Office murals can radically transform, elevate and enhance your working space. heres a few examples from our Brisbane murals portfolio (all murals depicted on our site have been directly created by us).
By now everyone is familiar with the story of how David Cho made $200 million overnight from painting Facebooks office spaces. Given the option of being paid in cash or taking the option of shares for his mural work, Cho choose correctly. At the time, even though he thought “Facebook was a joke” he decided to take the stock option. Much to his benefit, as according the CNBC “When Facebook went public at $38 a share in 2012, his stock options were worth $200 million, making him a bona fide multimillionaire”.
Innovative companies, particularly successful tech companies, love to use office murals to make their spaces stand out from the crowd, and for Cho, it worked even more to his benefit than anyone. Check out some playful offices on Pinterest or just do a quick google image search. I remember first hearing about the amazingly spectacular Pixar offices when I was first working as a designer in a corporate office. I remember comparing it to the dull grey pin board in a marketing department and thinking, I need to get the hell out of here. The office made my career feel like a scene from the film “Office Space”. No one wants a drab office space anymore. Not the staff, not the clients and hopefully not the owners. A boring office space, makes boring office work.
So if you are looking for office mural examples you’ve come to the right place. We’ve painted murals for office spaces all over Brisbane, sunshine coast and the Gold Coast. And our clients always give us great feedback. Mural art gives office space a way for people to connect with their work environment. It encourages creativity and innovation. It makes the environment more pleasant, less dull. It fundamentally expresses something, an idea, ideally one that resonates with the ethos of the business. It elevates moods, provides visual relief, builds connection and encourages better work. Here’s a few ways office murals activate your space.
1. Office murals promote creative thinking
Creativity begets creativity. If your looking to stimulate and encourage creative thinking in the workplace, surround your workplace creatively. The brain reacts to creative stimulus.
Sound legit? It’s science bro.
This study in the Journal of Business Research indicates that “Appreciating works of art brought about inspiration, which in turn enhanced creativity”. These studies further demonstrate that after exposure to art, “employees increased their creativity by “getting a new outlook on [work] and breaking conventional patterns”.
Maybe thats why David Cho managed to think outside the box and choose shares in a company and profit immensely down the line rather than cash out early?
2. Aesthetics increase office productivity
The aesthetics of a space effect our mood and our productivity. According to The Harvard Business Review productivity can be enhanced by up to 22%.
It’s not a super complicated concept to grasp. We flourish in good environments. But lets face it, a lot of office spaces are distinctly… unaesthetic, ordinary, or ugly. Simple adjustments like adding plants, good lighting, ergonomic furniture help.
By adding a mural to your office, you have the opportunity to transform an uninviting space into a welcoming one, or an ugly wall into a beautiful scene. By using solid design principles and intelligent colour theory, you can use art to reinvigorate and stimulate employees.
3. Say something meaningful
Maybe that would be something promoting your culture and values? Probably best to say something positive. Like:
‘The beatings will continue until morale improves‘
Hmmm. Maybe not. Look it’s your business and your values, so knock yourself out. And that’s the power of it. Whether its a statment that truly captures your vision, or a list of values designed as an infographic, you can capture something here. And I don’t mean some pithy propaganda. You could invest in something that truly inspires your people.
“I don’t think art is propaganda; it should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further. It celebrates humanity instead of manipulating it.” – Keith Haring
It could work as a branded design, but it could also be something distinct and unique from all of that. A quirky statement or simply a beautiful image that helps employees pause, reflect and smile.
In conclusion: What would David Cho do?
Actually, he.s a pretty weird guy. Who knows what he would do.
The better question is, what could you do? If you had the opportunity to paint a mural in your office, what could it say, how could it look, and how could we help?
If you are looking for some ideas for an office mural or if you have any questions, we would love to help.
Feel free to get in touch to discuss your project!
