Dry heat, wet paint: The mural at the new Matt's Big Breakfast

Three years ago, we decided to adorn our front gate with more than 8,000 bottlecaps to serve as the sign for the studio...and we decided to do it during the middle of the summer. It was hot, but the result was awesome and we had a great time doing it.

This past week, we took on another outdoor project, this one just down the street — and during what's been the hottest week of the year. The Kitchen Sink Studios team created a new mural on the north wall of the new location for Matt's Big Breakfast, downtown Phoenix's landmark diner. 

The timing meant that, well, it was hot. But it was also very fun and rewarding. Take a look at the process photos to see how it all came together, and look for it in person when the new Matt's opens in the coming weeks!

6,000 Bottlecaps & A Bunch of Great Poster Art: Kitchen Sink Studios Celebrates Phoenix Design Week

Kitchen Sink Studios decided a while back to do a little something different with its new building and identity — to tip its hat, so to speak, to other artists and the Phoenix Art District where it is located.

“We needed a sign,” said Nick Hower, Founder & Partner at the downtown Phoenix creative design studio. “And we’re a bit obsessed with all things retro. It started as an interactive button piece but Doug Bell, our Art Director, came up with the bottle cap concept.”

That’s right -- bottlecaps. Somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000 of them (we stopped counting). Kitchen Sink’s sign is actually a public art installation that, as they like to say, is “saving the world one bottlecap at a time.”

Kitchen Sink started putting them on the front of their building at 828 N. 3rd Street this summer. And after months of hard work and a few adhesive-fume headaches, and in honor of Phoenix Design Week, the KSS team will wrap up the project the afternoon of October 20.

That’s also the same day that Kitchen Sink Studios will be hosting a poster exhibition for Phoenix Design Week. Dozens of works by students from ASU, NAU, Collins Institute and the Art Institute will be on full display from 7-9 p.m. at the studio. The posters are meant to promote awareness about social issues and charity causes, and are being done in conjunction with good50x70.org and poster4tomorrow.org, two international poster submission contests.

“We thought it would be fitting to finish up the bottlecap project during Phoenix Design Week and on the same day we’re hosting the poster exhibition,” Hower said. “It’s our little contribution to a week of celebrating great art and design, and it should make for a fun afternoon and evening.

“We see it being recognizable for tourists in the future and a hub for the art district,” Hower added. “The response we’ve had on First Fridays, for example, has been tremendous. People are just drawn to it and think it’s a cool and exciting and different piece of art.”

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC/MEDIA: The public and media are invited to watch the KSS team wrap up the bottlecap project from 5 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, October 20 -- and even put a couple up themselves if they wish. Then, from 7 to 9 p.m., the poster exhibit will be open to the public as well.

Kitchen Sink asked local businesses such as the Roosevelt Bar, Cibo and America’s Tacos to save their bottlecaps and contribute them to the public art project. Because of the contributions of several different establishments, the bottlecaps represent a wide variety of beverages, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.

“We also thought it was a great way to repurpose something that would otherwise be thrown away,” Hower said. “And over time, they’ll get weathered and rust, and we think that will make the project look even more interesting and visually appealing.”

The Great Bottlecap Art Experiment of 2009

What do you get when you combine about a dozen creative minds with 7,256 bottle caps?

You get the new public art installation going on right now at Kitchen Sink Studios! We’re in the process of turning the front of our building into a work of art that we hope will become one of the signature images in downtown Phoenix. The project involves placing bottlecaps in the shape of the words “Kitchen Sink” on the front facade in sort of a retro-50s font.

We’re not only making cool things happen, we’re using a resource that would otherwise be discarded into the trash. AND, we’re getting bottlecaps from nearby businesses such as The Roosevelt Bar, Cibo and America’s Tacos. If you know of anyone who might like to contribute some caps, please let us know (www.kitchensinkstudios.com).

Our goal is to have the entire project completed in time for Phoenix Design Week, which is from October 21-25…which means a lot of warm evenings like the ones you see in the attached video.

We’ll keep you posted on the progress. In the meantime, if you’re in the neighborhood, come check it out! We'll be working on it on Wednesday afternoons after 5 p.m., and you can also come see us on First Fridays starting in September.