Happy St. Patrick’s Day! For a holiday like today, we thought we’d celebrate the best way that we know how, by chatting about the color green. So, how does one emphasize the power of green? It’s a color that symbolizes Ireland, money, beer, and leprechauns. We’d like to start by exploring its history and how we, at Overall Murals, use it in its purest form… PAINT. The history of green and why it ain’t easy being it is long and much like some of our old Irish uncles, not always easy to follow. Now, there are a few legendary tales that can be attributed to why we wear green on Saint Patty’s Day. One is that Saint Patrick was thought to have used green shamrocks to teach people about the holy trinity. Another from Sean O’ Malley, a kid from my 3rd-grade science class who said it was because leprechauns would find me and pinch me if I didn’t wear the lucky color. The most poetic theory is referenced by William Drennen, the co-founder of the Society of United Irishmen in 1795. He referred to Ireland as “the Emerald Isle” in one of his poems describing the country’s vast leafy landscape. The verdant land was considered wealthy because it represented a fertile land ripe with gold. Fast forward to today — you may not typically see our work inside fine art galleries but our use of the color green out on the exterior canvases of buildings is quite prolific. As artists, we can’t overlook the beauty of green (from lime to olive) without acknowledging how important it is. It is a color that symbolizes hope, and it literally means money in our line of work, within the world of hand painted advertising. We’ve gone ahead and done all the research and sourced our wonderful in-house painters for their knowledge on all things green, so you don’t have to (you’re welcome). In ancient Egypt, the Egyptians believed that the color symbolized regeneration and rebirth, so they used copper mineral malachite to create the green color and adorn tomb walls. By the same token, ancient Romans utilized the color on mosaics and stained glass, while monks also painted their manuscripts green. Some of the latest ad campaigns have taken a cue from the Middle Ages, where green clothing stood for wealth and status. Balenciaga and Buchanan Whiskey stand out from the crowd to a large green degree. On a more practical level, during the Renaissance era, artists found that when painting a portrait and adding an undercoat of green to the pink would give the depth needed to make a face look more like, well, a face. In fact, we still use this method of green for our photorealistic murals to add balance and create a vivid pale flesh tone for murals like AG Jeans and Ray Ban. Let’s highlight the common variation of cadmium green, which is often used in advertising artwork for clients, who are environmentally friendly, or outdoorsy, and earth-friendly. It’s a bright light tint that stands out against more muted colors, while still providing a fresh look and leaving viewers with a feeling of calmness and liveliness. Tell us, are you feeling more peaceful yet? What’s so special about cadmium green? Well, it’s a color widely used in the hand painted industry for a reason. Cadmium green was discovered in 1817 and has long been a fixture on painters and graphic artists’ color pallets, typically under the name ‘cadmium yellow’. In fact, today cadmium green is usually a mixture of cadmium yellow and viridian to give it its bright pale green pallor. It’s best known for its outstanding high power, light fastness, and stability – withstanding fading from temperatures up to 5,432 degrees Fahrenheit. This is perfect for our outdoor murals that are exposed to UV rays 24/7. We use a variety of different faceted cadmium colors to help reduce the faded look so we can provide our clients with long-lasting high-quality colors for their murals all year round. Right about now, I bet you’re wondering, how do we make and mix cadmium green (or any color for that matter)? Well, it involves a client, a painter or two, and gallons of paint. Once, we have received hard copy art proofs from our client (or print them in-house) Overall Murals’ (OM) painters mount the proofs and protect them with acetate. They then utilize them as a reference for the paint we are about to mix. Next, the painters set up a station, dedicated to mixing all the colors up, something like the below. Also, for ideal results, it’s best if mixing is done under natural light, like outside or under a skylight. This process involves a combination of concocting varying paint colors to achieve the final one that matches against the client’s artwork, as exact as possible. So, for every green, pink, purple or every shadow and gradient presented in a given artwork, they must go through the paint mixing operation. Each color created will be dabbed onto the proofs for double-checking and where fingers crossed (or with a bit of luck of the Irish), it’s a match! Now for many, this affair could take hours even days to engineer. But for our uber-experienced painters, they have built an impressive ability to understand what colors and chemicals work well together, and can stir up dozens of custom colors in a matter of hours. Now, for what you’d read in the fine print: mixing oil paints like this is not something one should do lightly. The procedure can be toxic, and the government insists that they only be used by artists and professionals (that’s us!), so internally we take the necessary safety precautions. When OM’s muralists mix paint and brush it onto our walls, they are always wearing gloves and masks. Our studio ensures there is proper ventilation indoors and we ask that our team avoids eating near the chemicals… or eating the paint at all, cause it definitely doesn’t taste like chicken. So there you have it! Green, a color tied to history and was once used by Ancient Egyptians, is now swirled in a paint bucket in our Brooklyn-based studio. The power of green still holds true to Saint Patrick’s Day just like we hold true to our own hand paint tradition. When you see one of our murals painted with green, just know we are high up on the wall, painting and cheering for Saint Paddy’s day! Slainte!

In honor of Women’s History Month, we wanted to spotlight our Co-Founder, Angel Saemai. We took it upon ourselves to dive deep with Angel by asking 6 questions to get to know how Overall Murals started and her journey as a successful business owner. Hear #herstory… When did the entrepreneur bug bite you? It was in 2006 when I was working at an advertising agency and found myself feeling disconnected in my role as a Media Planner. I repeatedly asked myself, “Why am I here, and who am I here for?”. As a large company, there was no interaction with the owners, stakeholders, or board members. I found my experience impersonal and shortly after starting my role, I yearned to create something of my own – something transparent in its purpose. And that’s when I was bit by the entrepreneur bug. Tell us about your first entrepreneurial venture: How did you come up with the idea and how did you start your business? I met Dmitry, my soon to be husband and business partner in 2007. He was a rebellious and strong-willed artist, the kind that marched to his own beat (in fact, nothing has changed). He had just opened a small sign and mural painting business, okMitch Studio, while I was working at a large social network in sales. I spent my spare time helping Dmitry track down new clients for his business. During the recession of 2008, I found myself laid off without a job. This became the perfect moment to take our two backgrounds and combine them into a business we both were passionate about. Who were the mentors that encouraged you? The most encouraging mentor has always been my mother. My parents immigrated with me to the US from Thailand when I was about seven months old. Since then, my parents worked multiple low-paying jobs, day and night, to put my younger brother and me through Bay Area private schools and colleges. As hard as they worked my mother was strong and took pride in all that she did and I admire her for that. She always pushed me to excel in whatever I pursued and supported me to the fullest. Today, she continues to urge me to make decisions that are both honest and productive and for that, I am thankful for her. How do you balance your entrepreneur life with friends that don’t understand the challenges of running a business? Work-life-balance has always been difficult. For a long time, I felt that working as much and putting in as much effort as possible meant that success was imminent. In the beginning, in order to build and learn the industry, I sacrificed what was a busy social life. As I’ve gotten older and my company grows, I am more cognizant of the need to set aside time for myself, my family and loved ones. What is the biggest challenge for you as an entrepreneur? There are challenges in every stage of a business’s lifespan. The beginning comes with issues that may affect your self-esteem and self-belief. And there is a lot of picking yourself up and dusting yourself off. This never completely goes away, but eventually as one learns from past mistakes and failures it is more infrequent. At the stage I’m in now, I’m navigating how leadership requires making crucial decisions that impact a team of people, their livelihood, and safety. What tips do you have for other women who would like to start their own businesses? Starting something on your own can be daunting. It requires one to be unafraid of failure and oftentimes, you are not an expert with every aspect of what it takes. This has only gotten harder with the influence of social media. We are so aware of what our friends, colleagues, competitors, and consumers are doing. In embarking on your own, it’s important to stay true to yourself and not cater to anyone else’s expectations.

Many of us can relate to moments in our personal journeys, when there was a fork in the road of our careers. For me, that moment was in March of 2018. Then a middle school teacher, I made the tough decision to stand up for a student and in doing so, I gave up my career in education. Who would have thought the day after my last day as an educator, I would find myself in a familiar situation — seated on a bench in front of my Brooklyn apartment making small talk and bonding with a handful of passersby over our neighborhood’s local haunts. It just so happened these new acquaintances were considering moving to an apartment on the block and invited me along. As soon as I walked into their prospective home, I commented on the gorgeous wood beams, the exposed brick, and the reasonable rent. By the time we were all leaving, the agent assured the future tenants that I wasn’t a hired plant to get the deal done and asked if I ever considered a career in real estate. Shortly thereafter, I headed into what would soon be a thrilling, eye-opening real estate journey. I became immersed in a completely new industry. It was intoxicating — making transactions, building a business, and forming a team. It was, at least, what I thought my new career journey would be. Calling on building owners, property managers, and prospective tenants, day and night, seemed like a movie on how to succeed in business while really really trying. Over the course of the next two years and with two brokerages, more often than not, I found myself sitting in front of men who were the decision-makers, the negotiators, landlords, property managers, and… well you get the picture. They were the ones justifying my worth on whether or not I would get the deal closed or even get the chance to pitch a deal. Half of the time, meeting with these property owners meant wondering if they actually respected me. I found that I was trying to survive in a male dominated world, exchanging polite laughs for commissions and listings. Eventually these kinds of experiences began to pile onto a deep feeling of inequity. At my last brokerage in Williamsburg, I closed five rental deals in my first 30 days. Being new to the company and navigating new systems, I felt excited about my prospects. My manager even commented on my celebratory social media post and said, “You say what you mean and mean what you say. Your positive attitude, willingness to learn and help others is admirable. Congratulations, Jaclyn. The first of many achievements for sure!” These words affirmed my capabilities and I was confident that this would be the first of many celebrations. But, I quickly learned that the “boys club” wasn’t going to be admitting me anytime soon. Regardless of my hustle, dedication and delivery, leads and listings that were previously directed to me, were handed off to a male co-worker, instead. When I challenged the switchover, my manager responded, “He has a family to support” or would require me to share my commission with an agent who had a loose tangential history with the deal. It became clear that unwritten rules and unspoken common practices exist to benefit those in his inner circle, and that’s where I drew the line. In December 2019, I took a leap of faith and interviewed for a fully female-led Out-of-Home Advertisement Real Estate Team at Overall Murals — a hand paint advertising company located in Brooklyn. I am very proud to say that I did not have to leave real estate to find the right path for me and in January 2020, I was officially invited to be a part of Overall Murals’ Real Estate Team. It has been an honor working alongside female leaders like Angel Saemai, co-owner of Overall Murals, and Director of Real Estate West Coast, Ashley Bunnett, an industry veteran. Together we make up a squad that focuses on encouragement, partnership, and growth and in celebration of Women’s History Month, I want to use this space to celebrate us and the community we’ve built here at Overall Murals. I can’t convey enough what a difference it has been to have female mentors as colleagues. It is not lost on me that we are still very much an anomaly in an industry dominated by men, but it goes without saying we are better together. Our shared experiences make us a unique force in a predominantly male industry. Regardless of our respective markets or gender identity, and with great tenacity, we are always working collaboratively towards one goal, and that is the success of Overall Murals.