Amazing Street Murals Only Become Visible When It Rains

A group of designers in South Korea came up with a way to make those rainy days better.

Pantone recently collaborated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago‘s designers and art directors to transform the streets of South Korea’s capital during the dreary monsoon season, when it just wouldn’t stop raining. They brought back the colours to Seoul by creating huge vibrant paintings on the streets which appear only when “activated” by the falling water.

The appropriately titled Project Monsoon began with painting the city’s somber roads with hydrochromic paint that changes from transparent to opaque when it gets wet. The resulting colorful murals, inspired by South Korea’s culture of emphasizing the importance of the flow of rivers, utilize Korea’s topographical features that create a flow and puddle of rain water in every street to fill the streets with color and life.

So from now on, on those gloomy days passersby will be given something to smile about as an underwater world filled with swimming fish and turtles appears right before their feet. And since it can rain for up to three weeks during monsoon season, those smiles are indeed very much needed.