Spreadsheet Art
Excel-lent art from the world's most boring software
Create pixel art, charts-as-art, and visual masterpieces using nothing but spreadsheet cells. Color individual cells to create pixel art, abuse chart features to make abstract designs, or write formulas that generate patterns. It's creative rebellion using the most corporate tool imaginable, and the results are genuinely impressive.
How to start
- 1Open Google Sheets or Excel and resize cells to be square (set column width and row height to the same value)
- 2Start with simple pixel art: use cell background colors to recreate a classic game sprite
- 3Try conditional formatting to create patterns based on formulas
- 4Challenge yourself to make a recognizable image in a 32x32 grid
- 5Explore chart art: create deliberately artistic misuse of chart types
What you'll need
- Google Sheets (free) or ExcelEssentialFree
Where to learn more
Plot twists
Ways to spice this up when the basics get boring.
- Recreate famous paintings in spreadsheet pixels
- Make animated art using multiple sheets as frames
- Create portraits of friends using only cell colors
- Build interactive art using checkboxes and conditional formatting
- Make a working game inside a spreadsheet
Filling in cells is incredibly meditative — it's like digital coloring. You can make recognizable pixel art in just 15 minutes using a 16x16 grid.
Japanese artist Tatsuo Horiuchi creates stunning landscape paintings entirely in Microsoft Excel, including cherry blossom scenes that have won art competitions.
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