House of Flowers Alley Mural

Digital Mockup

Before

Independence Elementary Library Mural

Independence Elementary School

Wonderful Sorting Room

Planz Elementary School Mural

CAPK Food Bank

This mural spans across three food storage units at CAPK Food Bank. We worked closely on the design with CAPK admin and staff to show the need, the work and the hope for the future. The goal of the mural was to create something bold and bright, with a touch of whimsy to inspire all who see it. The characters illustrated in the mural are based off of real clients served and volunteers.

Our Mural Process

That’s where I come in! I’m Jennifer Williams-Cordova, also known as the Williams here at Willis and Williams Design studios. I am here to help you conceptualize and create a great piece of large scale art that will connect people to your space. I specialize in modern designs, murals as community engagement and murals for business. Murals are where my three loves (graphic design, photography, and fine art) come together. As a designer I will help you conceptualize, and even mock-up the ultimate mural. No surprises, you’ll get to see it before I even start! As a photographer I know first hand how to create a stellar photo worthy backdrop. Then, as an artists I love getting my hands dirty, dipping brush to paint, and making that concept become a reality!

KGET-17 Peacock Mural

Bloom Mural Bakersfield

The Bloom mural, is a project by The Hub of Bakersfield. This large-scale community-focused mural project took place over several months in 2020 and 2021. It is a collaborative project between two lead artists and large support base of community volunteers. Brandon Thompson applied the base coats of the sky and painted the portraits of each girl. Jennifer Williams-Cordova brought her design expertise to the project, and also executed the flowers and greenery that surround the figures.

“Bloom” is a message of empowerment and inspiration to the girls and young women of East Bakersfield. The creators believe that this mural is necessary at this moment to deliver a message to girls and young women that they matter. Depicting actual girls who live in East Bakersfield, the mural aims to communicate that all girls- no matter who they are or where they are from- have the potential to be whatever they want to be in life, and like flowers in spring, they can “bloom.” While honoring East Bakersfield’s diversity, complexity, cultural identity, aesthetic, accomplishments and legacy, Bloom aims to affirm all girls’ self worth, that they can grow up to become as smart, valuable, successful, powerful, beautiful and important as anyone else in the world.

Community Wall:

Details:

Community Paint Day:

Design process:
Jen was approached to join the project with a very loose concept and a few references of other artists’ work as inspiration.
This is the initial concept and plan created from what was provided.

A mock-up was initially submitted with stock photos, then replaced with real girls who live in the neighborhood.
Column colors were refined to mimic the sky at different times of day:

As a professional photographer, Jen also photographed reference photos used for the design:

With the concept complete, a doodle-grid was created in order to transfer the design onto such a large wall.
The wall was photographed with a series of random doodles, seen below. Then, this was layered over the design mock-up and provided each artist involved with a reference for scale.