Refinery29 isn't just aimed at or inspired by diverse millennial women — it's built by them, from product and engineering to creative and editorial. But don't be too impressed, we're not the only women kicking ass with tech. According to 2015 Her Brain On Digital research, 93% of millennial women use technology to learn new things, while 65% say it gives them a place to showcase things they've made. Some of the most innovative work we do at R29 starts in spreadsheet form. So when Google asked if we wanted to turn art in Sheets into art in the streets, we were all in.
We paired two incredible illustrators who had never met — R29's own Mallory Heyer in NYC and Marina Esmeraldo in Barcelona — and challenged them to collaborate solely through technology. After a few Google Hangouts, our artists decided on a Girl Gang theme and then hacked Sheets into a canvas. They thought outside the box(es) by resizing cells into pixel-like squares; merging them into color blocks; and creating color gradients with conditional formatting and cell values. The result: One badass tribute to powerful women.
Then it was time to hit the streets! We shared the sketch with Colossal Media, the largest hand-painted mural company in the world, and watched those digital cells become real-world bricks in a 13-by-34-foot street masterpiece on the corner of Bogart and Thames in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. You can hang with Girl Gang until August 14.
Feeling inspired? Get in on the hack-tion and break your own grid for a chance to win a Moto 360 Android wear watch with two bands, Break the Grid swag, and a feature on Refinery29’s Instagram feed!
Here’s how to enter:
1. Make a copy of the Break the Grid template and sign in to your Google account.
2. Create an original piece of art using any Google Sheets features. (Note: If you use images in your design, they must be created by you.) Check out these tips for getting started.
3. Take a screenshot of your artwork and upload it to Instagram.
4. Tag your post with #madewithGoogleSheets, #R29Collabs, and #sweepstakes and make sure that you’re following both @google and @refinery29.
5. Get the Official Rules here.