Having recently invested in the aesthetics of our very own workspaces and shared spaces at The Tannery, we thought we’d take a closer look at just how important aesthetics and in particular art is when it comes to offices.
According to experts like Dr Craig Knight, as reported in The Guardian, “There is a real tendency to opt for sanitised, lean workspaces, designed to encourage staff to just get on with their work and avoid distraction but there isn’t a branch of science in the world which believes this approach boosts productivity or makes for happier workers”.
In fact, artwork can actually improve creativity among staff, make people happier and even healthier! So, in this blog post, we’re taking a closer look at some of the reasons why it’s worth investing in art for your offices and steering clear of that age-old tendency to keep things lean.
First of all, a carefully curated art collection can actually help communicate your company’s history and brand values to both employees and clients. For example, displaying art from different cultures across the world can indicate a company’s global reach, while locally made art can reinforce a sense of community spirit. These statements can be bold and clear or they can be more abstract and subtle depending on the style that best suits your brand and as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, so it’ll do a better job of sending a message than the traditional motivational posters.
As well as supporting your brand values and company identity, art can also support your staff and help them stay engaged and invested in their work. It’s not practical to involve the wider team in many decisions about the office space, for example, size, location, equipment and so on… but it is simple enough to get them involved in choosing things like the office artwork.
This in itself can make staff feel valued and research has actually indicated that being exposed to art does in fact increase creativity, efficiency and even productivity among workers. This is huge news because even a small uplift in employee productivity can have a huge impact on the bottom line of your business making any investment in office artwork a worthwhile one.
So, with all this in mind, will you be investing in office artwork in the New Year to help boost your brand identity, employee productivity, creativity, wellbeing and communication? While you mull it over, here’s some of our recent artistic choices for our spaces in The Tannery and Calls Wharf.