Ink Dwell

What Ink Dwell does

Ink Dwell is a privately held art studio founded in 2012 by Jane Kim and cofounded by Thayer Walker, operating from the San Francisco Bay Area (Half Moon Bay, California) with a distributed five-person team across Northern California and southern Japan. The studio creates nature-inspired artwork by merging classical science illustration techniques with modern fine art, producing public murals, private commissions, fine art paintings, museum and aquarium exhibits, interior design pieces, science illustrations, and branded consumer products. Its most prominent work is The Wall of Birds, a 2,500-square-foot mural at Cornell Lab of Ornithology depicting all 270 modern bird families, which drove extensive national press coverage and a published book through Harper Design.

The studio's revenue is generated through four primary streams: custom commissions with budget tiers ranging from under $10K to $100K+, fine art sales through Andra Norris Gallery, brand licensing partnerships (The North Face Homestead Collection and Le Mondeur Monarch-inspired footwear), and book and product sales through major retailers. The Migrating Mural campaign organizes public installations along wildlife corridors shared with humans, with subjects including monarch butterflies, Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, and other migratory species. Institutional clients include Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Aquarium, Occidental College, the de Young Museum, the Woodson Art Museum, Weber State University, Full Sail University, Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center, and Ogden Nature Center.

The go-to-market is sales-led and portfolio-driven, with the website, an active Instagram presence, and accumulated press coverage (NYT, NPR, Audubon, Smithsonian, Fast Company) functioning as the primary top-of-funnel acquisition channel for commissions and partnerships. The business operates without external institutional investment, without a disclosed technology platform, and without subscription or recurring product revenue, making each annual cycle dependent on converting earned media equity into a fresh pipeline of bespoke commissions, licensing deals, and gallery sales.

Name

Ink Dwell

Legal name

Ink Dwell

Website

https://inkdwell.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Ink Dwell is a five-person Bay Area art studio that creates large-scale public murals, fine art, and science illustrations merging classical science illustration with modern fine art for municipalities, museums, universities, and consumer brands.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Public Art & Science Illustration Studio

NAICS

Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers (71151)

SIC

Services-Mailing, Reproduction, Commercial Art & Photography (7330)

akta.pro primary industry

Creator Content Production & Co-Creation Studios (BPAFAHAD)

Keywords

• Public art murals
• Science illustration
• Fine art commissions
• Mural installation
• Nature artwork

Headquarters

HQ city

Half Moon Bay

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Supply Chain, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Custom Art Commissions: The primary revenue stream is custom commissions for public murals, private interior art, and institutional installations. The contact form explicitly lists commission budget tiers: Under $10K, $10–25K, $25–50K, $50–100K, and $100K+, indicating a project-based, quote-driven model.
2. Fine Art Sales: Fine art paintings and visual artworks are sold directly, with pieces documented on the website marked as 'Sold'. The founder Jane Kim is represented by Andra Norris Gallery.
3. Brand & Consumer Product Partnerships: Ink Dwell licenses its artwork and artistic direction to consumer brands such as The North Face (Homestead Collection) and Le Mondeur (Monarch-inspired vegan shoe), transforming products into works of art that tell natural world stories.
4. Book Sales: Ink Dwell publishes and sells The Wall of Birds (Harper Design), co-authored by Jane Kim and Thayer Walker, available through major booksellers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and IndieBound.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Ink Dwell is an art studio that creates nature-inspired public installations, fine art paintings, science illustrations, museum exhibits, and licensed consumer brand artwork. The studio accepts custom commissions from institutions, municipalities, universities, and private clients across budget tiers ranging from under $10K to $100K+, and operates a sales-led, project-based model. Its flagship body of work includes The Migrating Mural public art series and The Wall of Birds mural at Cornell Lab of Ornithology, alongside gallery-represented fine art and brand collaborations with The North Face and Le Mondeur.

Product overview

Ink Dwell is an art studio offering a portfolio of distinct products and services centered on nature-inspired art. The core offerings include: (1) Public Art through The Migrating Mural series—large-scale murals highlighting migratory wildlife (monarch butterflies, bighorn sheep) installed along highways and urban spaces; (2) The Wall of Birds—a landmark 2,500 sq. ft. mural at Cornell Lab documenting all bird families, accompanied by a published book; (3) Fine Art—original paintings by founder Jane Kim exhibited at museums and galleries; (4) Science Illustrations for publications, educational materials, and digital media; (5) Museum Exhibits designing installations for institutions like National Aquarium, Occidental College, and Jones Beach; (6) Interior Design creating commissioned works for private spaces; (7) Consumer Products through brand partnerships with The North Face and Le Mondeur; and (8) Publications including books, magazines, and educational guides. The studio merges classical science illustration techniques with modern fine art across all offerings.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Public Art Commissions (The Migrating Mural series)
• Fine Art Sales
• Science Illustration Services
• Museum & Institutional Exhibit Murals
• Interior Design Commissions
• Brand Partnership Artwork Licensing
• The Wall of Birds Book

Quantifiable outcome

• The Wall of Birds took more than two-and-a-half years to complete with 17 months of on-site painting, depicting all 270 modern bird families at scale from the tiny Marvelous Spatuletail hummingbird to the 30-foot Yutyrannus.
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered notable, flagship, core and minor.

• The North FacenotableOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing PartnerInk Dwell collaborated with The North Face to create a design for their Homestead Collection, inspired by the flora and fauna of California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. This is a brand collaboration that transforms apparel products into works of art.
• Le MondeurnotableOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing PartnerInk Dwell partnered with designer brand Le Mondeur to create a Monarch-inspired vegan shoe inspired by the Monarch in Moda mural in Ogden, Utah. The shoe is embroidered with over 50,000 stitch points, resulting in wearable art. The collaboration also inspired naming of the maker's space 'The Monarch'.
• Cornell Lab of OrnithologyflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerTo celebrate its centennial, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology commissioned Ink Dwell to paint the 2,500 square-foot Wall of Birds mural 'From So Simple a Beginning: Celebrating the Evolution and Diversity of Birds.' This is the studio's most significant and highest-profile commission.
• National AquariumcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerInk Dwell created three murals for the National Aquarium's permanent exhibit The Living Seashore, depicting Atlantic coastal ecosystems and using a labor-intensive paper mosaic technique for the 36' x 9' Diversity Wall.
• Occidental CollegecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOccidental College commissioned Ink Dwell to create a sweeping two-floor mural for the Anderson Center for Environmental Sciences, telling a Southern California sea-to-sky story for the ornithology and marine sciences departments.
• Sutro StewardsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerInk Dwell created the illustrations for Sutro Stewards' interpretive signs around San Francisco.
• Andra Norris GallerycoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorJane Kim is represented by Andra Norris Gallery, which handles gallery sales of fine art through exhibitions, group shows, and private sales.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Studio Number One: Shepard Fairey's Studio Number One is a design and brand collaboration studio that translates fine art into high-profile commercial work (e.g., the OBEY brand, major advertising campaigns). Direct peer in the artist-led brand partnership model that Ink Dwell uses with The North Face and Le Mondeur.
• Justseeds Artists' Cooperative: Justseeds is an artist cooperative producing socially and environmentally themed public art, posters, and illustrations. Direct peer in the small-team, mission-driven public art model with comparable output types (murals, prints, educational materials) and licensing of artist work.
• Colossal Media: Colossal Media is a commercial mural studio producing large-scale hand-painted advertising and public artworks for brands and cities. Direct peer in mural production scale and process, though their work skews commercial/advertising rather than science-illustration.
• Anderson Design Group: Anderson Design Group is an art studio that creates illustration-based artwork and licenses it across consumer products (posters, apparel, home goods). Direct peer in the artist-led licensing and brand collaboration revenue model, though their subject matter is broader travel/poster art.
• Artolution: Artolution is a public art organization that creates large-scale collaborative murals and installations with social and environmental impact themes. Direct peer in combining large-scale public art production with a mission-driven, conservation/education narrative.
• Wyland Galleries: Robert Wyland's marine life art brand operates a nearly identical business model to Ink Dwell: large-scale commissioned public murals, fine art gallery sales, brand partnerships, and conservation-themed storytelling. Direct peer given the parallel combination of public art commissions, fine art licensing, and environmental mission.
• Mosaika Design: Mosaika is a mural design and production studio specializing in large-scale public art for municipalities, transit systems, and institutions. Direct peer in mural studio operations and public-art commissioning model, although their scope is broader and more commercial.

Emerging players

• Fabric Workshop and Museum: Fabric Workshop and Museum collaborates with established artists to produce large-scale installations for museums, universities, and cultural institutions. Emerging player comparable in the artist-and-institution commissioning model that drives Ink Dwell's museum and university work.
• Meow Wolf: Meow Wolf creates large-scale immersive art installations with environmental and narrative themes, operating permanent exhibitions and licensed consumer products. Emerging player with a comparable art-as-experience model and similar brand-driven licensing, though at much larger scale.
• PangeaSeed Foundation: PangeaSeed is a nonprofit that mobilizes artists to create public works for ocean conservation. Emerging player with strong thematic overlap to Ink Dwell's Migrating Mural wildlife-corridor concept, though it operates more as a curator/network than a producing studio.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/inkdwell
• Facebookfacebook.com/InkDwell
• Instagraminstagram.com/InkDwell
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/inkdwellstudio

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Ink Dwell