Business owners sometimes come to me with a question: "I want to hang a painting in my room, but I don't know what to choose."
A painting can be chosen simply by personal taste.
But a piece placed in an executive's room has another role.The role of conveying what the business values, to visitors and to yourself.
Why Is There Art in an Executive's Room?
Reception rooms, the president's office, meeting rooms. Places where people meet have long had art displayed in them.
The art there catches a visitor's eye before any company brochure or website does.
What is depicted, in what colors, at what size. From this information, people sense the character of the place.
For an executive, a painting is one way of placing unspoken values within a space.
The Relationship Between Workplaces and Art Has Also Been Studied
In recent years, the effects of placing art in offices have been examined in several studies.
Kyoto Institute of Technology and Casie Inc., with the cooperation of Takasago Thermal Engineering, conducted a joint study comparing meeting rooms with and without art on display. 380 people took part in the impression evaluation, and 99 people in the productivity measurement. Productivity was measured by having participants solve, within five minutes, a hyakumasu calculation grid mixing three-digit and two-digit numbers.
Productivity was measured by having participants solve, within five minutes, a hyakumasu calculation grid mixing three-digit and two-digit numbers. The results reportedly suggested that displaying art in a room may have a positive effect on productivity. This was presented at the Architectural Institute of Japan's annual conference in September 2023.
Professor Hideaki Kawabata of Keio University's Faculty of Letters studies the effects of art appreciation on metacognition and wellbeing. It has also been reported that appreciating art can work to ease the way pain is perceived.
Research in this area is still accumulating. It's not yet a stage where the effects can be stated definitively. Even so, a direction is becoming visible: a place with art does have some kind of effect on the people who work there.
Not 'What the Painting Depicts,' but 'What the Business Values'
When choosing a painting for an executive's room, most people start by thinking, 'should it be a landscape, or something abstract?'
手がかりとしては、順番を変えるほうがうまくいきます。先に決めるのは、この事業が大切にしていることは何か、です。
人の可能性を信じて伴走する事業なら、そこに宿るのは、これから伸びていくものへのまなざしです。
土地とともに続いてきた事業なら、その土地の色や光が一枚の中にあることに意味が生まれます。
描かれたモチーフが具体的である必要はありません。大切にしていることが色と形に置き換わっていれば、それは伝わります。
選ぶときに手がかりになること
色。部屋にいる時間が長いなら、強い色を面で使った絵より、離れて見て呼吸できる配色のほうが疲れにくいとされています。来客用の部屋なら、事業の性格が一目で伝わる色を選ぶ方向もあります。
大きさ。壁の横幅の3分の1から3分の2が、一枚で成立しやすい目安です。小さすぎると壁に負けます。
位置。座って見る部屋なら、絵の中心が座ったときの目線の高さに来るように掛けます。立って見る場所なら少し高めにします。
抽象か具象か。来訪者に説明したい物語があるなら具象、その場の空気を整えたいなら抽象が向いています。
About Mermaid nao's BUSINESS ART
At Mermaid nao, I create BUSINESS ART, custom-ordered artwork for businesses.
経営者や担当の方とお話をして、その事業が大切にしていること、これからの方向、扱いたくない印象などをうかがいます。
そこで受け取ったものを、色・形・光に置き換えて、一枚の原画にします。額装を含めてお届けしています。
制作の流れと料金は、オーダーのページに記載しています。
[Reference Information, Sources]
PR TIMES (Art Exhibits Contribute to Improved Employee Productivity and Relaxation Effects [Joint Research with Kyoto Institute of Technology])
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Capturing the Evidence for the "Benefits of Art" Through the Workings of Mind and Brain — Hideaki Kawabata, Topic Presentation Material)
慶應義塾大学（アートの効用：美術鑑賞や美の感じ方がメタ認知やウェルビーイングに与える影響）
JLL（【JLLも導入】オフィスアートの効果とは？ 従業員エンゲージメントに寄与する理由）
https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000037.000040504.html
https://www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/mono_info_service/art_economic/pdf/001_09_00.pdf
https://koara.lib.keio.ac.jp/xoonips/modules/xoonips/download.php/2021000003-20210102.pdf?file_id=178142
https://www.jll.com/ja-jp/insights/why-office-art-contributes-to-employee-engagement
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- Wellbeing Management, and What It Means to Place Art in the Office
- BUSINESS ART ― Custom-Ordered Art for Business
