If corporate identity is how you show your business to the world, and corporate image is how the world perceives your business, then sculpture is the potent bridge between the two.
Corporate art, and particularly corporate sculpture, tells many stories, none of them the same. By the time an organisation has grown to a size where art enters the agenda, its reasons for acquisition can range from aesthetic, to commercial, to personal, to philanthropic, and blends of each together.
The over-arching meaning, however, is common. It says this organisation places a high price on people, culture, and beauty as ingredients in the social contract that legitimises our business activities.
Why do public bodies choose sculpture?
Why then do corporations, or for that matter, any public organisation, choose to express themselves through sculpture?
Sculpture as a form of corporate identity is essentially the persona of the business or organisation. It stands
for what the corporation stands for — its values — and projects them out to the world.
Sculpture has a special place in corporate identity because it can go — and stay — in places other forms of art cannot. Unlike paintings, tapestries, ceramics, and other collectibles, sculpture is virtually unlimited by size, type of material, and location.
Sculpture is less susceptible to risk
Sculpture can be monumental in size and is far less susceptible to risks such as theft, vandalism, weathering, and other forms of damage or abuse.
Above all, it’s public, and so tells an unrestricted and uncensored story of confidence, ethics, values, and community to all who come into contact with it.
Other forms of corporate art offer far less of a public interface. Indeed, the more valuable the non-sculptural art, the less exposure it’s likely to receive, in some cases to the very people it should influence most: customers, potential stake-holders, and employees.
We suffer as a society from an ever-accelerating visual communication overload. Discounting massively exaggerated estimates of up to 5,000 marketing exposures a day, we nonetheless may confront between 300 and 700 daily sales prompts. Most leave us cold.
Physical and emotional responses
On the other hand, visual contact with good sculpture has a dramatically different effect on our senses, inciting both a physical and an emotional response. If the sculptor has fulfilled their joint artistic and corporate brief, the experience for the viewer is positive.
It’s worth remembering, though, that while corporate sculpture promotes your organisation’s unique principles and branding, it may have diminished value as a re-saleable asset. Experienced sculptors and project managers can advise you on creating and retaining value in your sculpture. They use metrics such as tourist and visitor numbers, community and employee satisfaction, art critiques, and media reaction.
These measures help frame decisions that will underpin your return on investment, be it financial, emotional, creative, or in public perception.
For an early insight into the value of sculpture in business and brand-building before you commission or acquire, call Todd Stuart on +61 4 5151 8865, or visit mainartery.art.
