Client: Patreon

Overview

Building 180 worked with Patreon – an online platform that provides tools for artists to earn a monthly income – to curate their new headquarters in San Francisco. Building 180 was tasked with curating the space and producing over 10 murals with 6 local artists to ensure a new look and feel. The assignment was to bring in a local and diverse set of artists that represent the company’s DNA, and the employee base, and most importantly, they wanted the artists to work without any design direction and with total creative freedom. This makes Patreon a dream client but it also challenged Building 180 to carefully select artists whose work would flow well together without the added need for cross-collaboration. Building 180 curated the muralists, Timothy Bluitt, Josue Rojas, DJ Agana, Nigel Sussman, LE BohemianMuse, and Addendum24 from the Bella Donna duo. The result of the murals exceeded everyone’s expectations. It was a testament that when artists are given the trust and support they need, their work is driven by passion and dedication which results in outstanding works of art. The murals were widely accepted by the Patreon team and now bring inspiration and joy to their workplace.

Goals

The goal of this project was to curate 6 different murals that would speak to the vision of Patreon. It was essential to Patreon that every artist had the creative freedom to work on any design they wanted. Creative freedom in a project is an ideal situation for artists, however, it is usually a challenge for the curatorial team. As we are connected with an extensive network of muralists (stemming from our nonprofit Paint the Void), we were able to curate meticulously a diverse team of artists that would flow well together without the added need for cross-collaboration. Particularly, the mural created by the artist Nigel Sussman was the only one that involved creative collaboration. Nigel was open to discussing with Patreon’s CEO, Jack Conte, to create a personalized mural that resonated with Jack’s modus operandi. Together they came up with the concept of an interconnected machine that never ends. Ultimately, the artists selected were able to work with site-specific direction which evolved naturally and beautifully in the space.

Process

Building 180 pitched artwork and past work to our clients in which they awarded us the project. From there we had meetings with Patreon’s team’s stakeholders from executives to the workplace services team to understand the goals of the company and the look and feel of their new headquarters. We took key insights from our meeting to curate a list of top artists who we knew were local, fit their description, and who would work professionally and cohesively given the site and companies' guidelines. We pitched a collection of many artists that we felt would fit in the space and gave our top recommendations within our selections. Patreon’s team confirmed the final selection was what we had recommended. From there we contacted each artist to confirm their interest, availability, and budget. We worked with the artist through an interview-like process to make sure they were indeed the correct fit, talking thorough logistics, site specifics, and needs of the company. Once the budget was negotiated and finalized with the client, Building 180 coordinated the entire installation process and production from start to finish. We worked hand in hand with the onsite team, accompanied site visits, and made sure both the client and artist were satisfied with the final piece.