Langstone Engineering Mural

Graffiti life recently took on the task of designing and painting some fantastic artwork for Langstone Engineering ltd which is a workshop in Portsmouth specialising in Toolmaking & Precision Engineering services as well as Prototype Engineering and component Manufacture. The team were set the brief of creating interesting and eye-catching artwork for the workshop. The goal was to brighten the place up to make it fun and engaging for everyone using the space.

We interviewed Becky, our project manager for this comission, on the process of the piece and any challenges the artists may have faced throughout.

Tell us a little about Langstone and what you know about it?

Langstone are an engineering company who work closely with F1/Motor Sports, Medical, Automotive, Rubber/Plastic, Aeronautical, Marine & Defence Industries etc. They are an extremely hard-working team and often have to work around the clock. Despite this, they seem to maintain great team morale, every time I spoke to them they were full of jokes!

What was the workshops initial inspiration for the designs?

As the guys have to spend such long hours in such an industrial space, they felt it would be great to inject a splash of colour and humour into their working environment.  They wanted the piece to relate to what the company did, so they chose planes and cars as their subjects.

Did you design the piece with their inspiration in mind or did the design end up being completely different?

They had seen a prior Graffiti Life painting of a giant realistic Zeplin crashing through a brick wall and wanted something along these lines. The client also wanted to make sure the piece made his workforce smile and we toyed with the idea of having miniature workmen dotted around the wall, but instead decided that this would detract from the realistic element and to keep the humour in the main artwork.

Did you face any challenges whilst painting this piece?

As previously mentioned, the workspace is in constant use and there is a lot of heavy machinery. That, along with the height and scale of the wall, made painting access tricky. We had to hire a specialist boom lift, which had a mechanical arm that could be moved along the length and height of the wall. However this lift could only accommodate 2 artists at a time, and as the design was so large and highly detailed, the artists had to work 4 shifts and stay overnight in Portsmouth to complete this.

Were you happy with the outcome?

We were so happy with the final piece! It’s always great to have an opportunity like this where we can really show our painting skills.

“It was a real pleasure working with the team at Langstone, working with such pleasant people who in-trusted in our creative direction made the whole process so much more enjoyable.” Rebecca Baier