene, which includes flying horses, gnomes, and a fairy tree that is 2 meters tall.  Greg’s designs are realistic dinosaurs from the Cretaceous period and a Great Barrier Reef scene.  Each item is individually cut-out allowing the customer to create an individualised scene depending on their space and budget.  For example, a person can purchase only one fish or they can combine this with a coral reef, stingray, and sea turtle to create an underwater scene.  There is also a range of stickers created for the car. Liz believes that people are tired of seeing only frangipanis on cars and are looking for something new.  Although all Muralize stickers are water and sun resistant the car range has a special coating making them water and sun proof to combat the intense Australian sun.
   Liz was inspired by a recent trip to the Daintree rainforest and is currently working on designs for an Australian rainforest scene.  At the same time she is also designing a silhouette range of decals that are bold, stylised designs for the modern feature wall in homes and businesses.
     Their decals can be viewed on their webshop at muralize.com.au