In today’s workplace design, branding is no longer just about logos and fonts - it’s about tone, mood, and emotion. And one of the most effective ways to reinforce brand identity is through the artwork you place in your environment.

More businesses are now turning to colour-customised art - works that align visually with their brand’s palette without being literal. It’s subtle, elevated branding that feels sophisticated rather than promotional.

Whether you're designing for a global tech firm or a boutique consultancy, here are five ways to incorporate colour-customised abstract art into your branded interiors - with real-world insights from New Zealand abstract photographer Chris Melville.

1. Echo Brand Colours Without Being Literal
Using colour doesn’t mean plastering a logo on the wall. In fact, one of the most refined ways to reflect a brand is through tonal echoes - soft greens, inky blues, warm neutrals, or metallic greys that speak the language of the brand without repeating it.

In one recent commission, Chris was asked to create a large-format abstract photograph in the tones of a multinational company’s brand. Rather than designing around logos, he worked with mood and atmosphere, producing a still, flowing piece in the company's navy and sand palette.

“I used natural light and layered textiles to create something that felt like their values - grounded, elegant, international.” - Chris Melville

2. Support Interior Colour Schemes
Artwork that draws from the existing interior design palette — whether furniture, flooring, or accent walls - instantly creates cohesion.

This works beautifully in:

• Reception areas
• Client lounges
• Boardrooms
• Hotel corridors
• Co-working offices

Chris’s work is particularly suited to this use. His abstract photography features soft, natural palettes that can be tuned to suit interior tones, from cool Scandinavian greys to warm terracottas.

3. Reinforce Brand Values Emotionally
Brand colours aren’t just visual - they’re emotional.

• Blues might represent trust, focus, calm
• Earth tones may evoke stability, warmth, groundedness
• Brights can signal innovation, creativity, energy

When those colours are integrated into large-scale abstract art, they become atmospheric tools. The artwork doesn’t just decorate the space - it reinforces the brand’s emotional tone every day.

4. Create a Signature Visual Identity Across Locations
For companies with multiple offices or franchises, consistent branded artwork is a powerful tool for alignment - especially when each piece is unique but shares a visual language.

Chris offers series-based commissions, where each artwork is tuned to reflect the same brand mood and palette, but with variations in form and movement. It’s like a visual signature carried across branches.
This is ideal for:

• Nationwide real estate firms
• Medical groups
• Law offices or accounting networks
• International brand HQs

5. Offer a Sophisticated Alternative to Stock Imagery
Stock skyline photos, inspirational quotes, or overly literal brand walls can make even the most elegant office feel generic. Colour-customised abstract art, on the other hand, is timeless, tasteful, and unique to the business.

Because Chris’s work is created using fabric, natural light, and slow shutter techniques, every piece has a handmade, contemplative quality. It’s art that feels personal yet professional.

And for businesses wanting something truly special, he offers:

• Bespoke commissions
• Colour guidance consultations
• Mockups for approval in your space

Final Thoughts: Branding Through Beauty
Incorporating custom-coloured artwork into your commercial interior doesn’t just enhance the visual appeal - it deepens the sense of identity and care.

For architects, designers, and business owners who want to create spaces that reflect both brand and humanity, custom abstract photographic art is a high-impact, low-noise solution.

Commission Your Own Colour-Tuned Art
​Chris Melville creates calming, large-scale photographic artworks for commercial and corporate spaces - and can work with your brand palette to design something unique to your project.

Art isn't just for galleries - it’s a critical ingredient in creating inspiring, functional, and emotionally intelligent workplaces.

Whether you’re designing a corporate headquarters, a co-working space, or a boutique consulting firm’s new reception area, the art you choose will shape how people feel in that space. It can soften, energise, ground, or uplift - sometimes all at once.

So how do you choose the right art for an office wall? Here's a designer’s guide to selecting pieces that work practically, emotionally, and aesthetically - with insights from photographer Chris Melville, whose large-scale abstract works are featured in modern interiors across New Zealand.

1. Understand the Role the Art Needs to Play
Start with a simple question: what do you want this artwork to do?

• Calm the space? (ideal for boardrooms, waiting rooms, wellness areas)
• Make a bold statement? (perfect for lobbies and entrances)
• Reinforce brand identity? (subtly, through tone, palette, and emotion)
• Create movement or flow? (in long hallways or transitional areas)

Once you know the purpose, you can narrow your choices accordingly.

Pro Tip: Abstract photography is especially effective when you want to evoke emotion without overwhelming the space with literal imagery.

2. Match the Mood and Energy of the Space
Art should feel like it belongs in the room — but also enhance it.
For example:

• A high-focus workspace might benefit from cool-toned, minimal compositions
• A collaborative space could handle bolder forms or colour accents
• Reception and client areas often call for something that feels polished, warm, and grounded

Chris Melville’s work, with its earth-inspired textures and layered stillness, works particularly well in neutral-toned interiors, natural-material environments, and spaces designed to evoke calm clarity.

3. Consider Scale - Bigger Is Often BetterOne of the most common mistakes in office art is going too small.

A single A2 print will look lost on a 4-metre boardroom wall. Don’t be afraid of large formats - especially with abstract work. The bigger the piece, the more immersive the experience.

Ideal sizes for office art:

• A1 – A0: for medium-sized rooms, lobbies, and private offices
• Custom XL (120–150cm wide): for boardrooms, large reception walls
• Triptychs or series: to create rhythm in long corridors or stairwells

Framing Tip: Float-mounted frames or minimal black/white borders work best in modern interiors.

4. Let Colour Work for You — Subtly
Your artwork doesn’t have to shout your brand - but it can whisper it.
For example:

• If your brand uses deep greens and blues, choose abstract work that gently echoes those tones
• If your space is full of light woods and natural textures, warm neutrals and soft golds can amplify the effect
• Some artists, like Chris Melville, offer custom-colour commissions that match brand palettes while maintaining artistic integrity

This is particularly useful in multi-office businesses, where consistent visual tone helps unify environments.

5. Prioritise Timelessness Over Trendiness
A good office artwork should last for years - maybe decades. That’s why timeless, high-quality abstract work is a smart investment.

Avoid trendy motivational quotes or cliché skyline photos. Instead, invest in pieces that:

• Invite reflection
• Age gracefully
• Work with multiple design evolutions

Chris’s works are often described as “haunting” or “still”, giving them long-term visual impact that suits shifting styles and changing teams.

Final Thoughts: Make Art Part of the Architecture
The best office art doesn’t feel like an afterthought. It feels like it belongs. That’s what abstract photographic work - particularly in large scale - can do so well. It becomes a textural and emotional element of the space itself.

Ready to Elevate Your Interior Project?
Whether you're designing a new workplace, refreshing an office, or curating artwork for a commercial space, Chris Melville's large-scale abstract photography offers both calm and character.
Choose from existing images at www.materialworldart.com or commission a colour-customised series for your client’s brand.

When I held my recent art exhibition, something quietly profound unfolded before me. As guests moved through the space, I began to notice how the more abstract works - those untethered from clear landscapes or recognisable forms - sparked the most conversation. Not just about the artworks themselves, but about the places they conjured in memory.

Some visitors saw Coromandel beaches in the layered textures. Others found themselves in the dry contours of Californian hills. Still others spoke of distant Canadian lakes. These interpretations weren’t prompted or suggested - they emerged naturally, uninvited yet welcome. The artworks, in a way, were being completed by the viewer.

This is one of the most fascinating aspects of abstract image-making: it invites personal narrative. Without the constraints of a specific place or moment, the work becomes a kind of mirror - offering not a reflection, but a space. A space into which the viewer can pour their own stories, landscapes, and longings.

It’s as though the abstraction removes the artist’s voice just enough to allow the viewer’s voice in. And what a rich chorus it becomes. A single piece of fabric photographed with a slow shutter becomes, depending on who is looking, the swell of a wave, the arc of a hill, or the shimmer of heat rising off summer asphalt. The ambiguity is not a lack - it’s an offering.

There’s something deeply human in this instinct to project meaning. We do it with clouds, with music, with the passing expressions on strangers’ faces. Abstract art simply gives us the same opportunity with more intent. It opens a door, and quietly steps aside.

This experience has changed the way I think about my own work. I no longer see the image as something fixed, something to be “read” correctly. Instead, I see it as a conversation - one that doesn’t begin with me, but continues through the imagination of others.

In the end, perhaps that’s the real gift of abstraction: not that it says nothing, but that it makes room for everything.

In a world where office design is no longer just about function, art has become an essential part of creating spaces that inspire, calm, and connect. But what kind of art truly belongs in a corporate environment?

Abstract photography - especially when rooted in nature and texture - is uniquely powerful. It avoids clichés, invites interpretation, and contributes to an atmosphere of professionalism and creativity without distraction. Here’s why more designers and businesses are turning to abstract artworks for their walls - and how this choice can elevate any workplace.

1. Abstract Art Evokes, But Doesn’t Distract
Literal images can be beautiful - but in a workspace, they can often be too specific or overstimulating. A recognisable scene might spark personal memories, associations, or even disagreement. Abstract work, on the other hand, is open-ended. It gives the viewer space to interpret, to pause, and to reflect. This is especially true of abstract photographic landscapes, where light and form create a sense of familiarity without being literal.

“People see different things in my work - a Canadian lake, a Welsh hillside, or a dream they once had. That invitation for personal narrative is where the magic lives.” - Chris Melville

2. Calming Aesthetics Improve Focus and Wellbeing
Workplace design today is deeply connected to mental wellbeing. Art can support that - or undermine it.
Studies show that natural, textural imagery helps reduce stress and increase focus. That’s why hospitals, wellness clinics, and even boardrooms are moving away from corporate slogans and towards soothing visual environments. These abstract landscapes - with their meditative tones, soft textures, and slow-shutter dreamscapes - fit this perfectly. They help transform cold commercial interiors into warm, thoughtful places to spend time.

3. Abstract Art Complements a Brand Without Being Literal
Many businesses want art that “fits their brand” - but not in a cheesy way.
Abstract photography allows you to:

• Subtly echo brand colours
• Reflect your company’s tone or values (calm, visionary, refined, global, creative…)
• Create cohesion with existing interior palettes and materials (wood, concrete, fabric, glass)

4. It Creates a Sense of Place - Even in Global Spaces
One reason abstract photographic landscapes work well in global offices is they evoke “somewhere” - but not any specific place. In this case, the images may originate in New Zealand, but viewers see:

• Canadian lakes
• Welsh coastlines
• Nordic hillsides
• Or simply: “That place I go to in my mind”

That ambiguity means these works resonate across cultures and industries - a vital asset in multinational environments.

5. Abstract Photography Works Beautifully at Large Scale
These prints are designed to hold their power at A0 and above - making them perfect for:

• Boardrooms
• Reception areas
• Hallways and lift lobbies
• Wellness zones or reflection spaces

With simple, minimal framing, they become part of the architecture, not just decoration.

Ready to Elevate Your Space?
Whether you’re designing a new workspace, refreshing a client’s boardroom, or curating art for a hotel or healthcare facility, abstract photographic artwork offers a powerful solution.

Chris Melville’s large-scale abstract works are available as:

• Framed prints
• Custom colour commissions
• Series-based wall arrangements for commercial spaces