Your workplace art brief: a page to fill in before choosing
A meeting-room wall, a screen and a cupboard can leave rather less space for art than the floor plan suggests. Before gathering a dozen favourite images, take one photograph of the whole wall and measure the area you could actually use. That is the beginning of a useful art brief.
For a business owner or the person coordinating an office project, a short brief gives colleagues and the gallery something concrete to discuss. It can hold a clear preference alongside an unanswered question. You do not need to settle the entire project before making contact.
In brief
Describe one space, the people who use it and the art you want to spend time with. Add dimensions, a spending limit and the person who can approve the choice. Keep delivery, framing and installation questions visible until the arrangements and costs are agreed.
Start with a room someone can picture
Choose the first location rather than treating the whole office as one wall. A reception area seen briefly by visitors presents different viewing conditions from a meeting room where people sit for an hour. Record where viewers stand or sit, what furniture occupies the wall and whether the room is also a backdrop for video calls.
Take photographs from those positions, including a wider view. Before sharing them, remove people, client information and anything confidential from view. Note daylight, reflections and any known restrictions on fixing objects to the wall. Questions about suitable display conditions or mounting need answers for the particular work and site.
Give the brief an actual artwork
Manuel Skirl’s RESIDUUM offers a concrete reference. Galerie Dumas lists it as a framed acrylic work on paper from 2025, measuring 59.4 × 42 cm. Its photograph shows fine black and pale lines gathered into broad, curving bands, with areas of blue-green.
In a hypothetical meeting-room brief, that might prompt a useful pair of questions: would you want to approach the work to see those lines, and could you do so without moving the table? Write the reason for your interest alongside the practical question. Confirm the outer framed dimensions before testing its footprint on your wall.
The Manuel Skirl artist page supplies wider context for his practice. Keep the title and exact product link in your brief so everyone is discussing the same object. This example is a starting point for looking, not a recommendation that the work suits every office.
Discover Manuel Skirl
View RESIDUUM and purchase information
Explore the reference: See RESIDUUM and its purchase information.
Make room for the decision
Name the person gathering suggestions and the person approving expenditure. If several colleagues will respond, ask them to comment on the same short selection and explain their preferences. A request for something everyone will love gives the next conversation very little to work with.
Set a total spending ceiling, then distinguish the artwork budget from any framing, delivery or installation costs still to be established. Add your preferred date and explain whether it is flexible. Ask which arrangements the gallery can confirm for your project. Do not assume that rental, financing or installation is available or included.
The gallery’s eye: a proposed way of looking
Try choosing one work you want to return to, then describe what holds your attention. With RESIDUUM, you might follow a curve before noticing the smaller lines within it. Leave that response in the brief alongside the measurements. Art can have a place in the working day without having to illustrate a company slogan.
Your one-page project brief
Copy these fields into your own document. A question mark is useful where an answer is still missing.
- Project, location and room: ______
- Who uses the space, and how long do they see the work?: ______
- Usable wall area; furniture; viewing positions: ______
- Photographs cleared of confidential material: ______
- Light, reflections, access or fixing questions: ______
- Reference artist, exact work and product link: ______
- What interests us about it?: ______
- Total spending ceiling; artwork budget; costs to confirm: ______
- Preferred date and flexibility: ______
- Project contact and final approver: ______
- First question for the gallery: ______
Bring your brief to the conversation
Find Galerie Dumas’s contact details and use your completed brief to frame an enquiry. Ask what can be considered and which practical details need checking.
Still exploring? Browse the Galerie Dumas shop. If you have already chosen a work and the purchase details are clear, direct online purchase remains an option where offered.
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