Black Rifle Coffee Company Mural | Mesa, Arizona
Artist Banks Compton helped execute this large-scale exterior mural for a Black Rifle Coffee Company location in Mesa, Arizona, working alongside lead artist Taylor Nelson.
The mural design was provided by Black Rifle Coffee Company's corporate team and celebrates the company's connection to the American military and veteran community through a series of military figures rendered across the building's exterior.
Banks' primary contribution was painting the faces and figures of five of the people depicted in the mural, in addition to assisting with background areas and other portions of the large-scale installation.
Large-Scale Mural for Black Rifle Coffee Company
Client: Black Rifle Coffee Company
Location: Mesa, Arizona
Lead Artist: Taylor Nelson
Assisting Artist: Banks Compton
Design: Provided by Black Rifle Coffee Company
Project: Exterior Commercial Mural
Banks' Contribution: Five Figures/Faces + Background Painting
Theme: American Military & Service
Project at a Glance
Working With a National Brand
The Mesa project provided Banks with additional experience creating large-scale artwork within an established corporate identity.
Projects of this kind require a different approach from an independently designed mural. Rather than developing a new concept, the priority is accurately executing approved artwork at architectural scale while collaborating efficiently with the lead artist and client.
That experience has contributed to Banks' ability to work on both original commissions and larger commercial projects involving established brands, predetermined artwork, and collaborative painting teams.
Translating a Corporate Design Onto a Building
Unlike Banks' original mural commissions, where he develops the concept and imagery specifically for a client, the artwork for this project had already been designed by Black Rifle Coffee Company's corporate team.
The artists' role was to accurately translate that established design onto the exterior of the company's new Mesa location at architectural scale.
Working from the supplied artwork required careful attention to proportion, placement, color, and recognizable details while adapting the composition to the dimensions and architectural divisions of the building.
Painting the Figures
Banks focused much of his work on the figurative portions of the mural, completing five of the depicted characters.
Painting faces at this scale requires maintaining recognizable facial structure and expression even as an image expands across an architectural surface.
The figures are rendered in dramatically different palettes—from the white uniforms of sailors to the saturated reds of a military pilot and cooler blues of another portrait—while still functioning together as a unified composition.
Banks also assisted with background fill and other areas necessary to complete the installation.
About Banks Compton
Banks Compton is an Alabama-based mural artist and RISD alumnus whose experience includes original mural commissions, public art, commercial murals, collaborative installations, and large-scale artwork for national brands.
His murals can be found throughout Alabama and across the United States.
Commercial & Corporate Mural Projects
Banks works with businesses, brands, developers, institutions, and organizations on large-scale artwork ranging from fully custom mural commissions to collaborative installations and the execution of established designs.