Connor Renwick: Peter Judson Creates Bold Murals for Scape Student Housing in London

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Peter Judson Creates Bold Murals for Scape Student Housing in London

London-based artist and illustrator Peter Judson was hired by design agency That Thing to bring his bold, graphic artwork to life within one of Scape’s premium student housing buildings, Scape Bloomsbury. Located in central London, the residence building received a major overhaul before opening its doors to students and with that came commissioned pieces of work, like Judson’s, that aim to make students feel more at home. In this month’s Deconstruction, Judson takes us through how these vibrant murals came to be.

I was commissioned to create two pieces, one for an outdoor moat that can only really be seen by the basement apartments, and a 10 floor wrap for the stairwell.

The main concept for both was to create a piece that would cement the memories that the students made during there time in Bloomsbury, picking out iconic buildings, museums but also the intricate quirks that make up the area, hopefully hammering home visual cues that they would associate with that period of their lives. Alongside the bonus of not having to stare at a brick wall and also making a trip up the staircase a little more appealing than simply hopping in the lift.

Phase 1: Research/Site Visit

I wanted to trace the steps that’s the students would be taking to get to their universities, local stations and attractions, coffee shops, museums etc… This way the piece would act like a kind of Where’s Wally (Waldo!) where only they would know what a certain thing was or meant to them!

Photographs of the area selection

Phase 2: Initial sketches

I tend to set up a grid before I begin sketching – this way it gives the images a stylistic unity that allows them to be collaged together later on in a way that appears to have been preplanned. This gives me more freedom later on the see how the images play off each other and keeps it feeling fresh!