Now a seasoned mural designer and painter, Carla has had the opportunity to work with her partner and fellow designer David Booth on projects such as Scape Student Village, as well as all manor of collaborative projects, creating murals for all sorts of settings from shopping centres and women’s health initiatives, to galleries, schools and people’s homes. One of her favourites was a series of murals for the large industrial fridge walls at Remedy Kombucha’s brewery headquarters in Melbourne. The largest paintings she has worked on so far, the work took a week and half to create, and the soaring heights of the site meant she first had to get a licence in operating a scissor lift. “It was a really amazing challenge! The scale of the paintings pushed me to explore new kinds of forms and abstractions which pushed my practice into a new space.”
Carla McRae is an illustrator and artist whose vibrant murals for clients including SONOS and Hound & Bone printers adorn the walls of Melbourne, the city she calls home. Having grown up in a coastal Queensland town, she moved there after graduating in graphic design and communication, and was immediately struck by the city’s fresh outlook, finding inspiration for her creations in its sense of community. She says, “When you find a place full of like-minded people and opportunities to grow, you feel very lucky and want to protect it. There is this sense of motion and productivity around that’s infectious and inspiring.” This has led her to work on a number of collaborations with local clients including iconic Melbourne boutique Monk House Design, student housing provider Scape Student Living, and the Royal Children’s Hospital, with whom she developed an illustrated book, Shapes Have Feelings Too.
