Case Study — Brand Activation Mural
Bombay Sapphire x Madame Brussels
Mural Design and Installation for a Melbourne Icon
When Bombay Sapphire partnered with one of Melbourne’s most beloved venues for a pop-up campaign launch, they needed more than a poster. They needed the space itself to tell the story.
Madam Brussels is a venue with serious personality – layered, cheeky, entirely its own thing. The brief was to bring Bombay Sapphire’s rich botanical identity into that space through a large-scale hand-painted mural, without flattening what made the venue so special.
The result was a mural that wrapped across two levels, snaking up the staircase through the beer garden and weaving its way through the architecture of the space – creating something that felt grown there rather than applied to it.
Year: 2019
Type: Mural / Brand Activation
Scale: Two-Level Installation
Medium: Hand-Painted
The branding had to be strong enough to make an impact, but subtle enough that it genuinely belonged in the space.
Bombay Sapphire came with a clear brand world – their signature botanical illustrations, deep sapphire tones, and the refined visual language the gin is known for globally. The challenge was translating that into a physical, textured, imperfect-beautiful environment that Madam Brussels’ crowd would actually love.
The mural couldn’t feel like a billboard. It had to feel like it had always been part of the venue’s story – while still landing the brand clearly and confidently for the campaign launch.
The branding had to be strong enough to make an impact, but subtle enough that it genuinely belonged in the space.
THE PROCESS – From client brief to living wall
01 — Working with the existing visual world
Bombay Sapphire supplied their brand illustrations and visual direction. Rather than starting from scratch, the task was understanding that visual language deeply enough to make it move – to take flat artwork and give it scale, rhythm, and life across an irregular, multi-level space.
02 — Designing for architecture, not a canvas
The beer garden staircase at Madam Brussels isn’t a flat wall. It’s a series of planes, angles, and surfaces across two levels. The design had to be mapped and adapted so the botanical elements flowed continuously up the staircase – creating the feeling of a single, uninterrupted piece rather than a series of disconnected sections.
Watch the video of it coming to life
Watch the video of it coming to life
03 — Seven days on-site, brush in hand
The full installation took a week of on-site hand-painting. Working at two levels meant navigating height, sight lines, and the physical demands of painting across different surfaces and angles. Each section was built up with multiple layers of detail – botanical motifs that rewarded a close look while reading strongly from across the beer garden.
04 — Capturing the work
A video crew was on-site throughout the installation, documenting both the making-of process and the final result. Having the full story captured – from the first brushstroke to the finished mural in a live venue environment – is part of what makes a project like this land beyond the walls it lives on.
The campaign ended. The mural stayed.
When the Bombay Sapphire campaign wrapped, Madam Brussels made a decision: the mural wasn’t going anywhere. The branding was removed at the end of the activation period, but the botanical artwork itself became a permanent feature of the venue.
That’s not a common outcome for a brand activation mural. It means the work earned its place – not as advertising, but as something the venue genuinely wanted to live with. For a mural to outlast the campaign it was commissioned for, it has to connect with the space, the people who run it, and the people who experience it. This one did.
“We love our mural so much! The whole vibe of the installation is incredible and we loved working with Jasmine throughout the week.
Especially loved seeing our patrons sipping their drinks and watching her paint!”
MADAME BRUSSELS HERSELF
