The Importance of Artwork in Your Office Space
Outfitting a new office is an exciting time for any startup or small business. Choosing desks, computers, chairs, printers, break room appliances, and other equipment often sets up decisions, but there is one important aspect of office preparation that is all too often overlooked: art. While some may consider it an extra expense, the right art on the walls of your business can be a powerful tool in increasing productivity, connecting with customers, and helping your business grow into a healthy, thriving company. Here’s how:
Art can increase productivity.
Since you’ll likely require that yourself and your employees spend a large portion of your week in the office, you need to invest in creating an environment where people enjoy spending time. While hosting office parties, buying lunches, and creating a culture that supports work-life balance are all great ways to create a positive office culture, art is one of the easiest, most low-maintenance
options for enhancing your environment. A few well-placed, aesthetically pleasing pieces of art boosts creativity and inspire employees, helping them be happier and more productive.
Art can help enforce your brand.
Choosing art that reflects your brand personality enforces the values and ideals you want your business to uphold. This can both help your employees better understand the brand they work for, and quickly visually convey your message to clients that visit your location. This brings us to our next point…
Art enhances your consumer experience.
A space with a few carefully selected pieces of art on the walls creates a much more positive experience for a client or customer than a drab space with nothing but the bare essentials. Help your consumer enjoy time spent in your office and leave with an even better impression of your business than before they paid you a visit.
Article Credit: Arkansas Capital
http://arcapital.com/the-importance-of-artwork-in-your-office-space/
Throw Back Thursday! #TBT
In the early 2000s, we completed a few projects in the food industry. Here is one from Ala Carte Entertainment! Our main focus now is corporate and luxury residential spaces mainly. But this was a fun project to complete nonetheless!
Corporate Art and its Role
Corporate art has become so much more than just a conversation starter at the water cooler.
By Ruth Sadler
With hundreds, if not thousands, of companies building a personal gallery for the office, it seems businesses are becoming a modern-day Medici to the art world. Banks, call centres, and law firms are furnished with paintings nowadays, yet corporate art has become so much more than just a conversation starter at the water cooler.
With hundreds, if not thousands, of companies building a personal gallery for the office, it seems businesses are becoming a modern-day Medici to the art world. Banks, call centers, and law firms are furnished with paintings nowadays, yet corporate art has become so much more than just a conversation starter at the water cooler. There are still many companies that fear art collections as a “risky investment”, but there are many more that have become aware of what corporate art can do, and just how much of an asset it is. Take the Microsoft Art Collection for example.
Beginning in 1987, the collection includes almost 5,000 works in over 150 of their
throughout the world. The artworks in this collection vary from a panel of discarded computer keys to massive multicolored murals, yet all have one common trait: these works are all required to be “contemporary art by living artists”. Michael Klein, the former curator of the collection, explains that “Microsoft is a young company, and that the median age of the employees is youthful. So the focus of the collection is on collecting contemporary art”.
Standard Chartered’s London offices follow a similar method in its gallery – boasting paintings from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, this collection serves as a visual mirror to the bank’s financial influence in these areas.
This philosophy illustrates the importance of corporate art nowadays. Many businesspeople believe others do, in fact, judge a book by its cover, and their company needs the best cover it can get. In this regard, contemporary art has become an extension of a business – the image and ideals a corporation intends to express to its clients are now translated onto their works of art. Art collections have evolved over the last several years to become not only a symbol of a corporation but a new form of advertising to be utilized.
But besides constructing a company face, employees have shown that corporate art also functions as a motivator for workers and a source of creativity in-office hours. In a recent survey by IDCAC (International Directory of Corporate Art Collections) of over 800 employees working for 32 companies, results showed that the majority of responses believed art in the workplace reduced stress, increased both creativity and productivity; enhanced morale, and broadened employee appreciation of diversity in culture and opinions. Harry Quadracci, President and Founder of Quad Graphics, also believes in the value of art in the working environment, “Art has transformed our workplaces into works of art”, for he argues that a comfortable, creatively stimulating environment produces better results. With a $4 billion USD revenue, Quad Graphics may be onto something when they stress the importance of an artistic office.
Corporate art also fulfills the desire to build links between companies and contacts in one very simple method – commissions. It may sound pointless, but you might be surprised just how effective this can be in gaining contacts or improving your cultural reputation in the community.
So there are benefits to becoming a corporate patron of the arts: it motivates your workers; it promotes your business, it builds relations and it can even be affordable. However, while anyone can get a collection of paintings in the office and say it’s corporate art, it is a much wiser investment, as demonstrated here, to make an art out of your collection.”
Full Article: http://executivesecretary.com/corporate-art-and-its-role/#comment-134169
Featured Installation
The ever-growing art collection at the Mount Prospect Public Library is enjoyed by the many patrons that frequent the library and compliment the spaces beautifully. As these latest pieces were being installed, passersby couldn’t help but sneak peeks and comment on how much they enjoyed the new artwork. Both staff and patrons alike were extremely pleased and excited to see all the pieces finished being installed. Along with the artwork we were also able to assist the library with printing and framing a photo of the Board of Trustees as well as the design of their mission statement (see image below). This is one of many installation projects CAW has completed with the library over the last few years and we look forward to more in the future.
At Corporate Artworks our design team provides a high level of creativity, project leadership, industry knowledge, innovative solutions, and customer service.
We see your space for what it could be.
Let us help you transform your space today.
The Value of Art in the Workplace
by Jeffrey Sklaver
Why don’t more designers specify art? It isn’t that they don’t appreciate art — indeed, I believe that they do: many designers come to the profession from a visual arts background. The problem is that art is viewed by many businesses as a nicety and not a necessity. The design community needs to educate its clients as to the importance of including art in the scope of work for the reasons described below. They also need to make their clients aware that even if they may not be considering purchasing art before moving into their new or renovated space, by at least planning for it in the design stage, they can avoid costly retrofits later, especially for any lighting or bracing that might be required.
*Designers, Architects, and Project Managers typically rely on working with Art Consultants for this interior design portion of their projects.
A corporate art consultant is an art professional with a range of education and expertise in design, art history, art printing, and art resources to help their clients — business owners or corporations — procure anywhere from a single art piece to a multi-piece installation and/or to develop an entire long-term art program. Their extensive skill set includes understanding blueprints, making art presentations, collaborating with artists, and overseeing projects and purchases to their final completion.
Art consultants work by connecting collectors, corporations, and artists to find the right piece for space. Working with an art consultant will also help when it comes to ironing out the details of the contract, such as payment, transportation, insurance, installation, and other issues that may come up during the transaction.*
Here are four reasons designers should specify more art, more often:
It enlivens open, glass-enclosed offices
In the case of large, open, collaborative areas, art is being used to break up and define a space. The chosen works are typically larger pieces to better hold the larger walls. In these areas, designers are incorporating feature walls for art. Designers are also using more kinetic sculpture to take advantage of high ceilings and murals for large expansive areas. The larger open spaces also allow for use of more art glass and innovative light installations. Textile art is also being used to soften the feel of a space and as a sound-buffering agent.
Art is also being used as a focal point for lunch and lounge areas and other third spaces where people congregate for collaboration and flexible working.
Additionally, with the decrease in the number of individual offices has come to the growth in the number of meeting rooms, huddle areas, and quiet rooms where people needing privacy can get away. These rooms also require art.
The type and style of art are selected and how it is being displayed is also evolving. Traditional landscapes are giving way to contemporary abstracts to better complement contemporary workplace design. There is also a growing use of photography — especially black and white photography and photographic abstracts — because of their contemporary feel.
It makes a statement about company culture
An office’s design only goes so far in identifying how a company wants to be perceived by its employees and clients; art increases the visual cues. A law firm that does a lot of international business might want to have art that reflects that scope. A lobbying organization in Washington might want dynamic photos of the Capitol, the White House, or iconic images of the monuments to remind its clients of their proximity to the seat of power. Hospitals and other healthcare facilities use art (primarily nature and landscape images) to provide a calming and peaceful distraction from an inherently stressful environment.
It’s also an effective branding tool: the right art can support a company’s corporate identity, history, values, and mission, and create a sense of place and purpose.
It contributes to a healthier work environment
Properly executed, art energizes and personalizes a workspace. It reflects an attitude, sets a tone, and — more importantly — ties together all the design elements. It is also a critical component — on par with light, air, ergonomics, and quiet spaces — in the ongoing conversation about methods for making employees feel better about their environment and be more productive at work.
Working with an art consultant will also help when it comes to ironing out the details of the contract, such as payment, transportation, insurance, and other issues that may come up during the transaction.*
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While furnishing and lighting are effective ways for meeting the physical needs of the employees, art meets their emotional needs. In a survey conducted by the Business Committee for the Arts and the International Association of Professional Art Advisors of more than 800 employees of 32 companies that displayed art in the workplace, 94 percent of respondents agreed that art enhanced the work environment; 78 percent said that it contributed to reduced stress; 64 percent saw increased creativity and productivity, and 67 percent said that it enhanced morale. As a result, art should be part of any discussion regarding health and wellness initiatives in the office.
It’s a creative way to help with wayfinding
Art is a great wayfinding tool, where colors and images can be used to visually reference an area or location. The Financial Services Roundtable named its conference rooms after U.S. presidents in its new D.C. offices. In addition to signage, it commissioned a graphic design artist to create large colorful, contemporary, representative pieces of each president that are prominently displayed in each conference room, bringing color and character to space.
At the end of the day, it is incumbent upon the design community to begin discussing art with their clients at the outset of the design process rather than leave it as an afterthought and a potential missed opportunity.
Credit: https://workdesign.com/2015/03/why-dont-more-workplace-designers-specify-art/
*Added note