Planting Seeds. Growing ideas. Taking action.
Troop 41536 worked hard to sell cookies for six years, through pandemic-era challenges and supply chain delays. Undeterred, they continued to sell until they finished middle school and the troop disbanded.
At the end of eighth grade, we discussed what to do with the money earned. The troop decided to use it for a legacy gift for Villa Academy, the school they all attended for elementary, middle, or both. But what should the gift be?
Concept
An idea to do a mural was planted during a conversation between Villa’s Head of School, Dr. Liz Willis, and Co-Troop Leader Megan Donahue, in the spring of 2023.
Megan immediately loved the idea, and took it to the troop. The girls were excited about this idea too. They worked on the concept during a brainstorming session at their final camping trip by looking at imagery of existing murals and discussing styles and content.
Eventually they settled on a favorite concept: to represent their school in large letters, much like murals seen in Austin, TX and other cities. Inside each letter would be something unique they loved about the school.
Fast forward a year…
With the next summer fast approaching, the troop was ready to do the mural and needed an artist. As luck or fate would have it, Megan had recently reconnected with a friend / former co-worker / current watercolor artist, Devi Brunsch. Over coffee one morning in the Spring of 2024, they discussed the project. Megan was hoping Devi might know muralists willing to help, but to her delight , Devi signed herself up instead!
Design & Execute
Megan and Devi collaborated remotely with the school, the girls, and each other to settle on the vision for the mural design, based on what the girls had in mind and what was feasible for the time and cost. By embracing tools like shared Google Sheets and Generative AI, they were able to quickly iterate on concepts amidst their wacky summer travel schedules.
Megan synthesized everyone’s feedback into a Figma board for Devi, so they could remotely work together to ensure the design met the various requirements. Devi developed the layout and the visual aesthetic, using a color palate she anchored in the school’s brand colors. In parallel, Megan worked with her, the school, and the troop to lock down materials, painting schedules, and other logistics—until finally the big day arrived!
Painting took place during the entire month of August, working around vacations, summer camps, weddings and mostly-good-but-briefly-terrible weather.