3 Creative Ways to Use Agates in Healthcare Design

When you look at an agate, it’s hard to turn away. They’re filled with layers of colors and unexpected patterns.  Sometimes they look like a landscape or ocean waves, until you get closer and realize they’re something completely different.

And in healthcare environments, where people are often waiting, worrying, or just looking for something to focus on, that kind of visual interest can be a welcome distraction.

Monica Albertson, Interior Designer and Facilities Project Manager at Allina Health, described our agates this way: “They look like nature’s own colorful, textural and organic abstract paintings.”

Agate photography gives designers a way to bring natural forms and textures into healthcare spaces when they’re looking for something beyond traditional landscapes or botanical imagery.

And while there isn’t much research specifically on agate photography, studies of nature imagery and biophilic design suggest that bringing elements of nature indoors can help create more positive experiences for patients, visitors, and staff.

Agates are versatile. They can be soft and subtle, adding gentle movement to a quiet space, or bright and bold, becoming focal points, bringing energy and personality to a corridor or waiting room.

Here are three recent projects that show their range:

Agates as Brand Identity: OrthoNebraska Elkhorn Surgery Center

Look at OrthoNebraska’s colorful logo, and you’ll see where some of the inspiration for the artwork at their Elkhorn Surgery Center came from.

They chose agate images in those same vibrant colors throughout the center, from framed pieces in corridors and artwork near the entrance to a colorful nurses’ station that really makes a statement.

But there’s more to the art than matching the logo.The images chosen represent movement, color and life. As Katie Benak, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at OrthoNebraska, put it: “That’s what we’re about, getting people back to the things they love.”

And we’ve carried that connection across several OrthoNebraska locations, choosing nature imagery that reflects their brand colors and helps create a familiar,  recognizable experience for patients and visitors.

It’s a great example of how nature photography can do more than provide a distraction or help with wayfinding. When artwork is part of the conversation early on, it can become part of the facility’s identity, too.

Large-Scale Statement Pieces: Plumb Heart Center

Agates are especially striking when they’re enlarged. Their layers, lines, and textures can turn an entire wall into a work of art, giving patients, visitors, and staff something beautiful and interesting to focus on.

At the Plumb Heart Center, large-scale agate wallcoverings bring color and movement into several areas. A dramatic blue agate anchors a waiting area, while warm orange and soft lavender imagery creates distinctive backdrops in imaging rooms.

At this scale the images look almost like abstract paintings, but they’re photographs of the details inside natural stone.

The key is choosing the right image for the space and knowing how its colors, patterns, and composition will translate at a much larger size.

For this project, we worked with Koroseal, who printed the wallcoverings and provided detailed previews so the client could see how the images would look at their final size.

And when you’re covering an entire wall, getting the image selection, cropping, and scale right makes all the difference.

Agates as Vector Graphics: Allina Health United Hospital

Another way we’ve used agate photography that you might not expect is by turning our original photographs into vector graphics.

By simplifying the intricate details of the original photographs into layers of color and shape, we can create something that looks more like a modern abstract painting while keeping the natural patterns that make agates so interesting.

And while the finished artwork looks different, it’s still inspired by nature, making it another creative option for biophilic design. 

At Allina Health United Hospital’s oncology department, we used this approach for several pieces, including a colorful wallcovering in a treatment room and a canvas in the hallway outside the rooms.

It’s a fun way to take something found in nature and give it a completely different look, without losing what made it interesting in the first place.

It’s another way nature photography can be adapted to fit a specific design vision.

We love a beautiful landscape as much as anyone. But one of our favorite things about nature is how often it surprises us.

Sometimes that means wrapping a nurses’ station in color, transforming an entire wall, or finding unexpected ways to turn natural patterns into artwork.

That’s the beauty of agates. They remind us just how colorful, creative, and unexpected nature can be.

If you’re looking for something different for your next healthcare project, check out our agate collection for some inspiration.  And reach out if you want to learn more about how we help with image selection, custom applications, and artwork placement. It’s literally why we get out of bed in the morning!