You just shot an amazing picture.  Out of the thousands you’ve taken, this one is special.  And the most you’ve been able to do display this or any of your photos is print them on a single page on your black and white or laser printer.  What if you could enlarge your photo then print it in panels simultaneously to make a wall mural covering your entire wall?

Most people think a professional print shop with a very large scale printer or plotter is required to even create poster-size enlargements.  However there is inexpensive software called YottaPrint that can create panels of photos the way billboards are made.  You can even use this software to create billboards with the right equipment.

This software allows you to print any picture that is on your computer using any printer; even the smallest, least expensive color printer can be used to create the largest wall mural.  See more at www.yottaprint.com.

We’ve recently noticed two new directions that large image or mural communications have gone recently, both very focused on “realism.” One form is writing about “nothing” or the perceived need to give people a “break” in billboard communications and the other is taking the ability to create realistic art to the extreme of actually tricking the eye by painting what might be perceived not as art but as disaster. The former type of minimalist communication is intended to turn billboard works around, to communicate by not communicating. It reflects the very real “message overload” world we living — in the United States and other capitalist countries how people in those cultures have subconsciously trained their minds to not look at obvious attempts to advertise and the recognition that breaking through this new subconscious pre-occupation is possible simply by reversing what is expected to a minimalist result.

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More than any other type of local media, wall murals command attention in an enduring manner. Billboards and advertisements on television and radio only hope to capture a brief moment of our attention, but a well constructed mural that is properly maintained and preserved can be appreciated for years while also possibly communicating a local agenda or providing ancillary uses.

An anti-drug mural has been restored in Vallejo, CA. The original artist wanted to make a loud and enduring statement after his friend was killed in a drug related incident. A community in New Zealand just today reported about the commanding attention of wall murals — one is effective for speed bumps. “Smeaton Drive now had “natural speed bumps,” said one of the residences. “Everyone who drives past slows down to look at it.” An art collective group called Visual Love and artist Erik Beltran recently finished a huge mural in a mall in Fresno, CA. “Every time someone walks by, whether its kids to senior citizens, they just smile when they look up” says the building owner.