Three Art Forms that Can Inspire Office Personnel More than Corporate Flowers

It is widely accepted that a workplace filled with good quality air, plenty of light and boasting a well laid out floor plan to maximise space, is an enjoyable place to work. However, these are not the only factors, and while arrangements of corporate flowers can add fragrant and aesthetic qualities, dressing office walls with interesting art work can also invigorate staff.

Using indoor plants in an office is highly beneficial, so strategically placing flowers around an office, boardroom and reception area is important. But the value of displaying art, whether paintings, sculptures or photographic prints, cannot be ignored. They can encourage thought, prompt creativeness and form a working environment that involves positive interaction, cooperation and team work.

Generally, office art does not have to bought by a business, but can be rented. This means that even high quality art is affordable, and a change of artwork at regular intervals during the year is possible to keep an office fresh and interesting to full time staff.

But while the inclusion of common landscape, seascape or even city scape artwork helps a great deal in injecting energy into a place of work, there are some less common and more interesting options that can be hung on a wall.

Acoustic Art

Some offices can be almost cavernous, with bare walls and concrete floors ensuring that an echo reverberates between the four walls. This can be particularly distracting to workers, with noise sometimes stretching above the recommended levels for a workspace. Often, the motors and workings of facilities like lifts can even be heard. A solution is the inclusion of acoustic panels and other noise absorbing items, to effectively soak up much of the distraction.

These panels are generally wooden and padded with soft fabrics that can absorb the sound waves very effectively. The problem is that they can look extremely bland on office walls, so they are spruced up by being combined with art.

Any artistic images can be used on the panels, but floral images, city scenes and landscapes are amongst the most popular. Branded images depicting the company name, logo or maybe some of their products can also common.

Radiographica

This type of art form shows the negative or xray version of an image. So, instead of seeing a flower, for example, in its natural colour against a light filled background, it is shown with a pitch black background and the flower in shades of blue or bluish green. The result is an alternative image of what is a normal thing, making it look quite dramatic.

This type of image is not for every type of work place. It boasts a kind of artistic intrigue that is representative of the work that a company operating in the photography or graphic design areas might do. The obscure nature of the pictures can help to excite creative minds and encourage staff to look at the ordinary from different perspectives.

Architectural Art

It might seem slightly strange to have pictures of buildings and famous landmarks on office walls rather than a pleasant floral or landscape print. But, an architectural theme can benefit an office in more ways than simply making sure the walls are not bare. Architecture carries with it three different aspects that personnel tap into, namely shapes, construction and places.

The shapes are included in the actual structures of buildings, with arches over doorways, rectangular walls, triangular gables and cylindrical columns. Construction rests in the fact that the structure has been built and now stands tall. The concept of places relates to famous buildings, such as the Taj Mahal, the Empire State Building, or the Sydney Opera House.

The theory is that one or more of these concepts will inspire. Shapes exercise the mind, buildings  convey the idea of steady progress while places provide the sense of thinking of the bigger picture.

Of course, office art can be whatever a business wants it to be, and so there is no real limit to the possibilities. Often, the indoor plants themselves are incorporated into an overall artistic theme, perhaps in the form of a centre piece in the lobby of an office building.

There will always be room for the carefully positioned displays of corporate flowers, with their uplifting effects on staff. However, when it comes to feeding the thought process and general enthusiasm, the art that hangs on the office walls can be very influential.

About the Author

Sarah Shore writes articles for Ambius UK, a company who strive to improve office environments for large and small companies with the use of specially selected office plants. Ambius have several highly qualified designers, florists and horticulturalists, who not only install plants and corporate flowers but also maintain them afterwards. To help promote a good working or retail atmosphere, Ambius also suggest and provide office art for company offices and commercial space.