Brief

Capture attention in high-traffic retail corridors with a hand painted trompe-l’œil mural campaign designed to stop passersby in their tracks. The work visually translates NYX’s Fat Matte product benefits into a physical illusion, strategically placed near Ulta store locations to connect street-level and high-impact awareness directly to point-of-sale.

Build

Overall Murals executed two hand painted murals in Chicago’s River North and West Loop neighborhoods. Both locations were selected within a five-minute radius of nearby Ulta stores, ensuring strong proximity between outdoor awareness and in-store purchase opportunity. The murals were produced by the Special FX team, combining fine-art painting with optical illusion techniques.

Reveal

Each wall was transformed into a large-scale trompe-l’œil illusion, designed to appear as though the NYX Fat Matte product were breaking through the building's surface. Precision painting techniques were used to align cracks, shadows, and dimensional effects with the architectural structure of each wall, creating a seamless illusion of impact and depth. The result is a striking visual metaphor for the product’s “Matte that doesn’t crack” positioning.

Impact

Installed in two of Chicago’s most active shopping districts, the murals generated 732,877 impressions over the campaign duration. The trompe-l’œil execution naturally halted pedestrian traffic, drawing attention, prompting photo capture, and fostering organic engagement. The visual concept directly reinforced NYX’s product messaging by pairing the illusion of a “cracked” wall with the promise of a matte finish that holds up under pressure.