California Burrito is a Mexican restaurant that offers fresh, wholesome & great tasting food that is sourced sustainably. The menu at California Burrito includes burritos, rice bowls, tacos, salads, and nachos in a “make-it-yourself” format inspired by the small burrito shops in San Francisco. Over the past 7 years, California Burrito has successfully scaled up to 37 outlets across India, making it one of the fastest-growing Mexican food chains in Asia.

For this project, we were asked to create a Mexico-inspired wall mural design for their Hyderabad outlet. It was supposed to instill a feeling of love for food and also portray modern Mexican aesthetics. To create a space that resonates with the charm of Mexico. They wanted to install the artwork in units and needed it to be customizable for different wall sizes. The design language was to uphold both context and history and reappropriate pre-hispanic aesthetics through abstraction and forms inspired by mid-century Mexican master Merida.

The design language used for the artwork took inspiration from Carlos Merida who was one of the most celebrated modern Mexican artists. The color palette was inspired by the stone Tozentole which is a local building material in Mexico along with some neutral tones from the existing brand vocabulary. The artwork consists of small abstracted units of food to give a modernist feel and the people in the artwork have stilettos that are inspired by Merida’s work

Carlos Merida is greatly regarded as the father of Mexican modernism and abstractionism. His work is considered highly intellectual, not representing things, but rather a concept of them. While heavily influenced by trends in Europe especially by Cubism from Picasso and abstractionism by Miro, Merida felt it important to emphasize his American (New World) identity and culture. He fused European Modernism with forms and subjects specific to America. His public murals take a significant position in the architecture of Mexico and his works remain the pioneer of Mexican modern art worldwide which inspires designers and design firms to this day. The food elements used have been directly picked from the variety of food that California burrito offers with a twist of abstractionism focusing on 2-dimensional representation.

The units of the composition were made such that the installation is modular and can be rearranged for different wall sizes maintaining the same visual aesthetics. Softer contours were used to portray playfulness and happy energy. The final color palette takes inspiration from food and Tezontel stone. Circular elements were painted on the wall to give a sense of depth. The humanoid figures are shown sharing and having food to celebrate the concept of good food bringing people together.

Multiple compositions were proposed for different wall sizes to stay true to the modular approach. The three chosen colors can be used interchangeably for different units of the mural depending on the composition and the surrounding interiors.