When Art Meets FinTech: Ola Volo
When you have a giant white wall in the office, it means only one thing: time to get yourself a kickass mural. Well, we happened to have a giant white wall in the office. So… we went and got ourselves a kickass mural.
Meet the amazing Ola Volo, (who’s also done murals for Lululemon, Translink, and Save-on Meats).
Ola: Yes! Which leads to starting conversations, especially when you have this very public art that can offer a narrative, bypassing language barriers and cultural differences. It’s like storytelling—but on a large scale.
Ola: Oh everywhere. Eastern European, Russian, and Canadian nature folklore, symbolism... I’ve been fascinated by Gustav Klimt’s work since I was 13. He uses patterns and overlays all these symbols and meanings; there are so many layers that I interpret his work differently every time I look at it.
Ola: I always start with the client: what the company stands for, quotes from people who work there, the story, stuff like that. With Mogo, I got this very West Coast vibe. Active, interactive, young—finance as a lifestyle as opposed to a burden. Plus I’d never really worked with typography before, so that was cool to experiment with!
Ola: You know what, it might sound crazy but I didn’t find it particularly difficult. At least it didn’t feel that way. I’d worked at a marketing company before I made art my career and I learned a lot there about marketing, key messaging, consistency, how to write emails. I totally burned out, though.
Ola: Right? But still, I learned a lot and I applied those same tactics to my own work. Like diversifying: if I did just magazine work, or just murals, I wouldn’t be able to make a living on that. So I do public speaking, education, branding, and a bunch of other stuff as well.