I began this project by researching the mission, values, and existing environment at UW Children’s Center at Portage Bay. I dove deeper into understanding Montessori history and educational philosophy and interviewed the school’s administrative team about their vision and goals for the school environment. I helped them to brainstorm about how they hope families perceive and interact with the child care center. Through this process, we also identified an ideal location for the mural, at the end of a hallway leading to preschool classrooms.

The child care center’s primary goal is to provide a safe, enriching, and educational space for the children who spend many hours per day there. Teachers and staff also spend most of their day at the school, and children’s families are served by the space regularly. I wanted to ensure that these groups would all be served well by the preschool space, so I invited teachers, staff, and families to give input through surveys. Word clusters here show key words from example responses from two of the handul of survey questions.

Based on the research I had done and surveys I had gathered, I presented three mood board options to the child center administrative team. Each mood board achieved a different expression of the community’s interest in more connection to nature, and each focused on the feelings of happy, warm, safe, playful, and caring, which came directly from family surveys. The child care administrative team then chose elements of two of the mood boards, which I used to create the final mood board and color palette, expressing a combination of warm coziness and peaceful nurturing.

After finalizing the creative direction through the mood board, I offered the child care team two possible Pacific Northwest-themed sketches for the mural, one inspired by the Hoh Rainforest and one inspired by the meadows near Mt. Rainer. The Hoh Rainforest option was chosen by the team.

While developing the sketches, I collected reference images and information about native animals, plants, and organisms from each ecosystem. For the Hoh Rainforest, I carefully chose a combination of organisms that could build connections for a young audience. Some species, such as foxes, chipmunks, and ferns, might be quickly recognizable and loved by families, while others are less well-known but have characteristics that spark preschool imaginations such as the tiny northern pygmy owl, aptly-named banana slug, and stinky, snow-melting skunk cabbage. Featured species are pictured here.

After the child care team chose a design, I took the project from concept to completion by using Procreate to develop the design in color. Then, I transferred the design to the preschool wall and painted the work by hand. I made some adjustments to the design as the process unfolded to ensure that the end result would be clear and high-quality. One of the most rewarding parts of the process was chatting with children, staff, and families about the work as it was taking place!