Merchants Paper Co. Mural | Pensacola, Florida
Mural artist Banks Compton created this large-scale mural for Merchants Paper Co. on Barrancas Avenue during the 2023 Pensacola Mural Fest.
The retro-inspired design celebrates nearly a century of Merchants Paper Co. history through imagery connected to the family-owned business and its personality. A vintage delivery truck travels across the building with paper products flying from the back, while the family's golden retriever, Piper, appears prominently in the composition.
Piper regularly greets customers inside the business, making her a natural character to help tell the company's story through the mural. Contemporary coverage of the project highlighted the mural's connection to the family, Piper, the company's long history in west Pensacola, and Banks' inclusion of camellias as a Southern touch.
ACelebrating Nearly 100 Years of a Pensacola Business
Client: Merchants Paper Co.
Location: 1800 Barrancas Avenue, Pensacola, Florida
Artist: Banks Compton
Festival: 2023 Pensacola Mural Fest
Part of: Foo Foo Fest
Surface: Corrugated Metal
Theme: Business History & Family Storytelling
Recognition: People's Choice – 1st Place
Featured Imagery: Vintage Delivery Truck, Paper Products, Piper & Camellias
Project at a Glance
People's Choice Award
The Merchants Paper Co. mural received the 2023 Pensacola Mural Fest People's Choice 1st Place award.
The recognition is particularly meaningful because it reflects the response of festival visitors and the Pensacola community to the finished artwork. Your existing CV also lists the project as People's Choice 1st Place, and your project highlights describe the community response to the mural.
This project became an important part of Banks' growing body of work in Pensacola and Northwest Florida, combining public art with the history and personality of a longstanding local business.
Painting the Largest Mural of the Festival
The Merchants Paper mural was the largest mural Banks painted during the 2023 Pensacola Mural Fest and required transforming the company's expansive corrugated-metal exterior into a single composition.
The unusual surface added another dimension to the project. Rather than painting a conventional flat masonry wall, the artwork had to visually flow across the repeating ridges of the metal building.
Large MERCHANTS PAPER CO. lettering stretches across the upper portion of the facade, giving the finished mural the character of a vintage painted advertisement while remaining highly visible from Barrancas Avenue.
Pensacola Mural Fest & Foo Foo Fest
The 2023 Pensacola Mural Fest brought five large-scale murals to buildings along the Barrancas corridor between Garden and Main Streets. Visitors could watch the selected artists work before the festival celebration on November 4. Pensacola Mural Fest itself began in 2022 and expanded substantially in 2023 when businesses along Barrancas offered their walls for full-scale murals. The event was also part of Pensacola's larger Foo Foo Fest, a 12-day celebration bringing together arts and cultural events throughout the city.
Pensacola Mural Fest
2023 Pensacola Mural Fest at Foo Foo Fest
Murals That Tell a Business's Story
The Merchants Paper project demonstrates how a commercial mural can do more than place a company's name on a building.
By incorporating the company's history, vintage imagery, products, family dog, and Southern landscape elements, the mural creates a visual identity specific to Merchants Paper Co.
Banks creates custom murals for businesses that transform their buildings while telling stories about their history, people, products, communities, and sense of place.
About Banks Compton
Banks Compton is an Alabama-based mural artist and RISD alumnus creating large-scale murals and public art throughout the Southeast and across the United States.
His work combines storytelling, local history, nature, and site-specific imagery to create murals that reflect the businesses and communities where they are painted.
Looking for a Mural Artist in Pensacola?
Banks creates custom murals for businesses, schools, public spaces, organizations, and private properties throughout Pensacola, Northwest Florida, Alabama's Gulf Coast, and the Southeast.