Exploring the Colorful Past, Present and Future of DTLA Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) is one of LA's most historic and diverse areas, offering a little bit of everything that represents the city. Palm trees sit between the shiny skyscrapers like the Wilshire Grand Hotel and iconic historic buildings like the Biltmore and LA Times building; some of the best tacos at Sonoratown share a zipcode with the tres chic French hotspot Perch; modern architecture and digital signs mix with buildings from the 1800s covered in ghost signs; a neighborhood where The Orpheum can celebrate 100 years with bands and comedians still selling out shows. DTLA has shown that evolution can preserve the character of the past while bringing in the food and culture of the future. It’s a place where old and new collide. And DTLA has been reinventing itself for nearly 250 years. THE HISTORY OF DTLA The city of LA was founded in 1781 by 44 settlers, and Downtown LA (DTLA) was where they started building. About a century later, it grew into the city’s center and is now considered the city’s historic heart. Head to Olvera Street, located within the city’s oldest historic district. This is the oldest block in LA and home to Avila Adobe, the oldest surviving residence built in 1818. There, the street is lined with colorful market stalls, restaurants, and generations-old businesses that reflect Los Angeles’ Mexican roots. In the early 1900s, long before Hollywood became Hollywood, Broadway was downtown's lifeline, lined with packed theaters, glowing neon marquees, and grand movie palaces. Today, Broadway still holds the largest collection of intact historic movie palaces in the country. In the 1970s, the entertainment industry began moving farther out as artists moved into empty warehouses east of Alameda, drawn by huge loft spaces and more affordable rent. They created studios, galleries, and live/work lofts in what eventually became the Arts District. In 1981, the city formally legalized artist residences in many of those former industrial buildings. The Arts District wouldn’t be known as such if these artists didn’t also paint the streets with murals that still exist today. These ever-changing murals and street art became part of the neighborhood and an integral part of how the Arts District developed its identity. That tradition is still visible everywhere from warehouse walls to giant contemporary murals throughout DTLA. WHY HAND PAINT IS IMPORTANT TO DTLA CULTURE? That history feels especially relevant to us at Overall. Hand painted signage and murals have long been part of the commercial landscape in DTLA and cities across the country. Before printers and vinyl cutters, businesses used murals and painted billboards to bring color, character, and attention to products and the buildings that house them. The tradition may have evolved, but the core concept hasn’t: hand painting is, and always will be, one of the most direct ways to bring a building to life. It’s also why hand painted work still makes sense here. In a neighborhood rich with culture, history, art, and architecture that continues to evolve, a mural can bring the creative side of advertising to life in DTLA while staying true to its roots. WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY IN DTLA? More people are living there. Since the late 1990s, its residential population has grown exponentially from under 18,000 to over 90,000, and the DTLA 2040 plan envisions a population of more than 200,000 residents, not including businesses and workers. In September 2025, Mayor Karen Bass recently gave final approval for the Los Angeles Convention Center modernization. She framed the project as much more than an upgrade to one building, calling it part of “revitalizing the heart of our city” and pointing to its role in bringing tourism, jobs, and more activity back into Downtown. Other major developments are coming within the next year, such as Fourth & Central near the Arts District, which would add more than 1,500 residences, along with restaurants, shops, and offices. The infamous Erewhon is opening a DTLA location in 2027, which may be one of the more obvious signs that retailers are betting on the neighborhood’s future. The city is also making it easier to move within these neighborhoods. Metro’s Regional Connector tied together Little Tokyo/Arts District, Historic Broadway, and Grand Avenue Arts/Bunker Hill, making Downtown a much more useful transit hub and a far easier place to explore without a car. With the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games approaching, that connectivity is developing faster and is even more reliable. Downtown will be one of the primary hubs for the Games, while the Convention Center and surrounding public spaces continue to receive major investment. REASONS TO VISIT DTLA Besides what’s new, some of the best reasons to visit Downtown have been there for decades. Hidden gems include the unique Apple Store and the Apple Tower Theatre on Broadway, which occupies a beautifully restored 1927 movie palace. Don’t miss Grand Central Market. Open since 1917, it is still one of the best places to eat your way through the city. Right across the street is Angels Flight, the tiny historic railway that’s been carrying passengers up steep Bunker Hill since 1901. And nearby, The Last Bookstore fills a former bank building, complete with its original vault full of books. The food scene is just as varied. Notable foodie havens include Bestia, Bavel, Girl & the Goat, and Kato at ROW DTLA, while Philippe The Original has served French dip sandwiches since 1908. Los Angeles is saturated with culture, and DTLA is no exception. Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Broad, MOCA, and the Music Center anchor the Bunker Hill area. The newly opened DATALAND adds an entirely different kind of museum focused on AI and digital art. Farther south, L.A. LIVE, Crypto.com Arena, and the GRAMMY Museum bring major sports, concerts, and nightlife entertainment to the neighborhood. And Broadway is still putting on a show. Its historic theaters, including the Orpheum, United Theater, Globe, and Belasco, still command the large audiences heading into downtown. Then there’s the Fashion District, which never really stopped moving. With roughly 100 blocks of showrooms, wholesalers, fabric stores, flower vendors, and more than 1,000 retailers, this part of DTLA embodies a whole different kind of energy. The variety of places found within blocks of each other is DTLA’s greatest strength. Within a relatively small area, you have Little Tokyo, Chinatown, the Historic Core, Broadway, the Fashion District, Arts District, South Park, and Bunker Hill. Each neighborhoods holds very different histories that overlap rather than blend into one generic Downtown. LA Tourism describes Downtown as a compact collection of districts, from street art and galleries to historic architecture, shopping and some of the city’s oldest cultural landmarks. The city is making it easier to move within these neighborhoods too. Metro’s Regional Connector tied together Little Tokyo/Arts District, Historic Broadway and Grand Avenue Arts/Bunker Hill, making Downtown a much more useful transit hub and a far easier place to explore without a car. With the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games approaching, that connectivity is developing faster and is even more reliable. Downtown will be one of the primary hubs for the Games, while the Convention Center and surrounding public spaces continue to receive major investment. We can’t ignore DTLA's real challenges. Some blocks stay quiet, and homelessness is highly visible due to an uneven recovery. But Downtown has never moved in a straight line, and as the world's needs evolve, so does DTLA. BE A PART OF DTLA DTLA is increasingly becoming a compelling place for brands to show up. More people are living Downtown, more visitors are coming through, and new businesses keep investing in the area. The neighborhood is deeply connected to its own visual history, and that is what makes hand painted advertising feel especially at home here. Murals and signs have been part of DTLA’s streetscape for generations. Today, they give brands a way to become part of that landscape rather than simply appear on it. A hand painted wall can add something to the neighborhood while putting a brand directly into the culture, architecture, and movement of Downtown. That’s what we do at Overall: turn the walls that make DTLA recognizable into something people notice and share. We keep the heart of DTLA beating, one hand painted mural at a time.

We created the Overall Workwear line for our crew and our needs. As we developed our Power House and wall units, we realized that our activities go far beyond painting large murals. We also take on facade restorations, electrical work, design and fabricating, structural steel, concrete footings and other trades. All of these skillsets are essential to creating a fully custom-built creative hub and wall units with one purpose: provide a platform for visual creativity and beyond. Our workwear is designed by Overall Creative for the demands of the field. Thicker fabrics help protect against cuts and UV rays, while different styles are designed for both hot and cold days. Designed to perform in tough field conditions. Look good on and off the job.

We don’t just play the field, we paint it. There are moments when a city stops behaving like a place and starts behaving like energy. Summer always brings an enhanced version of that, but when the highly anticipated FIFA World Cup arrives next month, it moves differently. It accelerates. Flights arrive packed, sidewalks buzz late into the night, and entire neighborhoods pulse with a contagious sense of excitement. In cities like Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Atlanta, and San Francisco, the energy of the World Cup doesn’t stay confined to stadiums or match schedules; it takes over everything. It moves through Venice in the golden hours of late afternoon, pulses along Melrose where retail meets culture, fills the streets of Soho by day, and electrifies Williamsburg long into the night. This isn’t just about watching the game; it is about stepping into it. The World Cup becomes a citywide experience, where every neighborhood, every street, and every moment invites you to be part of something bigger. For brands, that movement creates both a unique opportunity and overwhelming pressure. Fashion, CPG, tech, finance, retail, travel, and alcohol all compete for attention in the same environments, often during the same hours. Visibility is everywhere, but it disappears just as quickly. What stands out isn’t what’s seen once, it’s what shows up again, naturally, as people move. Not just creatively, but in how they perform. They hold attention longer, show up repeatedly, and extend naturally into the content people create around them. At Overall Murals, the work starts with understanding that a wall is not just a location; it is part of a larger path to making an impression. A single wall can introduce a brand, but its impact is limited. When that presence continues across multiple placements, it begins to build frequency, recognition, and momentum in the real world. Across our wide footprint, LA’s Venice and Melrose, Seattle’s Pike Place, Atlanta’s Downtown, to New York’s LES and Bushwick, San Francisco’s Union Square, and many more, we’ve seen how that continuity builds and engages. A brand might begin with a high-visibility wall along Melrose, where foot traffic and retail density create immediate exposure, then extend into Venice, where the pace slows, and people engage differently with their surroundings. In New York, that presence might shift onto bustling Canal Street, where daytime movement peaks, and then onto Wythe Avenue, where the environment invites a different kind of attention at night. Each wall meets a different moment, but together they create something cohesive. That consistency across environments increases the likelihood that a brand is not just seen, but remembered. It allows brands to plan for presence, not just placement. A fashion brand might use one perfectly placed wall to establish a bold summer seasonal statement, while another introduces a collaboration that feels specific to a neighborhood. A food or beverage brand can anchor itself in high-energy social corridors, then extend into surrounding areas where those moments continue more organically. A tech brand may drive hyper-productivity into experience-driven messaging in places where people are actively moving about. In each case, the goal isn’t just visibility. It’s sustained presence across the moments where people are already moving, gathering, and engaging. It’s where craft meets media performance, delivering both physical impact and extended reach. During the World Cup and summer season, when millions of people are documenting their experience, capturing where they are, what they’re seeing, and how the city feels, the work begins to move beyond the street. Within that system, certain walls can be rigged and illuminated to do more. Our award-winning Special FX team introduces elements that change how people engage with the work, not by overwhelming it, but by giving it another layer to reveal over time, and creating further engagement and discussion beyond the wall. A brand might use materials that respond to light, so the wall shifts from day to night, or incorporate finishes that catch the eye anamorphically depending on where someone is standing. These elements don’t just add spectacle; they increase engagement, repeat views, and time spent with the work. What ties all of this together is where the work lives. During a moment of this scale, the most obvious placements quickly become crowded. The real opportunity often exists just beyond them, in the connectors between neighborhoods, along the streets that lead into gathering points, in the places where people pause rather than pass through. This is how the footprint expands, not as a fixed map, but as something that adapts to the moment to deliver stronger engagement in those moments. And that’s where the impression deepens. In a season where everything is competing for attention and where movement replaces routine, that kind of presence is what allows hand painted walls to go beyond. Not just as media, and not just as craft, but as something that connects both, creating impressions that build, travel, and last, driving both cultural relevance and real-world impact for brands. If you’re interested in what’s behind the walls and what they can do for your brand, explore more at overallmurals.com/services or reach me at scott@overallmurals.com.

PLAYSTATION < Back PS5TREATCODES Overview Service Outdoor Advertising industry Gaming markets New York Wall(s) 1 Wall impressions 393K+ PlayStation is aware their latest device PlayStation 5 (PS5) is difficult to come by. That’s why Sony PlayStation launched its latest campaign initiative, Treat Codes. Treat Codes is an immersive contest that allows dedicated fans to enter a “globe-spanning code hunt” where they track down 14 codes worldwide in a chance to win a free PS5. Our talented paint crew had the pleasure of revealing one of the treat codes on a wallscape in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The PlayStation controller symbols were painted by our crew on our street-level wallscape and witnessed by 392,388 passersby who were encouraged to visit #PS5TREATCODES where they could enter the code for a chance to win. This campaign was a successful opportunity for Playstation to engage with its audience and create an opportunity to provide the PS5 devices to a handful of gamers who have long anticipated getting their hands on the latest device. Previous Next

Adult Swim < Back THE BOONDOCKS Overview Service Outdoor Advertising industry Entertainment markets New York, Philadelphia Wall(s) 2 Walls impressions The Boondocks is a Peabody Award-winning animated sitcom on Cartoon Network late-night programming block,Adult Swim. The series was created by Aaron McGruder offers a modern perspective on culture, class, and race relations. Following three critically-acclaimed seasons in 2005, 2007, and 2010, the series went on hiatus until 2014. To announce the release of the 4th and final season, Adult Swim enlisted Overall Murals to produce a teaser campaign in NYC, featuring a black-and-white silhouette of the iconic main character, Huey, with no text other than the release date. The images produced a whirlwind of positive social media, which was renewed three weeks later when two vibrant, full-color portraits with full network release details were produced in both NYC and Philadelphia. Previous Next

MEZCLA < Back SNACKS Overview Service Outdoor Advertising industry CPG markets New York Wall(s) 1 Wall impressions 486,672 Brief Some brands buy an ad. Mezcla bought a landmark. The DTC brand partnered with Overall Murals to hand paint a bold, larger-than-life mural on our street-level illuminated wall in Williamsburg, Brooklyn , because nothing says "we've arrived" quite like taking over one of New York's most photographed neighborhoods. Build Overall Murals hand painted Mezcla's creative vision at full scale, turning a blank wall into a piece of the neighborhood itself. In Williamsburg, a place where every block already looks like a backdrop, that's no small feat. Reveal Once the paint dried, Mezcla didn't just admire the work from a distance. They showed up. The team , including the CEO , visited the mural in person to capture original content and share the experience across instagram, treating the wall less like an ad placement and more like a milestone worth celebrating . Impact Over four weeks, the mural racked up 486K+ passerby impressions, and then kept going. Mezcla liked what they saw so much that they folded the mural into their own marketing, publishing four organic Instagram posts featuring the wall increasing impressions by 15.6K+. Nobody asked them to. They just wanted to. That's the tell that a mural's working: when the brand starts using it as content, not just counting it as media. Why It Matters For emerging and DTC brands, a mural isn't just square footage. It's a set, a story, and a flex, all in one. Mezcla's campaign shows what happens when a single mural investment does more than sit on a wall: it becomes founder content, social fuel, and an ongoing conversation with the neighborhood. One wall, working overtime. Previous Next