Murals as Brand Storytelling: How Large-Scale Art Shapes Business Identity

Leveraging Custom Murals to Reflect Brand Values and Inspire Teams

Walk into Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters, and you’ll find walls covered with colorful sprawling murals and art installations designed by about fifteen local artists—work that transforms a 430,000-square-foot tech campus into something that feels less like corporate real estate and more like a creative community. This isn’t decoration; it’s deliberate visual language that communicates who a company is before anyone reads a mission statement.

This is brand storytelling art through murals—where businesses stop treating walls as boundaries and start seeing them as strategic storytelling real estate. As only 31% of U.S. employees report being engaged at work, the physical workspace has become a critical differentiator in the competition for talent. Murals don’t just fill walls—they shape perception, culture, and connection.

The Strategic Role of Visual Identity in Brand Communication

Brand values have traditionally lived in documents: vision statements, core principles, employee handbooks. But there’s a gap between what companies say they value and what employees actually feel. Corporate murals bridge that gap by making abstract values concrete and visible.

When a tech company commissions murals depicting community connection, or when a nonprofit paints their founding story across a conference room wall, they’re translating mission into experience. This matters because people remember what they see far longer than what they read—and 78% of employees agree that artwork helps reduce stress while 64% say it increases creativity and innovation.

DID YOU KNOW?
The human brain can process images in as little as 13 milliseconds. This rapid recognition shows why visual storytelling, like murals, can create immediate impressions in the workplace.

Communicating Brand Personality Through Style

The strategic choices companies make when selecting mural subjects and styles directly communicate brand personality. A financial institution might commission geometric abstractions that convey stability and precision. A creative agency might choose bold street art that signals innovation and risk-taking. These aren’t arbitrary aesthetic decisions—they’re brand statements that speak before words are exchanged.

Consider the difference: hiring graffiti artists signals urban energy, disruption, and contemporary edge. Working with canvas painters suggests refinement, artistry, and traditional craftsmanship. Commissioning illustrators communicates narrative focus, attention to detail, and often a more whimsical or approachable personality. This art for workplace branding creates immediate visual recognition that reinforces company values.

The benefits of mural art extend beyond decoration into organizational psychology. When employees see their company’s values reflected in permanent installations, it reinforces cultural identity and creates institutional pride.

How Business Mural Art Strengthens Workplace Culture and Employee Engagement

The research on workplace art and employee wellbeing is compelling. Workers in an “enriched” environment decorated with art and plants were up to 32% more productive, and experienced 45% more wellbeing and 60% more engagement than those in “lean” or “functional” workspaces, according to University of Exeter studies.

But productivity metrics only tell part of the story. Corporate murals influence workplace culture in more subtle, powerful ways.

Creating Shared Cultural Touchpoints

Corporate murals create talking points—a new employee asks about the lobby mural, and suddenly they’re learning company history from a colleague. They establish a sense of place—team members who work remotely feel more connected when they return to an office that has visual personality and meaning embedded in its walls.

Mailchimp’s Atlanta headquarters exemplifies this approach perfectly. The company commissioned Atlanta-based artist Christopher Derek Bruno for murals featuring bold, clean, fun graphics that appeal to Mailchimp’s creative team, working through nonprofit Living Walls to connect with local artists. Rather than filling walls with company logos or product imagery, Mailchimp commissioned complex and stunning artworks from Wayne White and Ardhira Putra alongside other local and international artists—a masterclass in brand storytelling art that reinforces workplace culture.

The choice signals something important about brand values: we’re part of a creative community, not separate from it. Employees don’t just work for a software company—they work for an organization embedded in artistic culture.

The Employee Engagement Connection

This matters enormously for retention and recruitment. When exploring office murals and co-working spaces filled with art, businesses are making visible statements about priorities. The decision to commission custom artwork rather than hang generic prints says: we value originality, we support artists, we want our space to reflect who we actually are.

And the psychological impact runs deeper than most realize. Office wall murals function as large-scale environmental interventions—changing not just how a space looks, but how it feels to be in it. They turn sterile office walls into spaces with character, memory, and soul.

Murals and Client Perception: The External Brand Story

While internal murals shape employee culture, they simultaneously influence how clients, partners, and visitors perceive the brand. First impressions form within seconds, and the physical environment plays a significant role in those snap judgments.

What Murals Communicate to Clients

Consider what happens when a potential client walks into your office. Before any presentation begins, before anyone shakes hands, they’re absorbing information about your company through spatial cues. The questions forming in their minds:

• Is this company traditional or innovative?
• Do they care about details and aesthetics?
• What do they value enough to make permanent?
• How do they see themselves in their industry?

A law firm that commissions a mural depicting the evolution of justice throughout history immediately communicates depth, thoughtfulness, and respect for precedent. A sustainable fashion brand with murals incorporating recycled materials sends a clear message about environmental commitment. These aren’t subtle hints—they’re bold declarations that clients notice, photograph, and remember.

Style as Brand Language

The mural’s style speaks as loudly as its subject matter. A tech startup with graffiti-style murals projects innovation, disruption, and cultural relevance. A wealth management firm with refined abstract compositions conveys sophistication, stability, and discretion. Healthcare facilities with calming nature-inspired murals communicate care, healing, and human-centered values.

This visual vocabulary works because it bypasses rational analysis. Clients feel the brand personality before they consciously process it. That emotional first impression colors every subsequent interaction and often determines whether someone wants to do business with you.

External Murals as Public Brand Statements

External murals amplify this effect exponentially by making brand identity visible to the broader community. Facebook’s Menlo Park campus features murals by about fifteen local artists that soften the corporate impression and create connection with the surrounding neighborhood. WeWork’s strategy of commissioning location-specific business murals in every space helped differentiate thousands of square feet into places with distinct identity.

Cities increasingly incentivize high-quality murals through expedited permitting or public art grants, recognizing they activate streetscapes and attract foot traffic. Businesses benefit from this synergy—a striking exterior mural generates organic social media content, creates location-based brand recognition, and signals to potential employees and clients that the company values creativity and community engagement.

The Commissioning Process: Translating Brand into Art

Most businesses have never commissioned a mural, and the process can feel opaque. How do you articulate brand identity in visual terms? How do you evaluate artistic proposals? What if stakeholders disagree?

Starting with Clarity

This is where preparation prevents problems. Learning how to write a creative brief for an artist isn’t about limiting creativity—it’s about giving artists the context they need to create meaningful work. The best briefs include:

• Company history and founding story: What’s the origin? What obstacles were overcome?
• Core brand values: What principles guide decisions and culture?
• Target audience: Who will see this daily? Employees, clients, both?
• Intended emotional impact: Should viewers feel energized? Calm? Inspired? Connected?
• Visual preferences: Examples of styles, colors, and compositions that resonate (or don’t)
• Practical constraints: Wall dimensions, lighting conditions, building restrictions

For teams new to art commissioning, understanding how to commission artwork demystifies technical considerations. Indoor or outdoor? Paint or alternative materials? Permanent or designed for eventual replacement? These decisions affect budget, artist selection, timeline, and final durability.

Finding the Right Artist Match

When you’re ready to hire a mural artist, Book An Artist simplifies this critical step by connecting businesses with professional mural artists who already work in commercial contexts. These artists understand that corporate projects have different requirements than gallery work—timelines matter, stakeholder approval processes exist, building codes must be followed, and the work needs to function within specific brand parameters.

The platform allows companies to browse portfolios showcasing past corporate work, review artist specializations across different styles and techniques, and communicate project requirements directly. This eliminates the frustration of working with talented artists who lack commercial project experience.

When Murals Succeed (and When They Fall Flat)

Not every corporate mural succeeds. Understanding why some work brilliantly while others fall flat helps businesses avoid expensive mistakes.

The Generic Mural Trap

Generic murals—inspirational quotes over abstract backgrounds, stock imagery that could belong anywhere—fail to communicate anything specific about brand identity. They’re visual wallpaper that employees stop noticing within weeks. If the goal is storytelling, generic murals are blank pages.

The Authenticity Gap

Corporate murals that reflect leadership’s aspirational vision rather than actual culture can backfire. A company that commissions a mural celebrating collaboration and transparency while maintaining rigid hierarchy creates cognitive dissonance. Employees notice the gap between the mural’s message and their daily experience, breeding cynicism rather than engagement.

What Makes Murals Work

The most effective corporate murals find the intersection of authenticity and aspiration. Artists such as Scott Boms, Josh Higgins and Drew Bennett have enlivened Facebook’s interior with bold strokes of vivid paint, creating work that feels consistent with the company’s tech-forward, creative culture.

Scale and placement need just as much thought. A small mural in a massive lobby feels like an afterthought. A wall-to-wall installation in a tiny breakroom can overwhelm. Artists experienced in commercial spaces understand these dynamics—they think about sightlines, lighting, traffic patterns, and how people move through and actually use space.

External Murals: Technical Considerations and Community Impact

External murals function as public brand statements while requiring different technical expertise than interior work. Weather resistance matters. Surface preparation determines whether the mural lasts years or months. Protective coatings, appropriate paint systems, and proper priming make the difference between beautiful permanence and embarrassing deterioration.

DID YOU KNOW?
Visual storytelling through murals helps translate abstract brand values into tangible experiences, making mission statements more memorable for employees and visitors.

Murals can effectively communicate a brand’s narrative through a single, compelling image. Unlike traditional advertising or marketing materials, murals offer a visual approach that conveys a company’s values, mission, and identity in a format that resonates with viewers.

Permitting often adds a layer of complexity, especially in historic districts or cities with strict signage regulations. Working with experienced mural artists who understand these requirements prevents delays, rejections, and expensive corrections mid-project.

The community response to external murals also requires thought. Some businesses involve neighborhood stakeholders in the design process, ensuring the mural reflects local values and culture rather than imposing corporate identity. This collaborative approach builds goodwill and creates art that feels like it belongs to the place.

The Future of Corporate Storytelling Through Art

With hybrid work changing how teams use space, murals are evolving from static decoration to active storytelling tools that reconnect people to place.

As hybrid work reshapes office strategy, physical space can no longer rely on proximity and daily presence to build culture. When people come to the office two or three days a week, those visits need to offer something home offices can’t provide.

A memorable, meaningful environment is part of that equation. Murals help create spaces worth the commute—places that feel distinct, intentional, and aligned with stated values. They’re one tool among many for making physical workspace matter in an increasingly distributed work world.

We’re also seeing companies treat murals as living documents rather than permanent monuments. Some commission new work annually, reflecting evolving priorities and keeping the visual environment fresh. Others create murals with modular elements that can be updated as the brand grows and changes.

The trend toward supporting local artists and makers aligns perfectly with mural commissioning. Rather than ordering generic corporate art from catalogs, businesses can hire a mural artist and invest in their creative communities while acquiring unique pieces that carry actual meaning and connection to place. This creates positive brand associations—companies known for supporting local artists benefit from community goodwill that extends far beyond their walls.

Whether you’re a startup seeking personality or a global brand shaping culture, corporate murals and brand storytelling art offer a way to tell stories that last longer than campaigns or taglines. The next wall could be your next chapter.

FAQs

How do murals impact brand identity?|Murals translate abstract brand values into tangible visual form, creating immediate, memorable impressions of company culture and priorities. They function as permanent environmental branding that communicates organizational personality to employees, clients, and visitors before any words are exchanged. Unlike digital or printed materials, murals have physical presence and permanence that reinforces brand identity through daily exposure. The style, subject matter, and execution quality all contribute to how stakeholders perceive the brand—sophisticated, innovative, community-focused, or corporate.

What are the benefits of custom murals in corporate spaces?
Custom murals deliver multiple organizational benefits backed by research. They reduce workplace stress, strengthen cultural identity, differentiate spaces from competitors, and boost employee morale and engagement. Studies show art-enriched work environments increase productivity by up to 32% and improve employee wellbeing by 45%. Beyond metrics, murals make spaces more human, memorable, and aligned with stated organizational values—particularly important as companies compete for talent and justify physical office spaces in hybrid work models. They also generate organic social media content when employees and visitors share images.

How can businesses commission murals through Book An Artist?
Book An Artist helps businesses hire a mural artist with experience in corporate projects, simplifying commissioning from start to finish. Companies can browse portfolios showcasing past corporate work, review artist specializations across different styles and techniques, and communicate project requirements directly with artists. The platform handles artist vetting, ensuring businesses work with professionals who understand commercial timelines, contract requirements, building regulations, and stakeholder approval processes. This streamlines commissioning by eliminating extensive searching and reducing the risk of working with artists unfamiliar with corporate project demands.

How long does a corporate mural project typically take?
Timeline varies based on mural size, complexity, location, and approval processes. Small to medium indoor murals (10-20 feet) typically require 3-7 days of active painting after design approval. Larger installations or exterior murals may take 2-4 weeks of painting time. The design and approval phase—where artists develop concepts, present to stakeholders, and incorporate feedback—usually adds 2-6 weeks before painting begins. External murals may require additional time for permitting, surface preparation, and weather-dependent scheduling. Experienced commercial artists build realistic timelines that account for business operations and minimize disruption.

What budget should businesses expect for corporate murals?
Corporate mural costs typically range from $2,000-$25,000+ depending on size, complexity, artist experience, and location. Simple designs on smaller walls (under 100 square feet) start around $2,000-5,000. Medium-scale installations (100-300 square feet) generally range from $5,000-15,000. Large-scale or highly detailed murals can exceed $25,000-50,000. Most professional commercial work costs $25-$100 per square foot of wall space. Budget should also account for wall preparation, materials, protective coatings (especially for exterior murals), and potential building modifications. Investing in experienced commercial artists typically delivers better longevity and results.