'Badger' mural at The Viking, 2016

Commercial Projects

Since 2007 I've worked with a variety of local to national businesses to produce bespoke artwork that works within their branding whilst enhancing the interior design of a premises with complimentary styles and imagery.

Sometimes businesses know exactly what they are after, but sometimes they aren't too sure. I help owners find elements missing in their vision and give their business a twist to bring it to life in a new way. I think carefully about the space, who uses it and how it will be interacted with, to try and find the balance between Instagram-able feature and subtle decoration.

I also work as a sub-contractor for other design firms, using my range of technical skills to paint their designs and speed up their refurbishment or project.

This family run animal kennels and groomers wanted a nice bright Welcome sign to greet the many human and animals that visit.

Painted onto breeze block, the mural is approximately 2 x 3 metres in size. A breezeblock surface is more difficult to work with than a smooth surface, it restricts the amount of detail possible whilst taking longer to paint clean / straight lines. However, with a bit of patience a fine level of detail can be achieved.

IPS create systems for agricultural pest control and wanted an 'artists impression' of how moths and insects are drawn to their plumes of pheromones. The trail was to start at the bottom of the staircase in the offices, leading upstairs and along the corridor towards the main laboratory.

Using a 'pointillist' technique of building a picture through thousands of coloured dots to represent the pheromones, I built up the swirls and flows of trails with a variety of different techniques, using colour and abstract shapes to construct a flow of particles that built up from faint pastel marks at the bottom of the staircase to a grand mass of colour building towards the lab.

The total mural feels like you are walking through the plume with an insects perspective, drawing you up along 3 separate walls spanning over 20 square metres of hand painted wall.

During the lockdowns in 2021, Kirby Sports Bar took the opportunity to revamp one of their rooms to showcase the rich history of local sports and music. 6 murals were completed around the room showcasing both Liverpool and Everton Football Clubs, Hillsborough, Aintree and local boxing legends.

In 2021 the Brown Horse in Neston wanted to transform their small outdoor yard into an inviting and re-imagined Gin Garden. The owner's original ideas were limited, so I had quite a lot of freedom to make suggestions, trying to balance the small size of the space with 2 large pieces.

The pub also features another mural I did in 2019 on the outside celebrating Neston Ladies' Day.

Brunchin' restaurant and bar is part of the Italian D&P group based on Williamson Square in Liverpool city centre. Brunchin' specialise in delicious breakfasts, brunch/lunch with a juice bar for health conscious eating.

The UTS is a gym in Hoylake, Wirral, offering classes and one-2-one tuition helping people to 'Own Your Health'.

Rumah Bar & Kitchen is a South East Asia restaurant in Birkdale, Southport. I worked with Rumah to bring a sense of humanity and community into their space, incorporating elements of South East Asian cultures in a vibrant yet textile manner that brings the life and beauty of the food and business to the forefront.

I was subcontracted to paint a design for a large pub refurbishment in Boothstown outside Manchester. The piece wanted to look like an old faded painting that had been on the brick for years, which required a lot of distressing by hand to push back the paint to reveal the brick underneath.

I was asked by Rockpoint Leisure in New Brighton to paint a mural for the Ronald McDonald House centre in Arrowe Park hospital, one of the leading centers in the UK for premature and early births. I decided to paint local landmark Hilbre Island, complete with a view over the river Dee estuary to the North Wales coastline and Snowdon mountain range.

Inventive Design converted an old building in Cheadle Hulme for their offices. Whilst removing paint from the brickwork a section was too weak and unstable to remove, so I was asked to paint brickwork on top, matching the colours of the rest of the wall.

The end result was better than expected, and it's almost impossible to tell the difference between the real and painted bricks.

In 2018 I had to design a mural for a local New Brighton bar that also fit within the branding guidelines of 'Perrier Jouet Champagne'. Their official branding guidelines are VERY restrictive, but after discovering some unique modern designs for a Miami bar I was able to work with them to incorporate these colourful ideas into our concept.

You can read more about the process here: https://www.joeforrest.co.uk/single-post/perrier-jouet-mural

Popular Liverpool bar 'SOUND' wanted a graffiti style decoration behind the bar of their basement bar and music venue.

Auger wanted to brighten up the 'Games Room' of their newly built offices in Wallasey Wirral with a Pop Art theme. The blonde female in the top right corner was used as a starting point with the grid format allowing multiple images to be used. The end result includes famous pieces by Pop Artist Roy Lichtenstein as well as images from popular culture.

I was asked to decorate a 10 metre corridor in the Auger House offices before it opened in 2017. he clients asked for some local influences, but also something a bit fun and quirky for the toilets and doors at the end of the corridor, something that leads people down the hallway and has a bit of a journey.

I decided to reference both Liverpool and New Brighton, choosing a unique angle of the Liver Buildings that includes the modern Mann Island. To offset the pure black colour of Mann Island I decided to add some abstract colours to match it's abstract shape, using blue and yellow as reflections of the sky and sun.

The corridor transforms into a nature scene with animals identifying each room, a Fox for Ladies toilets, Badger for the Gents, a Cormorant in the rain for the shower room and a hoarding Magpie for the storeroom.

Headed by celebrity chef Simon Rimmer, the Viking pub and bakehouse opened in West Kirby, Wirral in June 2016

The team wanted to reflect the natural world of the vikings by bringing local wildlife into the pub. A large project, consisting of 3 canvases and 8 murals, I've worked closely with them to research local animals and identify the best location for each.

The murals were produced onsite whilst the pub was open, and the feedback from local customers was extremely positive and warming.

In 2013 I painted a portrait for Jamie Carragher's 23 Foundation charity as part of the celebrations surrounding his retirement from Liverpool football club.

The painting was originally to be auctioned off to raise money for the charity, but after being signed by his LFC team mates and the staff at Melwood training grounds Jamie decided to keep the piece. I doubt Jamie knew it was to be auctioned off, but I'm glad he liked it.

To celebrate the Royal wedding of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge in 2011 my brother and I were commissioned to created giant heads for 'Chester the GiANT City', a community project based in Chester.

The heads were 5ft tall and modeled in clay. From the clay models we created molds and cast out light-weight versions of the heads in fiber-glass resin, then painted. Other artists and community groups created clothing for the Royal giants, who were featured in local newspapers as well as promotional material for Britain's Got Talent.

In 2009 my brother and I were commissioned to produce a series of 3 large 2 meter Pinup girl portraits for a nightclub with an exotic/burlesque theme. The 3 pieces were painted with oil paints and were reproduction of work by Pinup artists Alberto Vargas and Olivia de Berardinis.

In 2007 - 2008 my brother and I completed 2 large-scale still-life paintings for Vodka Revolution bars in Cardiff and London. Both were in a realism style reminiscent of 18th Century Dutch masters, with dark, moody environments lit by candle light.

Revolution Leadenhall: 1.85 x 2.4 meters
Revolution Cardiff: 2 x 2.6 meters

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