What should you focus on improving if you want your art business to evolve? This is a loaded question because there are so many things you can do to elevate your company. Growing your skillset is an obvious one. A less evident, but incredibly important one is improving your art workspace and how comfortable you feel in it.
Maximizing productivity and comfort within your workspace is crucial for producing quality art consistently and feeling good doing it. In addition, streamlining your creative and business processes can positively impact your sales and profitability.
This article will show you how to create a physical workspace that ignites creativity and streamlines operations in your art business.
Creating a Physical Workspace That Fosters Creativity
So much of an artist’s success depends on their ability to tap into their creativity. You must be able to get into your zone and create outstanding art pieces and products.
Stepping into a physical workspace that ignites your imagination makes all the difference in not just what you create, but how well you run your business.
Revisit Your Space First
Many artists’ workspaces are in an area of their bedrooms. Some use extra rooms in their homes. Others have studio spaces outside of where they live. Wherever your art workspace is now, think about whether that’s the best place for it.
Does your current location support your artistry and business like you want it to? For example, do you feel like you’re ready to work when you step into your workspace? Do you have room for all your supplies? Do you have enough space to create comfortably?
Explore other options if you feel like you’ve outgrown your current workspace.
Choose Inspiring Colors
Colors can have a profound effect on how you feel and behave. This is the foundation of color psychology, the analysis of how different colors impact actions, perceptions, and emotions.
Here are a handful of colors and what researchers say about their influence:
- Red is associated with energy, passion, and strength;
- Yellow makes you feel happy and stimulates mental activity;
- Purple is associated with imagination and spirituality;
- Blue is linked to peacefulness and stability;
- Green inspires harmony and freshness.
Choose a color palette that supports what you want to feel while you’re creating art and running your business.
Use Ergonomic Furniture
Ergonomic furniture refers to pieces designed to support good posture, body awareness, and comfort while you’re using them. They keep your body in appropriate positions to minimize injuries.
For example, ergonomic chairs keep your shoulders, back, hips, and spine aligned. You’re less likely to experience the pain that comes with sitting for long periods, allowing you to remain focused and relaxed while painting, drawing, sculpting, or creating in other ways.
Ergonomic furniture can be spendy. So, establish a budget first. If you don’t have the funds to afford big pieces, like a desk or chair, start with smaller commitments. Wrist supports for your keyboard, a footrest, or an adjustable backrest are examples of smaller affordable ergonomic equipment that can positively impact your posture and comfort while you create.
Ensure Proper Lighting
A dark room with no windows isn’t an artist’s ideal workspace. You need that brightness for your mood, to see what you’re creating, and to manage your business endeavors.
Natural light is ideal for artists because it saves you money on your energy bill, leaving you with additional funds to put toward your business.
If you need to supplement natural light with artificial light sources, look for options that are cost-effective and inspire the mood you’re looking for. For example, string lights offer a warm vibe. A lamp with a bright lightbulb may not look as pretty, but it’ll give you a nice light to work productively.
Use the lighting that helps you work well but also puts you in the creating mood.
Decorate With Accessories
Your workspace could have the right furniture, proper lighting, and inspiring colors. But it’s the accessories that really make it you. Accessories tie everything together and give your workplace a personal feel.
Put up your artwork and that of other artists you love. Put in tables or shelves that have a pop of color. Lay down a textured rug with a bold pattern. Incorporate greenery with low-maintenance house plants. Hang lace curtains and a centerpiece clock. Whatever makes your workspace you.
Maintain a Healthy Environment
It isn’t all about the items you put in your workspace. The atmosphere and air in it matter too. You’ll never be able to work in a space with dust and allergens flowing through it, or one that’s hot and humid all of the time.
Controlling indoor humidity is critical for preserving your artwork. Wood pieces bubble when the humidity is too high. Paint can blister and crack in high temperatures. Paints also cure a lot slower in cool temperatures.
Being too warm or cold, generally, can negatively impact your creation process and cause you to want to leave your workspace as fast as you enter it.
You can maintain the right humidity and a healthy environment in your workspace by:
- Opening your windows to balance the moisture level inside;
- Moving plants outdoors during hotter months;
- Ensuring your vents are in working order;
- Using your air conditioner;
- Installing a whole-home dehumidifier and humidifier system.
Managing the humidity and environment in your workspace is also important for you. Temperature drops and allergens are some of the leading causes of dry skin. Itchy, flaky, swollen skin isn’t conducive to creating your work comfortably. Take care of the air and atmosphere to give yourself the best environment to work in.
Consider a Wellness Corner
You use your body as much as your mind when creating art and running your business. Your designs come from your mind. But you need your arms, hands, and internal systems to be working properly for those designs to come to life.
Prioritizing your physical wellness and mental health is essential for your success. Consider creating a wellness corner in your workspace if it’s set up in an extra room or another location with the space for it. It’s a place where you can exercise, rest, or reset.
You could set up an exercise bike or a yoga mat with free weights. You could lay out cushions and blankets. You could do a mixture of both to facilitate physical activity and relaxation when you need it.
Streamlining Operations in Your Art Workspace
In addition to having your physical workspace set up to induce creativity, you need to streamline operations in it.
The right tools, organizational system, and behind-the-scenes business processes will make a difference in how easily you can create art, store it, manage sales, marketing, and all else that comes with running an art business.
Implement an Organizational System
You probably know an artist whose workspace is covered with paints, brushes, pencils, papers, clay, and other materials. Some things are here. The rest is over there. It’s beautiful chaos. But running a business in such chaos isn’t a wise move.
You must be able to find the supplies and materials you need when you need them. Invoices, project scopes, and other business documents must be organized. You also need a clean space to create with a clear mind.
Set up an organizational system in your workspace. This means you have a filing system for the physical business documents you collect. You store all of your supplies in bins, drawers, or on shelves. Everything in your workspace should have a place and be easily accessible.
Safely Store Your Artwork
Imagine spending a lot of time and effort on a piece of art and shoving it in the corner with no regard for its upkeep. You can’t expect people to buy products that are dinged up and discolored.
You need a system for safely storing your artwork or art-related products. For example, individually wrap canvases in cloth and store them standing up. Organize stickers in drawers. Put digital art prints in protective plastic sleeves and put them in bins. Store sculptures on shelves, but not so high they start collecting dust.
Research the best ways to store your particular art and make that regular practice in your business.
Use Quality Tech Tools
You should be using technology to manage your business efficiently. There’s so much more to do than just create art.
For example, marketing your art on social media and your website is crucial for developing a loyal customer base. You need a seamless purchasing process to facilitate sales. You also need bookkeeping software, project management tools, and a way to track your inventory.
Implement quality tech tools in phases rather than all at once. You won’t overwhelm yourself this way. And you can make sure the tools are right for your business.
Start with one process in your business and audit it. Let’s use marketing as an example. What is your overarching marketing strategy? What marketing channels do you use? What kind of content do you create for each? How do you engage with your audience on each channel?
Then, identify what tools you use in your marketing. Maybe you’re an auto-poster and scheduler for social media. You might also be using an email marketing platform and storing customer information in a customer relationship management (CRM) system.
Finally, look at each tool’s efficiency and ease of use in detail. Is there a cost-effective alternative that levels up both? If there is, get a demo of that alternative. Once you’ve implemented it, take your time training on how to best use it to elevate that particular process in your art business.
Conclusion
The setup and efficiency of your art workspace are vital to your success. You want a place that you can walk into and immediately feel like you’re ready to create and do business. Enhance the efficiency and comfort in your workspace with intentional design, decor, and operational choices.
I paint in my dining room. Everything is laid out on the table. Because I rent, the walls are already a white with a greenish brown in, not the best.
My drawing room is the same color.
Most of us in apartments don’t have much choice with lighting or wall colors.
I’d be curious as to what others do.