After a year of working from home and a return to the office (hopefully) on the horizon, there has never been a better time to get your office space just right - for your employees and your business. Whether you’re looking to create a modern office, design an inspiring office space, or replicate the comfort of a home office, art can enhance any professional decor.
Offices can be a drab space: beige and lifeless, with nothing to see but identical desks and bare walls. Considering in the UK we spend, on average, nearly one fifth of our entire week at work, office design should be as important as our home interior.
Perhaps you want to make a good first impression on a new client? Or maybe improving the wellbeing and productivity of your valued workforce is your goal? Breathing more life into the space with some office wall art can make a huge difference. An aesthetically pleasing environment stimulates the senses and simply makes people feel good.
Art, Productivity and Wellbeing
Mental health accounts for over 20 percent of public health challenges in the UK, which is more than cancer and cardiovascular disease. Art - and, even more so, the experience of being immersed in and talking about art with others - promotes feelings of joy and wellness. The feeling of awe we get from gazing at artwork can significantly lower levels of inflammation in the body: a key contributor to chronic illnesses such as diabetes, depression and cardiovascular disease.
Community spirit and the opportunity to express oneself and talk about emotion play a key role here. Art boosts confidence, has a calming effect, and makes us feel more resilient and engaged with the world and people around us. These are all great alleviators of stress and anxiety.
Cognitive exhaustion is common in desk jobs. Prolonged periods of highly focussed work take their toll on an employee’s abilities and emotions. Viewing art restores mental energy and reduces exhaustion-caused stress, which in turn boosts brain function. This increased efficiency in brain processing leads to feelings of tranquility and patience.
Art has also been linked to lower levels of anger in the workplace. Being frustrated by a task or problem has a huge effect on mood at work. But engaging with art in the office helps to alleviate that.
An aesthetic office space can also spark more discussion amongst colleagues. Opening the floor to feelings of belonging, cooperation, innovation and creativity in an office environment improves relationships and wellbeing. Decorate your office with art for a happier, more collaborative workplace.
Opting to decorate office walls won’t only affect your employee’s mental health, but the quality of their work too. Studies show that workers in a space enriched by office wall decor and plants were 15 percent more productive than workers in a blank, lifeless office.
One step towards being a good employer is caring about the environment your employees have to be in. Choose office art as a simple way to invest in that ethos and become an even more desirable workplace. Feeling respected and valued is reciprocated by an employee who is more engaged and invested in their work - just as you made an investment in them with some much-needed office artwork.
Choosing Art for a Working Environment
Reflect Your Brand
First impressions are important, particularly if you’ll be inviting clients back into the office soon. An empty foyer or entrance hall probably doesn’t make the best greeting for your esteemed guests.
The great thing about decorating your office with art is it can be changed in an instant. You could consider switching up your pieces every few years. Even just changing a few prints, rather than having a full overhaul, will provide an environment that continues to excite - and gives the impression of a brand that is continually striving forward.
But this cohesive relationship between brand and office decoration not only wows clients. Workplaces and offices can often feel like a world unto themselves to employees. Creating a community and collective culture can be vital for both brand and worker success.
Art in the office workspace can promote a certain company culture or instill new values in employees. The sense of pride in work achievements and their impact on the outside world begins to grow in this environment. Togetherness and community really do make a difference in the workplace.
A well-respected journal may want to stimulate curiosity and learning through their office artwork. Depending on the subject of their papers, vintage science or botanical prints could spark interest. Or perhaps art prints on old newspapers would suit their office just right.
Line art celebrating the glorious female form wouldn’t look out of place in the bustling office of a women’s magazine. Photographic prints of cities and their famous building styles, on the other hand, would be the perfect fit for an architect’s office.
A travel agent looking to entice customers to destinations all across our beautiful planet could be interested in our Cityscape collection or our coastal prints. For a classic look, covering a range of subjects from landscapes to still life and portraits, consider Impressionist art prints.
Empowering Your Employees
The impact of visual arts on wellbeing is heightened when employees have the choice of what goes where. When someone views their office as both a place of work and a community they have influence over, there’s a visible impact on happiness and performance. Exercising creative control over their own workspace can help workers achieve this balance.
Productivity, in particular, doubles in an office that is decorated with the employees’ choices in artwork, rather than just decorated by the employer. That home-from-home feeling really does wonders for morale and the stresses of the working day, which then has a noticeable knock-on effect on efficiency and success.
It’s vital that any office artwork reflects your company and its employees. Decide on a vague colour scheme, style or atmosphere, before allowing your team members to put their own personality into the final choices and subsequent arrangement.
Make a Statement
Knowing how to decorate a large office wall can be tricky. But a feature wall is a good place to start.
At home, you might choose a bright or contrasting coloured accent wall. A gallery wall, however, is a quick fix for office decoration - and gives you the chance for even more creativity, minus the hassle. Art prints give a workspace a pop of colour fast and with limited mess, so you and your employees can carry on working with little disruption.
The gallery wall is a timeless and traditional way of presenting art - dating back to 17th century France and the then growing international success of the Louvre. Today, an eclectic mix of art styles, frames and colours can make up a contemporary gallery wall. It’s all about self-expression.
Art For Communal Spaces
Communal spaces are the hardest to style. A piece of art can be a little like marmite: you either love it, or you hate it. Finding something that most of your employees and visitors appreciate can seem like an impossible task.
With universal appeal, abstract art prints are a safe bet for bringing beauty to foyers, meeting rooms, and canteens. Featuring splashes of different colours and a range of strokes, abstract pieces can fit many different styles and colour schemes. They also have the brilliant quality of seeming to have something new to look at each time they catch your eye.
Quality Art, Affordable Prices
If original art is a little out of your office decoration budget, fear not. You don’t need to spend thousands to find the perfect piece.
We produce all our art prints in our London studio using only the latest printing technology, the finest paper and canvas, and beautiful handmade frames. Expect your prints to last over 100 years, without breaking the bank.
For a piece that looks most like an original painting, opt for one of our stretched canvas art prints. Our framed and glass-fronted fine art prints give a sleek look fit for any business. We even have prints inspired by great artists such as Matisse, so you can rest assured the art itself will look divine.
Convenient & Eco-friendly
With free UK delivery and hanging accessories included, you can get on with enjoying your new office wall art in no time when you order from Abstract House. Our wooden frames and fine art paper are FSC certified, ensuring the materials used are from sustainable sources. Buy from us in confidence and rest assured that you’re helping to prolong the life of forests for future generations.
All our products are made to order: reducing wastage, storage needs and emissions. We are proud to offer 100% plastic free, recyclable packaging.
