Birds of Paradise is a collaborative mural I designed during my time contracting with Children’s Museum Houston. The 40-piece mural functions like a large-scale paint-by-numbers puzzle, featuring a line art illustration of the museum’s front entrance surrounded by stylized birds of paradise flowers. Each puzzle piece was marked with numbered color guides and painted by museum staff in teams during a lively pizza party. To add an element of surprise, the design team kept the full illustration a secret, and staff didn’t know what the mural depicted until all the pieces were assembled and installed. The project was designed to foster creativity, connection, and a sense of shared ownership among employees, with designated areas for team members to leave their signatures or personal messages. Although my contract concluded before the final touches were added, the mural successfully brought staff together through creativity and play, values at the heart of the museum’s mission.
