The Big Picture - June/July 2014 - (Page 23)

Flavor Paper's Brooklyn headquarters - aka The Flavor Lair - houses all of its wallpaper-production facilities, offices, and showroom. Designed by Skylab Architecture and winner of the 2010 Best of the Year Showroom award from Interior Design magazine, the headquarters features an "open kitchen of wallpaper" approach, where passersby on the sidewalk can watch wallpaper being handscreened, and see how the patterns come together. The digital-printing area resides on the second ﬂoor, along with the company's offices and showroom. As you might guess, the ﬁrm's wallpaper designs and patterns are showcased throughout the headquarters - "pattern is integral to the building design." Here are just a few of the highlights: * The showroom "is truly one of a kind, with a layout based off of our Cycloid pattern, allowing clients to sit comfortably and see our patterns in their true glory. Our giant spinning racks allow them to see hundreds of options in full scale and multiple repeats." * The offices feature Flavor's "Power Plant" design in custom colors. * The staircase has the five-story back wall papered in custom-colored "Sakura," and Flavor also had the Lite Brite company create a neon sculpture of that pattern to run up the center - "to add some curb appeal and make you want to take the steps." * The upper floors house a few of the Flavor People and boast "what is possibly the craziest hallway in Brooklyn" as well as a rooftop meadow that has nice views of Manhattan. Last year, Flavor teamed with designer Mark Dean Veca on a special project for the Public Museum of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The installation, inside the museum's Grand Hall, celebrated the Chinese Zodiac's Year of the Snake, and the museum's own evolving transformation. It combined Flavor's hand-screened patterns of a green tangle of snakes, printed on Mylar and backlit, with a digitally printed ﬂoor graphic on vinyl of a massive snake winding through the lobby. (Editor's note: See last issue's "At the Floor Front" article for more on this project.) Although Flavor often prints from a client's ﬁles on projects like this, it also oﬀers a diverse selection of patterns and wall murals that can be adapted to any setting. Some are based on designs developed in-house, others from teaming with leading photographers, artists, and designers. One of the most recent additions to the Flavor catalog is a series of seven digital patterns based on the work of designer David Nosanchuk. "We go about all of our collaborations diﬀerently," says Sherman. In this case, he and Nosanchuk discussed the PHOTOS BY BOONE SPEED. A Look at the Lair possibility of working together while serving on a panel at The Museum of New York when Flavor Paper's work was featured there. "He brought in a number of patterns he was working on, all based oﬀ photos," to be printed digitally, says Sherman. "We worked together on determining the best oﬀerings and at what scale each should be oﬀered." Collaborations like these - and there are many others in the Flavor Paper portfolio - and the highly visible and visually stunning installations of its work will only broaden Flavor's horizons, and its impact and presence in contemporary interiors, both commercial and residential. Looking ahead, Sherman expects continued demand for both the handcrafted look and feel of screenprinting, and the rich palette of possibilities with digitally printed wallcoverings. "Both technologies have their pros and cons, but now that we oﬀer both digital printing and hand screenprinting, there isn't much we can't do," he says. Mike Antoniak is a regular contributor to The Big Picture magazine. www.bigpicture.net 23 http://www.bigpicture.net

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Big Picture - June/July 2014

The Big Picture - June/July 2014
Contents
InSight
Wide Angle
Up Front
Graphics on the Go
Flavorful Interiors
Step-by-Step: Deer Caught in the Spotlight
Stay Sharp with Cutters and Routers
R+D
Explorer

The Big Picture - June/July 2014