A home office has two audiences: you, at close range for hours, and everyone who sees the wall behind you on a call. Architectural drawings serve both. Up close they reward attention — construction lines running past a tower, a shadow resolved in three strokes. On camera they read as one confident shape.
This is work made by an architect, so the geometry holds up to the kind of looking that a working day produces.
The wall behind the desk
If the artwork sits behind you in the room, size it to the desk: a print spanning about two thirds of the desk width, centred at 150–155 cm because you are usually standing or on a raised chair when you look at it.
One print, generously sized, is better than three small ones. A camera flattens depth, and a cluster of frames turns into visual noise on a video call.
The wall you actually face
The wall in front of your desk is the one you look at when thinking. Here, detail is an asset: a drawing with visible pencil workings gives the eye somewhere useful to go during the pause between two sentences.
Hang it at seated eye level — around 120–130 cm to the centre — so you are not tilting your head to look at it.
Subjects that suit working rooms
Landmarks and studied buildings carry a professional register without becoming corporate: a Romanesque abbey, a Gaudí facade, a modern museum drawn as structure rather than spectacle. They are also good conversation openers with clients, which a generic abstract is not.
For a studio or workshop, a travel collage brings movement and colour while keeping the same drawn discipline underneath.
Framing, glare and screens
Matte paper is essential in an office: a glossy print opposite a window or a bright monitor becomes a mirror. Frame in slim black for a graphic, workshop feel, or pale oak if the room shares its palette with the rest of the house.
Keep the mount narrower here than in a living room — 4–5 cm — so more drawing sits inside the same wall space.
Prints to start with
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Mixed-media collage · Bilbao, Spain
Gehry's titanium curves rendered in torn metallic paper and ink, so the surface of the print behaves the way the building behaves in Basque light — reflective one moment, matte the next.
Abbaye aux Dames, Saintes
Ink and wash on paper · Saintes, France
A Romanesque abbey in south-west France, drawn from the square in a single morning. The tiered bell tower is set out with the construction lines still showing, while diluted ink carries the shadow down the west front.
Cathédrale Saint-Pierre, Saintes
Ink and watercolour on paper · Saintes, France
The great flamboyant tower of Saint-Pierre seen from the street below, drawn in warm ochre wash with two figures left in to give the stonework its true scale.
Church of San Juan Bautista de Baños
Collage and ink · Baños de Cerrato, Spain
One of the oldest churches on the Iberian peninsula, rebuilt in paper. Torn ochre fragments stand in for the Castilian plain while the horseshoe arch is left as clean drawing.
Questions buyers ask
- What art works well behind a desk on video calls?
- One large, low-contrast drawing with a clear shape. Cameras flatten depth, so a single architectural study reads far better than a cluster of small frames.
- What size print suits a home office?
- Around two thirds of the desk width — commonly 60–90 cm wide for a standard 120–140 cm desk.
- How do I stop glare from a window or monitor?
- Choose matte paper, which every print here uses, and avoid hanging directly opposite a window. Non-reflective glazing helps in the brightest rooms.
- Are these prints suitable as a gift for an architect or designer?
- Yes — the drawings are made by a practising architect, and the buildings are drawn from measurement by eye rather than photographs. See the guide to art gifts for architects.
- Can I buy a set for a whole office?
- Yes. Order several prints in the same size from the shop; multiple copies of a size keep framing costs and wall alignment simple.
Full terms are on the shipping policy and refund & returns pages.
Choose a print for the office
Browse the complete artwork archive or the collections. Every drawing is available as a made-to-order print from the GAK Creations shop, with sizes, paper and framing options shown at checkout.
Shop office prints