A fishy wall mural to reel-in customers

Watermark illustrator Blair Sayer isn’t out of plaice in a fish and chip shop -

one look at his robust figure will tell you that he’s salmon who doesn’t need to

mullet over before heading to his local chippy.

So when Gary from agency The Gas Project asked Blair for an 'old style yet

fresh' mural for the take away shop Fish Smith in Auckland's Herne Bay, he

was in, shall we say, hook line and sinker.

Blair really poured love into his line work, referencing vintage illustrations and

old, nautical woodcuts, injecting a modern twist. Altering the styles slightly for

each area of the mural gave it the subtle collage feel that Gary was after.

‘The most challenging part of the job was conveying a sense of

interaction between the deep-sea diver character and the fish, using only the

diver’s body language,’ says Blair. ‘A giant octopus lurking in the shadows helps to add

some fun into the narrative.’

How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh?

Tentacles… just squidding!