New mural at the Iowa State Fair comes to life. Here's how to experience it.

Your phone can do more than snap a photo outside a new mural at the Iowa State Fair. It can bring the mural to life.

The Iowa State Fair welcomes its first activated mural located on the exterior of the Jacobson Exhibition Center, near the Iowa Craft Beer Tent. Fairgoers can “activate” the mural by scanning the QR code located at the large piece of art and watch it transform into an animated experience through the lens of their phone.

The mural is the product of a partnership between the Grimes-based Lashier Graphics & Signs and Vaezr Studio, a division of the West Des Moines tech firm Zirous.

How does it work?

The mural is 24 feet wide and 12 feet tall and depicts the Iowa State Fair, featuring blue skies, a Ferris wheel and barn animals.

When fairgoers scan the QR code with their phone’s camera, they’ll be taken to a website that will ask the user’s permission to access the camera. When users hit “yes,” they’ll get to see the augmented reality portion of the mural in which elements of it become 3-D, said Andy Lashier, cofounder of Lashier Graphics & Signs.

Augmented reality uses "digital visual elements, sounds" and more to enhance, in this case, a physical, 2-D mural in real time, according to Microsoft.

Users can save the image to their phone or share it to social media.

More: Off Hours: How to make the most of the Iowa State Fair, according to an expert

Why incorporate augmented reality into a mural?

Lashier said murals of this nature are unique, something he has not seen before and Zirous was not familiar with.

“We think we’re on the leading edge here,” he said.

In about three weeks, the design of the mural was determined — created by Scott McBride with Lashier Graphics & Signs — and the mural was installed on the wall.

Both businesses have worked with or had partnerships with the State Fair previously and were connected when Lashier Graphics & Signs pitched the idea for the mural without the capabilities to do augmented reality, Lashier said.

Lashier said that graphics and signs have communicated messages for years, but the incorporation of technology allows people to see a sign or an image, and then be directed to a message only viewable virtually.

“The concept was that the graphics and signage business really can be, in the future, a portal to a virtual space,” he said.

Paris Barraza covers entertainment, lifestyle and arts at the Des Moines Register. Reach her at PBarraza@registermedia.com or follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: New mural at 2023 Iowa State Fair uses augmented reality