BLAG 01 - Magazine - Page 29
Lettering above at Innova 109 in Panama City.
o-working space Innova 109, housed
in a former church, has had its events
space brightened up with a new ceiling
mural designed by Panama Sign Painters Camila
Borrero and Damiano Damianovich. They have
shared their experience of working on the
project, and what they learned along the way.
Do Something Crazy
After studying in Buenos Aires, Cami returned
to Panama City and started taking on sign
painting jobs. Her café was the obvious first
client and joining her in this endeavour
was Damiano Damianovich, who she met in
Argentina. The managers of Innova 109 saw
Cami painting signs nearby and approached her
about decorating their flexible events space.
C
Panama’s “City of Knowledge”
Camila (known as Cami to her friends) was born
in Colombia, but moved to Panama as a child
shortly after America handed over control of
the Panama Canal at the end of 1999. The result
was a large area of the city left vacant where the
Clayton military base had been located. Cami’s
family settled there, running a bakery and café
that’s still serving coffee and cake today.
Prior to the handover, this part of the city had
been earmarked for development as a centre of
research and innovation. Under the banner of
Ciudad del Saber (City of Knowledge), the 120
hectare (300 acre) area has since emerged as a
hub for science and creativity in Panama. One
small part of this is the co-working space and
‘incubator’ Innova 109, housed in a former church.
Cami recalls the brief being extremely loose—
essentially “do something crazy”. Since she
was already part of the wider Ciudad del Saber
community, the project was close to her heart,
and she had a good understanding of the
organisation, and the space. During the project’s
development, further themes emerged, including
the importance of ideas and the hard work
required to make them happen. The client wanted
to inspire the Innova 109 community, and promote
their entrepreneurial and supportive culture.
From Sketching to Ceiling
Cami and Damiano started by developing a
colour palette and some broad graphic themes
for the work. This was all done on an iPad using
Issue 01
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