Art can enhance a business by making offices more pleasant to work in and by making its brand and website more memorable. Peer-reviewed studies involving University of Exeter researchers found that offices decorated with art and plants produced better well-being and productivity than bare “lean” offices, and the best results came when employees helped choose the decoration.
Key Takeaways
- Two experiments published in 2010 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied found better outcomes in offices decorated with plants and art than in lean, undecorated offices.
- The same study found further gains when workers had input into the decoration, and weaker effects when that input was overridden.
- A 2014 follow-up of three field experiments in the UK and the Netherlands found that adding plants to lean offices improved outcomes; the University of Exeter reported a 15% productivity increase.
- In the US, owning a lawfully made print lets a business display it publicly where the copy is located (17 U.S.C. 109(c)); copying the image needs the copyright owner’s permission.
- 3D art on a website should not slow the page: Google’s web.dev guidance treats a Largest Contentful Paint of 2.5 seconds or less as good.
A Unique Approach to Art and Business. When we think of the business world of today your mind tends to go to a very technically oriented place. Art, on the other hand, sends your mind in the opposite direction. The two are likely not to meet within our minds, but it is the melding of these two worlds that can quite often take a business of any type above and beyond what anyone would have expected.
Knowing how to bring the art world into the business world can be a bit confusing, but when accomplished in the correct manner, it can bring your business to great new heights.
Bring in Something New
An office building is generally a very unappealing place. The basic building is comprised of white walls and endless cubicles in a minimalistic fashion. There are some companies that allow for their employees to decorate their individual cubicles with certain stipulations on what can be displayed, but that is usually the extent of creativity to be found within the building.
Research supports the idea that people work better in an environment they find comfortable: in two experiments published in 2010 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, offices decorated with plants and art produced better well-being and productivity outcomes than bare, lean offices. Part of that comfort comes from the interior design of the building.
Many large companies use art to make their buildings more inviting to workers; Deutsche Bank, for example, is described in Wikipedia’s article on the Deutsche Guggenheim as owning the largest corporate art collection in the world. It is not however necessary to commission an artist to come out and painstakingly paint frescoes on the ceiling. Much of your artistic flare can be accomplished with an investment in prints. Prints are widely available and usually cost far less than original works, although prices vary widely by artist, size and framing.
It is also not necessary to have a degree in interior design to make the building feel more inviting. Pick pieces that appeal to you and your business as a whole and even to just your individual style. There is no single right choice, but the 2010 study found the best results when employees had a say in how their own workspace was decorated, so it pays to involve your staff.
Furniture Helps
Apart from the visual appeal of the artwork on the walls of your business, you also have to take into account the type of furniture that is offered. More and more artists are turning to furniture as a medium for their pieces and coming up with some very visually appealing designs.
Although it is not necessary to have every piece of furniture designed by an artist, it does help to have seating areas that have that wow factor as well as the employee break areas throughout the building.
For the most part, furniture is looked at as just a means to hold a person or an object up so that they are comfortable. Both customer waiting areas and especially employee break rooms are viewed as unimportant, but you want your customers and your staff to be equally valued, so a little effort in these areas can go a long way.
Color as well as design of the actual piece should reflect the vision of your company, but above all else, make sure that the piece is comfortable. Even if your customers are not required to wait for a long period of time, you want them to be as comfortable as possible.
Art and Technology
The physical location of a business is not always what a customer sees. In the past, the physical location of your business was monumentally important, but now with the use of the internet, many customers never even see the building that the business actually works from.
That is why your online presence is so important. Most businesses understand that they need to have a very appealing website for their customers to access, but where many make an error is when they concentrate all of their efforts on the fonts and placement of the words, but no real effort in making their website and apps incorporated with 3D art.
3D art and animation are not just about the cartoons that we watched as children anymore. The technology has found a way to get into every aspect of life and many times we do not even realize that it is the 3D art that attracts us to many of the online experiences that we know and love. By incorporating 3D art into your apps and website you give your audience something to look at besides the words on the page.
Even the most avid reader enjoys looking at pictures from time to time and the addition of 3D art and animation will only enhance your visual appeal to your online customers.
It is important to ensure that your business stands out among the crowd. The competition for businesses is only growing as time passes and by not keeping up with the trends in both the art world as well as the business world, you are doing your business a disservice. Keep your business growing with the use of art in all aspects of it. It keeps people interested and employees motivating to strive for greatness. 🙂
What Does Research Say About Art in the Workplace?
The best-known evidence comes from psychologists Craig Knight (University of Exeter) and S. Alexander Haslam. Their 2010 paper, “The relative merits of lean, enriched, and empowered offices”, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, reported two experiments with 112 and 47 participants. The first ran in an interior office in a psychology department and the second in a commercial city office.
The researchers compared four office conditions:
- Lean: a bare, undecorated office.
- Decorated: decorated by the experimenter with plants and art.
- Self-decorated: decorated by the workers themselves.
- Redecorated: decorated by the workers, then redecorated by the experimenter.
In both experiments, decorated offices produced better results than lean ones on measures of well-being and productivity, such as attention to detail and information processing. Offices where workers had input into the decoration did better still, and the benefit shrank when the workers’ choices were overridden.
A 2014 follow-up by Marlon Nieuwenhuis, Craig Knight, Tom Postmes and S. Alexander Haslam ran three field experiments in large commercial offices in the Netherlands and the UK. All three found better outcomes when offices were enriched with plants. In its 31 August 2014 press release, the University of Exeter reported that enriching a lean office with plants could increase productivity by 15%. That study tested plants rather than art, so it supports the general case for enriching a workspace rather than art specifically.
How to Bring Art Into Your Office, Step by Step
- Start with the spaces people use most. Reception, customer waiting areas and staff break rooms are seen by the most people, and they are the areas this article singles out above.
- Ask employees before you buy. The 2010 study found the strongest results when workers had input into their own space, so offer a shortlist or let teams choose pieces for their areas.
- Do not override choices later. The same study found that redecorating a space workers had already arranged weakened the benefit.
- Add plants alongside art. The 2014 field experiments linked plants in lean offices to better perceived concentration, workplace satisfaction and productivity.
- Check the rights for how you will use each piece. Displaying a print you bought is one thing; putting the image on your website, packaging or marketing is another (see below).
- Keep a simple register. Record each piece, where it hangs, what was paid and any license terms, so you know what you can reuse.
For layout and budget ideas, see these guides to essential interior design elements and interior designing on a limited budget.
Prints, Originals or Commissions: Which Fits Your Business?
| Option | What it is | Main advantage | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prints and posters | Lawfully made copies of an existing work | Usually the lowest cost and easy to change | Owning a print does not give you the right to make further copies of the image |
| Original works | A one-off painting, photograph or sculpture | Unique to your space | Higher cost; buying the object does not by itself transfer the right to copy it |
| Commissioned pieces | Work an artist creates for your business | Can reflect your brand and building | Agree in writing who may reproduce the work and where |
| Employee-chosen pieces | Art selected or arranged by staff for their own areas | The approach the 2010 study linked to the best results | Set simple content guidelines in advance |
Can a Business Legally Display Art It Has Bought?
Yes, in the United States. Section 109(c) of the US Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. 109(c)) says the owner of a lawfully made copy may display that copy publicly, without the copyright owner’s permission, to viewers present at the place where the copy is located. This sits alongside the first-sale doctrine, which lets the owner of a copy resell or give it away but not make new copies. Photographing a print for your website or printing it on merchandise therefore needs permission from the rights holder. Rules differ in other countries, so check local law.
How Do Large Organizations Use Art?
Corporate collections: Deutsche Bank is described as owning the largest corporate art collection in the world. From 1997 to 2013 it ran the Deutsche Guggenheim gallery in its Berlin building with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, then the Deutsche Bank KunstHalle until 2018, after which the collection moved to the PalaisPopulaire in Berlin.
Percent for art rules: many governments require a share of building budgets to go to art. According to Wikipedia’s percent for art article:
- France has required one percent of the cost of all public works to be spent on commissioning art since 1951.
- Germany’s “Kunst am Bau” obligation dates to a Bundestag resolution of January 25, 1950, and usually means one to two percent of federal construction costs.
- From 1934 to 1943, a section of the US Treasury Department applied one percent of the cost of federal buildings to art and decoration.
- Philadelphia adopted the first US municipal percent-for-art ordinance in 1959, and more than half of US states now maintain such programs.
- Since 1963, the US General Services Administration’s Art in Architecture Program has allocated one-half of one percent of construction costs to art.
These programs show that treating art as part of a building budget, rather than an afterthought, is long-established practice.
How Can 3D Art Improve a Business Website?
3D art can let customers rotate a product, explore a space or see an animated brand element. A common open format for delivering 3D models is glTF, a standard developed and maintained by the Khronos Group. Khronos released the glTF 1.0 specification on October 19, 2015, its creators describe it as the “JPEG of 3D”, and files use the .gltf (JSON) or .glb (binary) extension.
Heavy 3D files can slow a page down, which hurts visitors and search performance. Google’s web.dev guidance says sites should aim for a Largest Contentful Paint of 2.5 seconds or less, measured at the 75th percentile of page loads on mobile and desktop. Load 3D models after the main content, keep file sizes small, and keep a still image as a fallback.
To learn more, read about the two main types of 3D models and the essential elements of modern website design. For other ways to lift output, see these tips for maximizing workplace productivity.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does art in the office really improve productivity?
Research suggests it can. Two experiments published in 2010 by Craig Knight and S. Alexander Haslam found better well-being and productivity in offices decorated with plants and art than in bare offices, with further gains when workers had input into the decoration.
Should employees choose the art in their workplace?
Involving employees is supported by the evidence. The 2010 study found the best outcomes when workers had input into decorating their office, and found that the benefit weakened when an experimenter redecorated a space workers had already arranged.
Can I put a print I bought on my company website?
Not without permission. In the US, owning a lawfully made copy lets you display it to viewers at the place where it is located (17 U.S.C. 109(c)), but making new copies, including digital copies for a website, generally requires permission from the copyright owner.
Do office plants count as workplace art?
Plants are a separate enrichment, but research treats them alongside art. A 2014 study of three field experiments in UK and Dutch offices found better outcomes when offices were enriched with plants, and the University of Exeter reported a 15% productivity increase.
What is the best format for 3D art on a website?
glTF is a widely used open standard for 3D scenes and models. It is maintained by the Khronos Group and uses the .gltf or .glb file extensions; keep files small so the page still loads quickly.
