Sofia Mel
From Grey to Great
Large-Scale Art Production · Industrial Mural · Brand Campaign
The Project
Turning nine industrial silos into a city landmark.
In 2023, Sofia Mel — the flagship flour brand of GoodMills Bulgaria — launched an ambitious initiative to transform nine grey grain silos at its Sofia mill into a large-scale work of urban art.
The goal went beyond improving the appearance of an industrial facility. The project aimed to transform a highly visible piece of the city's industrial landscape into a colourful public-facing landmark built around ideas of togetherness, happiness, love, care and nature.
Fine Art Factory was responsible for turning the selected design into physical reality across nine enormous cylindrical structures — approximately 3,600 m² of painted surface.
From industrial infrastructure
to public art.
9
industrial grain silos
≈3,600 m²
painted surface
700+
hours of execution
≈1 month
production
40
submitted design concepts
Bulgaria's largest
graffiti mural
The Idea
From Grey to Great.
Sofia Mel launched the project as an open street-art design competition under the name “From Grey to Great”.
The brief invited designers and artists to rethink the nine silos as one monumental urban artwork. The creative direction centred on togetherness and positive human emotions — love, happiness and care — alongside visual references to nature, the sun and the idea of the essential ingredient.
The designs were also required to work with the Sofia Mel colour palette while preserving the individual creative voice of each participant.
The campaign therefore began before a single square metre was painted.
The artwork began as a campaign,
not as decoration.
The Competition
40 ideas. One industrial canvas.
The open call generated 40 design proposals. The submitted concepts were opened to public voting, creating an early layer of participation and engagement around the transformation.
The ten most-supported designs moved forward for jury evaluation, leading to a final selection and ultimately the winning concept by Stoyan Atanasov.
The selected design would then have to make the most difficult transition of the entire project: from a controlled digital composition to nine enormous working industrial structures.
Winning design: Stoyan Atanasov
The Partnership
The concept was approved. Now it had to become real.
The project brought together Sofia Mel / GoodMills Bulgaria, GREY, SiteMedia Consultancy and Fine Art Factory, with Fine Art Factory responsible for the large-scale physical art production.
For Fine Art Factory, the task was not to reinterpret the approved creative direction. The task was to preserve it while solving everything required to make it physically possible.
- architectural adaptation
- scaling
- surface planning
- access
- work at height
- crew coordination
- material planning
- production sequencing
- quality control
The brand and partners created the opportunity.
We made the approved vision physically possible.
The Challenge
One design. Nine cylinders. Architectural scale.
The artwork had been designed as a controlled visual composition. The real canvas was anything but flat.
Nine massive cylindrical silos created constantly changing curves, viewing angles and proportions. Elements that looked correct in a design file could distort dramatically when transferred directly onto the architecture.
The composition therefore had to be adapted and positioned across the real structures while preserving the proportions, relationships and visual rhythm of the original concept.
At the same time, the silos remained an industrial environment — introducing access, height, logistics and production constraints that simply do not exist on a conventional wall.
The challenge was not painting 3,600 m².
It was keeping 3,600 m² true to the concept.
The Scale
When a mural becomes an industrial production.
Executing the project required Fine Art Factory to organise the artistic and technical crew around the architecture of the mill itself.
The work was carried out at significant height using professional access equipment, with multiple parts of the composition progressing in a controlled sequence across the nine silos.
More than 700 hours of execution were required, with the complete production taking approximately one month.
At this scale, every decision affects the whole composition — positioning, colour consistency, sequencing, access and the way individual details connect when viewed from hundreds of metres away.
The Execution
Built to survive outside the presentation file.
The approved artwork had to become a permanent exterior intervention exposed to real weather, industrial conditions and long-term visibility.
Fine Art Factory planned the production around the existing surfaces and selected exterior paint systems suitable for the project. Paints from Bulgarian manufacturer Orgachim were used in the execution.
The objective throughout production remained constant: the finished mural had to preserve the approved creative concept while functioning as a real architectural-scale exterior artwork.
On brief. On site.
At scale.
The Transformation
Bulgaria's largest graffiti mural.
After approximately one month of production, nine previously grey industrial silos had become a single 3,600 m² visual composition visible across the surrounding urban landscape.
The project was widely described by Bulgarian media as the largest graffiti mural in the country.
Scenes inspired by nature transformed the industrial architecture into a colourful public-facing landmark, creating a new visual relationship between the Sofia Mel mill and the city around it.
Beyond the Wall
The transformation became the story.
The physical execution gave Sofia Mel a highly visible communication asset: nine enormous industrial structures transformed permanently in the heart of Sofia.
The project generated editorial interest not simply because a mural had been painted, but because an ordinary piece of industrial infrastructure had been radically reimagined through public art.
SiteMedia Consultancy supported the communication campaign around the project, extending the physical transformation into media relations and international industry recognition.
The artwork created
something worth communicating.
Earned Media
A 3,600 m² reason to look up.
The completed project received broad coverage across Bulgarian national and specialist media, with the scale of the transformation becoming the central editorial story.
Coverage focused on the nine transformed silos, the 3,600 m² scale, the 700+ hours of production and the project's role in changing the visual environment around the Sofia Mel mill.
Recognition
From a Sofia industrial site to international PR shortlists.
PRNEWS Platinum Awards 2024
The campaign received three Honorable Mentions / finalist recognitions at the international PRNEWS Platinum Awards 2024.
Campaign of the Year — Environment / Sustainability
Honorable Mention
Media Relations Campaign — Agency
Honorable Mention
Media Relations Campaign — Corporation
Honorable Mention
Campaign credit in PRNEWS: Sofia Mel / SiteMedia
ICCO Global Awards 2024
Shortlisted — Campaign of the Year: Central, Eastern and Southern Europe
Campaign: Sofia Mel: From Grey to Great. Credits: SiteMedia Consultancy / Sofia Mel.
The campaign was one of the shortlisted projects selected internationally in this regional Campaign of the Year category.
ICCO Global Awards 2024 — Shortlisted
The Impact
One physical intervention. Multiple layers of value.
Urban transformation
Nine industrial silos became a new visual landmark within Sofia's cityscape.
Brand asset
The mill itself became a highly distinctive and permanently branded physical environment.
Public engagement
The project began with an open creative competition and public voting before the physical transformation even started.
Communication value
The finished artwork generated national media coverage and international recognition for the campaign.
From Grey to Great works simultaneously as environment, brand asset,
public engagement and communications platform.
For Agencies & Brands
The ambitious idea is only half the job.
A concept can look perfect on a screen and still fail when it reaches the real world.
From Grey to Great demonstrates the role Fine Art Factory can play when an agency or brand needs to move from approved creative to complex physical execution.
We can take responsibility for:
- feasibility
- architectural adaptation
- site planning
- scaling
- crew organisation
- height and access
- materials
- production management
- quality control
- final physical execution
You own the idea.
We make it physically possible.
Grey. Idea. Art. Landmark.
Nine silos. 3,600 m². One approved concept executed at architectural scale.
Let's create together something with impact.
From a single wall to complex industrial landmarks, Fine Art Factory turns ambitious agency and brand concepts into physical art — true to the idea, on time and at scale.