Artisian Series:
Wallcoverings

But there’s no doubt we’re in the midst of an amazing revival. Wallpaper—hand-printed or digitally manipulated; flocked or metallized; photo mural or cartoonish sticker—is featured in the glossy magazines, highlighted in high-end renovations and ooohed and ahhhed over in the design blogs. So why wallpaper now? Who or what determined its time had come (again.) Here’s where consumer behavior patterns, style trends, and economic factors all overlap to create the ideal setting for a product rebirth.

1) The housing and home ownership boom of the last decade produced a vast new market of potential customers. After all, wallpapering a rental is one of the biggest no-nos around!
2) The increase in home ownership fed an increase in home decoration media: more magazines, more television shows, more style section coverage in the papers. ThereÂ’s much more design information available to the public than ever before.
3) Changes in digital technology, both imaging and printing, brought a new design perspective and new abilities to a highly traditional category.
4) Changes in communication and commerce have opened up markets for small, individual producers they could have never reached otherwise.
5) Consumers have grown more confident with design and are more willing to experiment, mixing styles and eras in an effort to create a personalized interior.
6) There has been an overall pendulum swing in design, away from severely minimalist interiors, industrial-looking kitchens, etc., to a more fanciful, decorative look, where patterns and layering of patterns is actually encouraged.

There are many other inter-related factors that have fueled the wallpaper renaissance, and it’s clear those involved in the field are passionate about their product. “Interior design is the last frontier for cultural change in America,” says Jane Blevin, co-founder with Robert Ford of IN Luxury Design, a Los Angeles-based design studio, where the use of Mylar®, metallic foils, and translucent inks result in some serious eye candy. “Fashion has lost its power over society. A hemline will no longer change people’s views about society or themselves, and neither will a rock and roll song. Wallpaper, and the fashioning of a space, still has the power and potential to affect many people positively.” And yes, Blevin is a former fashion designer.

Another disciple to the cause is Maria Yaschuk of MEY Style. Her Fragmented series of wallpaper, which incorporated both LED lighting and Swarovski crystal debuted at London’s 100% Design, a treasure trove for innovative new wallpaper designs. “The future of wallpaper is in the fusion between art and decoration,” she says. “I see wallpaper as something that is not only a beautiful pattern repeat but, when thoroughly thought through, a product that reflects the attitudes and ambitions of contemporary society.”

That may sound grandiose, but in the following pages weÂ’ll introduce you to a group of designers and manufacturers who truly believe in the power of wallpaper to change the world, even if it is just one room at a time!

The 60-Year-Old Newcomer: Graham & Brown
Compared to long-established British design firms like Watts of Westminster (est. 1874), Liberty of London (est. 1875) and Cole and Son Ltd, (also est. 1875), Graham & Brown is a relative youngster that grew out of the deprivations and material shortages that lingered in Britain following World War II. Harold Graham and Henry Brown bought up a large supply of surplus metallic papers used during the war to confuse enemy radar. With that paper, an embosser and a printer, the two were in business, producing innovative foil prints for a market hungry for fresh designs.

Like many wallpaper companies Graham & Brown enjoyed some flush years, when seemingly every room in every home was papered in some sort of pattern, but also lean times, when an entire generation of consumers turned against the stodgy, fusty looks offered to them. Andrew Graham, the current CEO and grandson of Harold, has been instrumental in the companyÂ’s many design initiatives developed to reach younger consumers, reaching out to designers such as Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, the star of the popular BBC program Changing Rooms, fashion designer Julien Macdonald, and others.

The UK market provides an interesting template for the potential in the US and David Klaus, the senior marketing manager for Graham & Brown in the US is in a unique position to comment. “The U.K. market is a few years ahead of the US. We’re well on our way here, but in the next several years, people will be surprised at how wallpaper will infiltrate our culture. You’ll be seeing it in TV, movies, store windows, shelter magazines and, of course, our homes.”

Klaus also points out another key difference between the UK and the current US markets—point of sale retail. “Believe it or not, wallpaper can be sold as an impulse purchase if it’s done right. UK retailers are much more willing to show and stock wallpaper rather than just selling through books. In fact, Harrod’s of London now has one such display that allows them to show large samples and easily rotate collections so they always have the latest designs.” But Klaus does admit that wallpaper books will probably always have a place. “Books give you a larger variety to peruse, while stock adds the wow factor to an in-store presentation.” www.grahambrown.com.

The Tasty Trendsetter: FlavorPaper
It was serendipity that led Jon Sherman to his role in the wallpaper revival. A friend was trying to buy “dead stock” from an out-of-business wallpaper company that had flourished in the 1970s. At the time of this request, the founders of the company were in the process of dismantling equipment and disposing of supplies. The friend alerted Sherman who, somewhat impulsively, decided to save the screens, the vacuum table, and whatever else he could. Relocated from the Oregon coast to New Orleans, these pieces served as the initial inspiration for FlavorPaper’s retro hip line, including its breakthrough pattern Highway 66, a bold op-art-style print.

“I didn’t know at the time that wallpaper would be my future,” says Sherman. “I didn’t know anyone close to my age who even considered wallpaper.” But one success lead to another and soon the FlavorPaper team was designing custom papers, collaborating with other young designers on new patterns and pushing the boundaries of technology (and taste!) with its scratch and sniff collection.

“We like to produce wallpaper with ‘shock value‘; we despise the beige craze,” explains Sherman. “Everything we make is hand-printed to order, so if someone wants beige, we’ll print it for them, but we’re happiest when our papers make a statement!” www.flavorleague.com

Business Artist: Given Campbell
As an artist Given Campbell has explored many different media–photography, wood carving, block printing, drawing, ceramics, painting–but when she discovered wallpaper, she knew she had found her calling. “I started by researching the available products and printing methods and realized it was possible to combine all these different artistic disciplines in one product,” she says. In 2004 Campbell produced her debut collection, based on grouped letter and punctuation forms shaped into pattern repeats. The graphic appeal of the line caught the eye of Sabine Rothman, an editor at House & Garden, and soon enough Campbell was fielding calls asking about Villa, the featured pattern, as well as what else she had.

Even prior to the initial editorial write-up, Campbell had been planning her next move, researching companies that offered showroom distribution in an effort to broaden her distribution. “I saw an article in the Boston Globe that featured Studio Printworks, so I called Dennis Shah and sent him some of my work. He turned me down, but I asked him to call if he ever changed his mind,” says Campbell. Around the same time the results of an extensive media campaign Campbell began several months earlier was starting to pay off, with her papers making it into one magazine after another. “Dennis was also coming across all those press appearances,” says Campbell, “and he contacted me to say he wanted to review my portfolio.” Studio Printworks now represents five of Campbell’s patterns, including the popular Villa.

The Alchemist: Tracy Kendall
Inspired by the mundane and the ephemeral, by technology and by Handwork, Tracy Kendall creates unusual, unexpected and, often amazingly complex wallpapers. Her first works, introduced in 1996, were based on the abilities of a digital printer that could reproduce, for that time, amazing detail. The problem was the imaging area had a width restriction of only 18 inches, although the height could go to six feet or more. But soon KendallÂ’s overscale monochrome images of cutlery, feathers, seed heads began appearing in London hotspots and British decorating magazines.

Technology plays a large role in her work and while Kendall believes that further advances in ink and printing will help drive wallpaper innovations, her custom line takes much different approach. “I like the idea of texture, of reality,” says Kendall, “and I also like a challenge.” She works closely with clients, their interiors, and their possessions to create site-specific wallpapers that incorporate stitching, slitting, and layering, adding texture, depth and definition to the wall. A brief list of some of the materials used in her finished pieces includes: zippers, buttons, shells, notecards, product tags, fringe, and puzzle pieces. Her clients and other observers are often left speechless by the detail and complexity of her work, while Kendall is much more prosaic. “A plain wall is either a person’s idea of heaven or hell, depending on how they live. What I do, after all, is only wallpaper. It needs to sit with chairs and table and people to make it work.” www.tracykendall.com

The Sister Act: MEY Style
Maria and Ekaterina Yaschuk work independently in the fields of surface design, environmental design, theater, and other areas, but come together to collaborate on theit Fragmented series of wallpaper. Integrating lighting technologies, fractal geometry, and traditional embroidery patterns initially developed by their grandfather, the sisters see their product as an interactive visual experience that goes beyond mere backdrop.

“We wanted to create pieces that were not only striking, but aesthetically pleasing over the long term,” says Maria. “One of the biggest challenges was to integrate the LEDs naturally, as part of the pattern, because being extremely bright, they can look awkward when placed without careful consideration for scale, color. and repeat.“

Ranging from the highly charged to almost neutral, one would think the ideal location to be the reception area of a hotshot agency, or the latest must-be-seen-at lounge. But Maria voices another opinion. “We’d love to see Fragmented in a country cottage, because we developed several of these patterns and colors specifically with the thought to integrate the latest technology into traditional environments.” www.meystyle.com

The Designer/Producer: Woodson & RummerfieldÂ’s House of Design
As successful interior designers in the hot Los Angeles design market Jaime Rummerfield and Ron Woodson have seen the demand for wallpaper grow from next-to-nothing to next-big-thing. “Five years ago we were luck to get sign-off on a simple wall treatment in a powder room,” says Rummerfield, “today we use wallpaper in almost every project.”

Rummerfield extols the power of wallpaper to her clients and finds them more interested and accepting than ever. “Wallpaper is such a great solution to transform a room from drab to fab. Clients have so many options and when showing them all the wonderful patterns, colors, and textures, right away you can see their enthusiastic response.”

The Conceptualist: IN Luxury Design
“I am very motivated by making an actual environment where people live,” states Jane Blevin. “I don’t see any difference between design and art: Clients appreciate the craft and quality of a hand-printed piece, and value it for its luxury and artistic sensibility.”

Blevin, who with partner Robert Ford just debuted IN Luxury wallpapers at 100% Design in London, combines formidable expertise in printing techniques with an artist’s passion for experimentation. She frequently conceptualizes a technique and then challenges herself to create a design to fit that technique. In describing City of Light, the stand-out piece from “Maths” collection, she says: “Each repeat of City of Light takes about 20 hours to create, but it took two years of trial and error to achieve the hand-foiled look I wanted. I spent an additional three months just to perfect the foil and ink colors.”

Although based in Los Angeles, Blevin and Ford wanted to first show their works in Europe. “We expected the market to be more open to new ideas,” explains Blevin, “and we were right. I thought City of Light might be too much for most people, but it has been our most requested sample.”