The Squidly Store Mural

Custom Storefront Mural for The Squidly Store

The Squidly Store commissioned Brianna Gardocki to create a custom exterior mural for its storefront on Central Avenue in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The shop needed a mural that would make the building easier to recognize, reflect the brand’s playful personality, and help the new brick-and-mortar location stand out from the street.

The final mural features a large robot squid wrapping across the storefront. The design connected directly to Squidly Designs’ existing brand while giving the shop a memorable exterior that customers could immediately associate with the business.

Project Snapshot

Client: The Squidly Store / Squidly Designs
Owners: Jennifer Hernandez and Kevin Adams
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Project Type: Exterior storefront mural
Completed: September 2021
Artist: Brianna Gardocki
Services: Mural design, brand integration, exterior mural painting

The Project Goal

Squidly Designs had grown from local markets and online sales into its first physical storefront. The new location gave the business more visibility, but the exterior needed to communicate the shop’s personality quickly to people passing by.

Jennifer Hernandez, the artist behind Squidly Designs, wanted a mural that felt connected to the brand’s whimsical illustration style. The concept needed to include squid and ocean-inspired elements, while also incorporating the robot imagery Brianna had become known for in her own work.

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The Design Approach

The storefront created a specific design challenge. Windows, doors, and brick framing broke up the available wall space, so the mural needed to work around the architecture instead of sitting on one flat rectangular surface.

Brianna developed a robot squid concept that used the shape of the building as part of the composition. The squid was angled across the storefront so the tentacles could move naturally around the windows and entrance. This helped the mural guide attention across the wall while keeping the doorway visually connected to the artwork.

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The mural palette was chosen to match the bright, playful feel of Squidly Designs’ existing work. Bold colors, clean outlines, and large character shapes helped the design stay readable from the street while still feeling detailed up close.

Adapting the Design to the Storefront

The original concept started with a more vertical, symmetrical robot squid. As the design developed, Brianna adjusted the character’s angle and tentacle placement to better fit the storefront’s layout.

This revision made the mural feel more active across the full wall. It also helped the artwork work with the building’s shape rather than fighting against it.

Installation

After the wall was prepared, Brianna transferred the approved design onto the storefront using a projector. This helped keep the robot squid proportional across the wall’s unusual shape.

The mural was painted in color phases before the final black outline was added. Because the design relied on clean shapes and strong linework, the outlining stage was especially important. The final lines helped give the mural its polished, graphic look and made the robot squid stand out clearly from the street.

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The Finished Mural

The completed mural gave The Squidly Store a distinctive storefront identity. The robot squid made the shop easier to recognize from Central Avenue and gave customers a clear visual landmark when visiting the store.

The mural also became part of the customer experience. Visitors began taking photos with the storefront, and the artwork helped support the shop’s public presence during events, vendor markets, and community gatherings.
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Continued Collaboration

The mural led to additional collaboration between Brianna and Squidly Designs. The shop later carried several of Brianna’s prints, stickers, enamel pins, and greeting cards. Brianna also created storefront signage and additional robot squid designs for merchandise.

For the store’s one-year anniversary, Brianna created new designs for shirts, tote bags, stickers, and postcards. Those follow-up projects extended the visual world of the mural into customer-facing merchandise.

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