We have some new chalkboard art in the office. My old pal Nate Otto came by and spent a day having fun with some chalk and one of our walls.
We’re looking forward to having Nate back for some more fun another time. Check out more of Nate’s work.
Jason Fried wrote this on Jan 28 2011 There are 22 comments.
JD 28 Jan 11
Nate is awesome. Great work.
Faisal Asif 28 Jan 11
Cool, as always.
Thomas Hall 28 Jan 11
Which one is David, and which one is Jason? And why isn’t anyone taking on that dragon? Or is it not that type of drawing?
Anonymous Coward 28 Jan 11
@37signals
I’ve always been curious, do you pay your friends to do such work.
I ask because this took considerable effort.
Also going way back, there are tons of examples where you had friends do guests do drawings specifically for 37svn. There was one guy who drew octopus’ but can’t recall his name.
Do you pay these people or not?
JF 28 Jan 11
If they want to be paid, absolutely.
We paid Mike Rohde for his chalkboard art. We’ll be paying Nate as well. We also bought a couple of permanent paintings from Nate. We’re hiring some other friends of ours to paint a mural on another wall.
Sometimes people don’t want to be paid – they just want the exposure or just want to donate the work. It’s up to each person to determine their price. We’ll support our friends any way we can.
Mark Holton 28 Jan 11
Nice. Love the glimpses into 37Signals culture
Mark 28 Jan 11
So does this replace what Mike did a while back? Or is that one a different wall? This, as well as what Mike did, is beautiful. Do you have some way of protecting it? It’d be a shame to have someone rub up against it accidentally.
JF 28 Jan 11
Mark: Different wall. Mike’s work is still up. But it’s all chalk – it’s not meant to be permanent. One day it will get erased and replaced by something else.
Brian Kenny 28 Jan 11
Create a creative work space and it will inherently cause you to be creative in your work. This is exactly what you’ve done here and I love it.
David Andersen 28 Jan 11
That chalk wall is awesome; love the floor to ceiling and the wood floor beneath it. Great contrast. Nate’s stuff is great too.
TJ 28 Jan 11
Very cool. Love it.
Tim 28 Jan 11
Just more reasons to have office envy.
angle45media 28 Jan 11
Very Basquiat-esque!
Please watch your sleeves.
Nate Otto 28 Jan 11
Jason is the one riding the llama, and they are hunting that gator/dragon creature. Let’s say that is…. Microsoft. This was a lot of fun. It’s a great medium, and the fact that it is only meant to be temporary helped free me up. When working in paint, you can get a little tight, worrying about permanence. This was also my opportunity to show my skills to some of the other people at 37s. Jason has known me forever and has always shown belief in my talent, but to the rest of the crew I am an unknown. It should be noted that I painted a mural for the company over ten years ago on their first office wall. They did pay me even though I would have done something for free, but the something that I would have done for free would not have matched up to what I did. Does that make sense? I’m really happy with it and I’m glad that people seem to like it. I hope that next time they need an artist, my name will be put into consideration. An awesome experience all around. Thanks.
EH 29 Jan 11
when you decide to have it erased, you should have an artist do the erasing, and have that be the next state of the piece.
Pete Herr 29 Jan 11
Great work Nate – exciting to see such a collaboration between two talented former classmates!
Leon Breedt 30 Jan 11
That’s pretty cool, loved the last one.
Sounds like an awesome way to spend the day.
web design 30 Jan 11
nice,very nice,great job,very talented.
Ela Madej 31 Jan 11
Looks really inspiring!
The Modern Programmer 31 Jan 11
Great stuff here – decor like this is so much better than the traditional dull office look (“motivational” posters on the wall and fake plastic trees ahoy).
Coming into that on a Monday morning would sure to put a smile on my face!
Jim's Mom 01 Feb 11
Years ago when you won an award for your writing and went to State for your track ability, I sent you a card saying one day I would say I knew you when. This is the day. Wonderful work, but expected nothing less.
Jim 01 Feb 11
Mom, now you are embarrassing me on the internet!!! ;)
This discussion is closed.