DB mixes action painting and street art at its own headquarters

At the DB headquarters in Frankfurt, close to the main station, a team mixed action painting and street art into one large collaborative artwork. Around 35 to 40 participants painted for three hours while a film about graffiti ran in the background.

The brief

A team event inside your own office building has little element of surprise: familiar rooms, familiar colleagues, the same table as always. For it to become an occasion anyway, more has to happen than a workshop in the meeting room, and it needs an afternoon long enough for a real result.

How it went

Our team describes the day like this: at the DB headquarters in Frankfurt, near the station, we mixed action painting and street art. A film about graffiti ran in the background. Working with free motifs, one large collaborative artwork took shape over three hours with around 35 to 40 participants, in the middle of their own office building rather than at an unfamiliar venue.

The result

What remained was a shared artwork, created from two combined techniques rather than a single one, over three full hours with around 35 to 40 people involved. The film in the background ran throughout, not as a warm-up or a wind-down.

Combining two techniques instead of booking just one mainly changes the result: mixing action painting and street art gives you an artwork with more than one texture. A background element such as a film works best running continuously, rather than as a separate item on the agenda.

Frequently asked questions about this project

Can action painting and street art be combined in one format?

Yes, both techniques can be mixed in a single session, as at the DB headquarters in Frankfurt: action painting for open areas, street-art elements for structure. Around 35 to 40 participants worked for three hours on one shared artwork with free motifs, instead of booking two separate formats.

Can a creative workshop run with a film programme in the background?

Yes, a video can run while people paint, rather than as a separate agenda item. At the DB headquarters in Frankfurt a film about graffiti ran alongside the group working on the collaborative artwork. All it needs is a screen or a projector in the room, no extra time block.