Dodgers Mural in Torrance Honors Players With An AR QR Code
CALIFORNIA — On March 24, 2026, a massive mural of three Japanese Los Angeles Dodgers, Roki Sasaki, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Shohei Ohtani, was revealed on the side of the DoubleTree Hotel in Torrance.
The 12-story mural, known as the “Samurai of the Diamond”, was painted by Robert Vargas, an artist already known for two other Dodger murals in LA honoring other team members. According to the painter, the entire process took 10 days to paint the mural freehand.
“I have always worked this way…it’s a matter of my kind of eyeballing things and really going off of my intuition. It’s freehand brush work — no grids, no projections,” he said. “[I think] when you have great intention, then the content is great as well.”
In addition to the mural, visitors and fans alike can see these legendary players come to life via QR code.
When scanned, the QR code activates an augmented reality (AR) animation of Sasaki, Yamamoto, and Ohtani pitching a baseball, with Ohtani throwing it at the viewer, followed by a graphic indicating their 2025 World Series championship.
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The largest tribute to the Dodgers in the world
From the creation of the mural and the AR activation, down to the QR code generator they used, were all part of an effort to pay tribute to the three Japanese-born baseball stars who were key to the Dodgers' World Series win in 2025.
The mural's location was no accident either. In an interview with KTLA 5 Morning News on the day of the unveiling, Vargas explained that he chose Torrance because it had “the largest concentration of Japanese people in North America.”
Torrance is also an official friendship city with the hometowns of Ohtani and Yamamoto, Oshu and Bizen in Japan.
The Dodgers mural in Torrance wasn’t the first time Vargas had created a mural of this size or scope. In 2024, the artist painted a similar mural for Ohtani at the side of the Miyako Hotel in Little Tokyo after the athlete signed with the Dodgers before the start of the season.
Just like in his latest piece, it featured a QR code that let viewers scan to see an animated version of the mural.
Both of these murals were created in partnership with The AR Firm, the studio behind Bruno Mars’ The Romantic mural QR code last February.
AR FIRM x QR TIGER: The genius allies of Vargas’ stunt
The mural’s augmented reality QR code offers Dodgers fans an engaging experience with their community, thanks to the immersive technology studio, The AR FIRM.
Founded in 2016 by Andrew Iwankiw and Roman Gara, The AR FIRM is a next-generation studio that creates digital experiences using extended reality technologies, particularly augmented and virtual reality.
Besides the latest Dodgers mural in Los Angeles and their collaboration with Bruno Mars, the company has also created immersive experiences with Insomniac, McDonald's, and Coachella.
“Partnering with AR FIRM was an exceptional experience from start to finish. Their ability to merge artistry with cutting-edge technology is truly rare,” Vargas said about his collaboration with the firm.
After creating the AR rendition of the “Samurai of the Diamond” LA Dodgers mural, the AR FIRM put its confidence in QR TIGER to create the QR code that bridges their animation to the audience.
Known for its advanced QR code solutions, the platform enabled fans to successfully access the experience with nothing but their smartphones.
The use of QR codes to deliver AR experiences is a growing trend in advertising, with 88% of medium-sized businesses using or testing them for sales, collaboration, and product development. This has allowed Iwankiw to learn more about the technology and how it fits with their vision.
When discussing how QR codes became a part of their strategies, The AR FIRM’s co-founder shared that QR codes were “simple, scalable, and instantly interactive, making them perfect for driving real-time audience participation in our campaign.”
The QR code’s role in immersive advertising
Vargas’s work is inspiring in itself, but the inclusion of QR-powered AR activation elevates the visual art to a whole new level.
The accessibility of QR codes and the novelty of AR experiences is a potent combination, allowing any brand to stand out in memorable ways.
The work AR FIRM has done with Vargas and other brands is also a testament to innovation in marketing, where consumer engagement is a key factor.
With a reliable QR code software like QR TIGER, augmented reality can be easily accessible anywhere in the physical space, with nearly limitless potential for new experiences.
