Photoshop. Illustrator. InDesign. With all of the go-to software available to creatives, you probably wouldn’t expect to find a spreadsheet program to be in one’s repertoire. But Barcelona-based illustrator and active ADC Member Marina Esmeraldo was approached by Google and Refinery29 to do just that.

Working in a long-distance collaboration with New York designer Mallory Heyer, Marina was tasked with creating a mural using Google Sheets as the canvas. The duo worked together under the theme of “breaking the grid” — both the literal grid of a spreadsheet program, as well as celebrating and supporting women who eschew confined roles and ways of thinking.

By resizing and merging spreadsheet cells, adding color gradients and blocks with conditional formatting, and basically taking a mosaic approach to an all-new level, Marina and Mallory developed a spreadsheet what eventually became a 13′ x 24′ mural in Bushwick (where else?)

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