THE ART OF COLLABORATION

Advertising

Sep 12

Written By Katie Danforth

CLIENT
GOOGLE

MARKET
NEW YORK CITY

WALLS
1

Google discovered Colossal while searching for small businesses championing Google Sheets. They decided to feature Colossal in a short documentary, Colossal Media has gone Google, that would run during their B2B campaign. But once they started documenting and understanding our business, they realized that our medium would be perfectly suited to telling an entirely new, consumer-facing story.

To celebrate the collaboration made possible by the software, Google, Refinery29, and Colossal challenged artists on opposite sides of the Atlantic to create a piece of art using only Google Sheets.

Refinery29 spread the word to creative millennials. They found Marina Esmeraldo, an illustrator based in Barcelona, and paired her with Mallory Heyer, one of their NYC-based designers. (Heyer recently designed another set of murals painted by Colossal, for Califia Farms .)

“We asked the artists to “break the grid” — not only by pushing Google Sheets to its limits, but also by supporting and celebrating women who break free from society’s expectations.”

SHEETS TO STREETS

Esmeraldo and Heyer used conditional formatting, cell values, and traditionally tedious functions to build vibrant color blocks and bold gradients to bring their girl gang to life. Colossal then translated their clicks into bricks on a street-level wall in Bushwick, making art out of the unconventional medium.

LADIES WHO LAUNCH

We kicked off the mural’s run with a launch party at Syndicated, the movie theater and bar on the other side of the wall. Esmeraldo and Heyer joined guests of Google and Refinery29 to watch the videos made during the campaign. Their artwork decorated everything from coasters to a giant cake.

WORK HARD SLAY HARD

The mural, a tribute to strong women, made a powerful statement that resonated with the Instagram set. That, coupled with the massive social media audiences of Google and Refinery29, helped the story reach an audience of 7 million. High-profile features in Fortune, Business Insider, and of course, Google and Refinery29, drove added impressions and created a larger dialogue.