Murals and coffee with Pandr Design

Pandr Design Co. is made up of a team of artists that create stunningly rich and colorful murals for companies such as Target, the Minnesota Vikings, Lululemon. Their work brightens up quite a few social media posts. We loved the thought of the Pandr daily routine being fired up with a carafe of coffee brewed on the The Ratio Eight, and asked them about what it's like to make a living as painters of a special variety.

Murals go back to what, the Paleolithic era? Beautiful walls are also very modern, as everyone who’s ever heard of Instagram knows. How did you all get into murals?

We were both trained as graphic designers. We were trained on all the Adobe programs, however we wanted to do something bigger than just on the computer. So we each set it as a goal and did some electrical boxes first in our city, and then a few for local charities. 

How do you get the artwork up on a wall? 

That’s different for every wall. If you’re outdoors you’ll have to wait until night time if you want to project it. Otherwise we grid it out if it’s not dark enough. We use chalk or light pencil to draw it on the wall. Projector wins in all cases though... it’s the fastest and time is money! 

What kind of paint/brushes do you use?

We use everything. We’re not loyal to any brands. Purdy and Wooster are pretty great brushes. Anything at Michael’s is great for smaller detailed brushes. Paint is tricky because they try to tell you the more expensive brand will take you less coats but it never does. Yellow and Red and White will always need a million coats so definitely be ready for that. They’re the worst colors for painting.  

How do clients find you, and how do you decide what to paint? 

We do a ton of outreach but also 50% of our clients find us now. We believe it’s from Instagram or seeing our murals out in the wild. 
It’s a different process with each client. Some times they have a really specific idea and some times they have no idea. We help lead them to a concept that will be the best for social media. 

Do you adapt the color palate for the region?

We use the client’s brand colors or whatever makes the most sense for the space. We want our murals to connect with the surroundings. 

Do the employees at the paint store ask you if you know what you’re doing? 

Totally. We get a lot of weird looks even though we’ve ordered paint a million times. We usually get more questions from construction workers though. They’re very skeptical of our abilities to use scissor lifts or anything on site. It’s crazy. 

Partnerships are notoriously hard. How do you split up responsibilities, and decide sticky wicket issues?

We both do everything. That’s not typical. Usually one person is the creative and one is the business-minded human but we are both. We split up the boring stuff where we can. Now we are also taking turns traveling because we are trying to scale, so it’s nice to have someone holding down the fort. 

Why “Pandr”?

P and R for Phoebe and Roxy! 

What’s the coffee routine like at the office? 

We get in at 10:00 and the Ratio is turned on at 10:01. We can’t function without it! It’s coffee in the morning and wine at night. Life is all about balance :) 

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Web: Pandr Design Co.

Instagram: @pandrdesignco