We recently connected with Trajan Baker and have shared our conversation below.
Trajan, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Thank you for this opportunity to share my story!
The Legacy Mural Project – Completed: May 2023 – Location: Hampton University, Hampton, VA
During my senior year at Hampton University (I am currently a 5th year grad student – Master’s of Architecture), I had the opportunity to lead a creative effort that transformed the atrium space of the Hampton University Student Center. The Legacy Mural Project is a hand-crafted entity that stretches across 5 walls, inviting all passerby to explore more.
Mural Components (Walls) Include (5) DIMENSIONS DIMENSIONS DIMENSIONS
– Legacy Museum (Credit – Trajan A. Baker)
– Legacy Historic Campus (Credit – Yndeiah Kilby & Trajan Baker)
– Our Home by the Sea (Credit – Yndeiah Kilby & Trajan Baker)
– Hampton University TEXT wall – Charles Cherry (wood laser cutting), Trajan Baker (Mounting/Spray paint), Yndeiah Kilby (Spray Paint)
– Hampton University Alma Mater – Robert Johnson (Wood Framing) & Trajan Baker (Graphic Design + Mounting)
Legacy Museum captures the essence of the Hampton University student experience by honoring the past, present, and future of Hamptonian Legacy. A centralized staircase ascends through a gallery space (inspired by the HU Museum) whose framed art, sculpture, and architecture all express elements of Hamptonian Legacy and HBCU Culture. Student and alumni photos and stories of personal legacy are incorporated into the mural within the gallery art frames (Legacy Photos) and each face of the staircase (Hamptonian Script Newspaper)
“Our Home by the Sea”, Hampton University, is known for the stunning beauty of its historic waterfront campus. The Legacy Campus Mural captures the University’s most celebrated and recognizable landmarks through a monochromatic blue color palette – Emancipation Oak, Hampton University, Robert C. Ogden Auditorium, The Memorial Church, Bemis Laboratories.
The Legacy Mural Project was debuted on the Hampton University campus on September 29th, 2023 in the form of an ‘Artist’s Talk’
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Hello everyone, I thank you for taking the time to hear my story :)
We all know that the nature of creativity is fluid, fueled by inspiration and the demands of the present moment. As a creative, I am no different. Architecture, Visual Art, and Music are the hues of my palette that I use to color our world. An epiphany struck me recently that my innovation as a creative will be in the cross-blending of my passions.
As of Spring 2024, I am wrapping up the final semester of my collegiate experience at Hampton University (Age 22) which has been characterized by the pursuit of a Master’s degree in Architecture, creative entrepreneurship, large-scale art endeavors, and impactful community leadership. College provided an excellent foundation to realize the potential of my creative mind and ability to execute vision’s both client oriented and of my own specification. My creative arsenal is vast and growing every day.
What’s really astounding to me is that prior to entering college in 2019, I did not take my art all that seriously. Sure, I’ve always had a creative mind and a knack for the arts but my skill level as a freshman pales in comparison to my ability as a fifth year graduate student. Choosing architecture as my major was a leap of a faith into a career path I knew very little of, it went on to be the best decision that I could have ever made for myself. The birth of my journey as a creative entrepreneur began with hand-painted clothing customizations for students at my university. Repeat commission requests coupled with the rigor of my architecture design curriculum quickly sharpened my abilities both analog (sketching/painting) and digitally (graphic design/3d Modeling software).
I soon began to seek new mediums and larger canvases to challenge me. During my third year of architecture school, a professor gave my class a competition assignment that would go on to skyrocket my notoriety as an artist. For the assignment, I submitted a 1st place winning hoodie graphic for Target’s 2021 HBCU Design Challenge, earning my artwork titled ‘We Rise’ a spot in Target’s Black History Month 2022 collection nationwide. During the Spring 2023 academic semester (my 4th year), I took on a campus art project 10x larger than anything I had existing in my portfolio. Utilizing the vision akin to an architect, I proposed a 5 wall mural project that would transform the Hampton University Student Center atrium from a blank expression to a vibrant canvas. The Legacy Mural Project captures the essence of the Hampton University student experience by honoring the past, present, and future of Hamptonian Legacy.
Earlier, I mentioned my artistic direction is guided by the expressions of my creative pursuits. A glimpse into the future of my creativity is expressed by the following sentiments – “Artful architecture is music, frozen in time. Musical harmonies are the palette of the artist. Art, architecture, and music touch all parts of the human experience and have the ability to transcend through unity.”
Trajan A. Baker
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
As humans, the mentality that we carry ourselves with greatly impacts the way in which we experience life. In the face of challenges and adversity, the true character and mental poise of an individual comes to light. A path of practicing architecture teaches your mind to welcome challenges, for they are only ground for the inspiration that will elevate you higher. The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is that you never stop growing, each project presents a unique challenge to address. The creative muscle that I’ve built my practicing architecture, art, and music compounds daily – lessons from each discipline harmonizing into the next. This creative thinking seamlessly transitions into daily life, granting new perspective on how I respond to the challenges of my environment and allowing me to view the beauty and meaningfulness of our world.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
From what I have observed and heard from the creative community, there tends to be a lack of understanding from non-creatives about what goes into the design process. Especially for architects, an industry highly misunderstood, clients tend to think that design projects including placing a few lines and tapping a few buttons on the keyboard. In reality, architects are responsible for digesting a wealth of information about site context, building code, client needs, construction methods, and economic feasibility and synthesizing that into a product. The process of design is not linear, it is iterative, meaning that we often pursue an initial concept that branches into a series of potential solutions which then need to be analyzed, reassessed and adjusted as you work your way to the final solution.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.trajansarch.com
- Instagram: TrajansArch
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077639122517
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trajanbaker/