• Home
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Hosting
  • Newsletter
  • T-Shirt
  • Stickers
  • Tips
  • Contact

Laughing Squid

A daily dose of art, culture and technology.

A Look Behind the Brooklyn Company That Creates Incredible Hand-Painted Photo-Realistic Billboards

by Lori Dorn on June 16, 2020

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • More
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • Telegram
  • WhatsApp
  • Skype
  • Reddit
  • Print

In a colorful report for Art Insider, producer Abby Narishkin visited with the creative folks at Colossal Media at their highly decorated shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Colossal is known for incredible hand-painted, photo-realistic advertising murals that can be seen all over New York City.

Brooklyn-based Colossal Media creates these photo-realistic murals as ads for major brands like Google, Nike, and Coca-Cola. And they can cost up to $150,000. We got a look inside Colossal’s colorful workshop to see how painters bring these once bygone masterpieces to life.

Narishkin explained the history of painted signs, how it almost became a dying art and what a wall dog is.

The tough painters that hung from buildings through all kinds of weather were affectionately nicknamed wall dogs. Their heyday came in the 1920s when hand-painted ads for everything from Coca-Cola to cold medicines dotted the walls of New York City. By the mid-1900s, the industry started drying up.

In 2004, Colossal Media was formed to bring back this almost-lost art.

But a handful of niche artists quietly kept the craft alive. Until 2004, when best friends and street-sign artists Paul Lindahl and Adrian Moeller started Colossal Media. With a team of 31 artists, Colossal ushered in a mainstream comeback for hand-painted murals.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lori Dorn (@hrlori)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by colossalmedia (@colossalmedia)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by colossalmedia (@colossalmedia)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by colossalmedia (@colossalmedia)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by colossalmedia (@colossalmedia)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by colossalmedia (@colossalmedia)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by colossalmedia (@colossalmedia)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by colossalmedia (@colossalmedia)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lori Dorn (@hrlori)


Related Posts



← Previous Post
Next Post →


Host your WordPress site on Managed WordPress at Laughing Squid Hosting.

Trending on Laughing Squid

  • Man Tells His Escaped Dog to Get Back in the House Using the Intercom Feature of His Video Doorbell
    Man Tells His Escaped Dog to Get Back in the House Using the Intercom Feature of His Video Doorbell
  • The Great Roy Clark Performs a Lightning Fast Guitar Cover of the Classic Instrumental '12th Street Rag'
    The Great Roy Clark Performs a Lightning Fast Guitar Cover of the Classic Instrumental '12th Street Rag'
  • Stunning Footage of Sperm Whales Attempting to Communicate With Freedivers Using Clicking Noises
    Stunning Footage of Sperm Whales Attempting to Communicate With Freedivers Using Clicking Noises
  • Mars Rover Footage Compiled Into an Astonishing 4K Video That Reveals the Surface of the Planet
    Mars Rover Footage Compiled Into an Astonishing 4K Video That Reveals the Surface of the Planet
  • A Giant Mastiff Dog Calmly Completes an Agility Course With Very Little Effort Put Forward
    A Giant Mastiff Dog Calmly Completes an Agility Course With Very Little Effort Put Forward

Powered by Laughing Squid Hosting and WordPress VIP
Newsletter | Affiliate Disclosure | Privacy Policy
© 1995-2021 Laughing Squid LLC, all rights reserved