THE JOURNAL
THINK AGAIN
Creative confidence is all about conviction: that you can achieve extraordinary outcomes from a great idea. Becky Metcalfe discovers some of the ways in which innovation and artistry have recently come together to break new ground in product design
To excel in the design industry today requires a level of commitment to innovative forms, textures and materiality that provide a solution or challenge conventional norms. Peter Saville is best known as a co-founder of music label Factory Records in 1978, and for album covers for the likes of Joy Division and New Order. But his impact on popular culture has stretched much further over the years, as he has worked with numerous high profile fashion clients such as Yohji Yamamoto, Christian Dior and Stella McCartney on advertising and brand identity. Saville is also a long- term collaborator of Kvadrat, working with the Danish textile company since 2004 on every aspect of its visual communication. Colour can provide energy to a design and Kvadrat has been a pioneer – pushing aesthetic, artistic and technological boundaries, alongside an uncompromising devotion to quality and sustainability. Its new Technicolour collection by Peter Saville, featuring an upholstery weave, three rugs and two curtains, charts a new course for the designer, marking his debut in product design for interiors. Saville grew up visiting the Welsh countryside with his family, and developed a fascination with what he calls “rural graffiti” – the multi- coloured spray-paint that farmers use on sheep to help
identify them in the flock. “I’ve always seen the spray can as something modern, because it’s a technological development. There’s something very pop about it. So when I saw sheep sprayed, I thought, that’s kind of pop,” he said in a recent interview with Wallpaper* magazine. He was so intrigued by the incongruity of the bright colour against the neutral tones of the fleece that he
“FOR US, EVERYTHING IS ABOUT MAKING. ULTIMATELY WHAT WE
GRAVITATE TOWARDS ARE THINGS THAT ARE SIMPLE, REFINED, EDITED, CURATED AND COMPOSED”
used the idea to playfully develop the collection. For the fabric and rugs, a highly textured, coarse wool is woven through with flashes of colour, while the sheer Trevira curtains come in single colours or a rainbow stripe, with a subtle iridescence. “I’m excited by how the collection brings the industry of the land, in raw form,
into the living environment. It offers an experience of texture and colour, ranging from the expressionistic to the subliminal,” he said about the results. For Arteriors’ latest collection, the US firm chose
to work with an architecture and design firm for the first time, partnering with New York-based practice Workshop APD. Divided into four sub-collections, 48 pieces are a result of an exploration into traditional techniques, seen though a different lens. “We were able to come at it with our own point of view – maybe it’s a little less decorative, and a little more streamlined. [Arteriors] had a tremendous amount of knowledge about craftsmen and the way people work all over the world,” said Workshop APD co-founder Matthew D Berman, as he explained how each party brought their own contribution to the project as part of Focus/21’s Creative Collaborations talks. Suitable for both residential and contract interiors, the collection of lighting and accessories adheres to Workshop APD’s “crafted modern” aesthetic, an ethos it carries through all of its work, be it a newly built townhouse in Brooklyn or an Arteriors tray. It drove the creation of every piece; unique glazes are complemented by textured glass and streamlined metalwork for a highly edited series
ABOVE: Peter Saville was inspired by the “rural graffiti” of spray-painted sheep to create his new Technicolour collection for Kvadrat, which features natural-coloured wool rugs woven through with hits of bright colour. Graphic designer Saville is a longstanding creative collaborator Kvadrat – but this is his first foray into product design for the Danish brand
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Photo: Matteo Girola
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