Business owners sometimes tell me, "I'd like to hang a painting in my room, but I don't know what to choose."
A painting is something you can choose by taste.
Still, a painting placed in a business owner's room has one more role. It tells visitors, and you yourself, what the business holds dear.
Why is there a painting in a business owner's room?
Reception rooms, presidents' offices, meeting rooms. Paintings have long been hung in places where people meet.
A painting there catches a visitor's eye before any company brochure or website does.
What is depicted, in what colors, at what size. From these, people sense the character of the place.
For a business owner, a painting is one way of placing values that have not been put into words in the room.
Research is also looking at art in the workplace
In recent years, several studies have examined the effects of placing art in offices.
Kyoto Institute of Technology and Casie Inc., with the cooperation of Takasago Thermal Engineering, carried out a joint study comparing meeting rooms with art on display to rooms without it. 380 people took part in the impression survey, with 99 in the productivity measurement.
Productivity was measured with a five-minute arithmetic grid task mixing three-digit and two-digit numbers. The results were reported to suggest that the room with art on display may have a positive effect on productivity. The study was presented at the Architectural Institute of Japan's annual convention in September 2023.
Professor Hideaki Kawabata of Keio University's Faculty of Letters studies how viewing art affects metacognition and well-being. It has also been reported that viewing art can ease how pain is felt.
This kind of research is still accumulating. It is not yet at a stage where the effects can be stated with certainty. Even so, a direction is becoming visible: a place with a painting may have some effect on the people who work there.
Not what the painting depicts, but what the business values
When choosing a painting for a business owner's room, many people start by asking whether a landscape or an abstract would be better.
It works better to change the order. The first thing to decide is what this business holds dear.
For a business that believes in people's potential and walks alongside them, what lives in the painting is a gaze toward what is about to grow.
For a business that has continued together with its land, it means something to have that land's colors and light within one painting.
The motif does not need to be literal. If what you value has been turned into color and form, it comes across.
Things to consider when choosing
Color. If you spend long hours in the room, a palette that lets you breathe when seen from a distance is said to be less tiring than a painting with large areas of strong color. For a room for guests, you might choose colors that convey the character of the business at a glance.
Size. One third to two thirds of the wall's width is a good guide for a single painting to hold the wall. If it is too small, the wall overwhelms it.
Position. In a room where you look from a seated position, hang the painting so its center is at seated eye level. Where people stand to look, hang it a little higher.
Abstract or figurative. If there is a story you want to explain to visitors, figurative suits it. If you want to settle the atmosphere of the room, abstract suits it.
About Mermaid nao's BUSINESS ART
Mermaid nao creates BUSINESS ART, order art for businesses.
I talk with the business owner or the person in charge, and ask what the business values, where it is heading, and any impressions you would rather avoid.
What I receive there is turned into color, form and light on a single original painting. Each piece is delivered framed.
The process and pricing are described on the order page.
[References]
PR TIMES (Japanese): Art display contributes to higher employee productivity plus relaxation: joint research with Kyoto Institute of Technology
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Japanese): Capturing evidence for the benefits of art through the workings of the mind and brain, presentation material by Hideaki Kawabata
Keio University (Japanese): The benefits of art: how art viewing and the sense of beauty affect metacognition plus well-being
JLL (Japanese): What are the effects of office art? Why it contributes to employee engagement
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