During my tenure at Sprout Social, I was fortunate to collaborate with the Workplace Experience team, as well as a handful of interior architects, artists, designers, and fabricators to direct over 20+ murals and art installations for Sprout’s global offices. Each build out began with engaging the local team to share meaningful memories, stories, mantras, and moments in the company’s history to inspire the environmental art pieces. Below are some of my favorites.
Tech Meets Nature
As a software company that values the humans behind the product, Sprout has always looked for intersections between the technical and the organic. We commissioned local abstract artist Chad Kouri to interpret the prompt of “tech meets nature” into a multi-wall mural spanning the main thoroughfare of our Chicago HQ. Chad drew inspiration from tessellations and patterns found in nature and created over 80 linear feet of artwork that flows through the open office space.
Build Together
When we built out the second floor of the HQ we were faced with a similar challenge of needing to bring life to a central area of the office—7 walls surrounding the elevator bank, the entrance to the floor. This time we went bolder and asked illustrator Kyle Letendre to create a sprawling mashup of nearly 100 memories, anecdotes and inside jokes from longtime employees, depicting Sprout’s vibrant culture. Kyle wove it all together using the smoke of a rocket ship that lands on the piece’s final wall—a chalk wall (painted with Shelby Rodeffer of Finer Signs) stating “Build Together” which invites newer team members to add additional stories to the mural.
At Sprout We Believe
Following the election of he-who-will-not-be-named, Sprout’s CEO requested we create our own version of the “In This House We Believe” yard signs that had become ubiquitous. We chose statements that spoke to Sprout’s commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and anchored the piece with a statement our Chief People Officer was known to say often—“You can’t be fully engaged at work if you can’t be fully yourself.” Each tile was designed in-house by members of Sprout’s design team. The resulting art has been turned into desktop screens, used as a backdrop to Meet Team Sprout videos, and has had the impact of making many a teammate feel seen and secure at work. From left-to-right, top-to-bottom, the tiles were designed by Stanton Valentino + Arlo Guthrie, Justin Siddons, Patrick Olson, Nick Lacke + Kerri Pang, Laura Weiss, Nicki Stearns, Kevin Bertram + Chase McCoy, Rachel Sinon, Alexis Ginsberg.
Share Station
During our content research phase, the theme of sharing came up continuously. Thoughts, ideas, guidance, even lunch—Sprout’s teammates like to share. Yet, so much of that happens digitally (okay, not the lunch part). To bring people back to the analog world, we created the Share Station. The art was created by in-house designer Katie Powell and All Kinds (formerly Make Luft) fabricated the peg wall and card shelf. The cards are updated annually with new prompts and are a big hit during the beginning of the year when remote teammates gather in Chicago for our annual kickoff meeting.
So much more!
From faux plant walls that nod to the Sprout logo to marquees for communicating to nearby departments, the environmental art has often been cited as part of what makes Sprout feel like Sprout.