Hospitality Design - November/December 2010 - 50

perspectives

interview: timorous beasties

such as Napoleon’s trip to Egypt or the ﬁrst Montgolﬁer hot air balloon launch, colonial wars, etc. Our take on the late 18th century Toile de Jouy fabrics was actually quite literal; it’s just that it has been updated. HD: What kind of design techniques do you experiment with? AM: We experiment with all sorts of things. We are very hands on in terms of production and process in our studio where we’ll mix different inks, varnishes, and heat sensitive inks. Anything that is liquid and can be pushed through the mesh of a screen. We have printed onto stone and wood. We also work with many manufacturers, ﬁrst to understand the process, then to ﬁnd out how we can push the boundaries. HD: Does technology play a role in the creation of your products? AM: Yes, absolutely. [It’s] essential. Technology can dictate a whole collection or the way you design something. You have to design with the end product and the process in mind. HD: Do you know how many designs you have created to date? AM: A lot, but not as many as one would think. A lot of the designs take an uneconomical amount of time to create. HD: When did you know you ‘made it’ in the industry? PS: I remember years ago I went to Vogue to meet with the late Isabella Blow, who loved the work, and at that point, I thought in my head we had made it. How wrong I was. That was in 1996! I guess in 2005 when we were nominated for Designer of the Year at the London Design Museum was our turning point. HD: What’s the key to staying innovative in the product design market? PS: Never underestimate the public, never ‘design down’, and never design thinking about selling huge volume. It’s the kiss of death. HD: What’s your favorite product design, not done by you? PS: My taste changes, but today I’d go with one of Hella Jongerius’ Nymphenburg ceramic bowls. HD: The new rug collection for Brintons has generated a lot of buzz for its bold design statement. Could you talk about how this collection came about? PS: The Brintons collection came about because Brintons is a very old UK company, which has traditional values, but needed to be updated without being contemporary for the hell of it. I think they saw our work and could relate to it. I think the hospitality market has also changed a lot. I think what we offered was new ways of using pattern so that it was possible to have some of our designs in small sections of a room, or only down one half of a corridor. This allowed interior designers a much more bespoke service. Most hotels are transitional spaces where the experience needs to be unique and HD: What would top all of the exhibitions, awards, lectures, special commissions, and companies you have provided products for? PS: Having another baby? HD: What you want the Brintons collection to say to people? AM: It doesn’t have to be that way. HD: Your work varies from designs for the Rockwell Group to Nike and Anthropologie. What other products or companies would you like to explore? PS: We’re working on some designer gravestones at the moment, the branding for a gin called Monty’s, and illustrations for some Trollope novels. I couldn’t ask for much more. Maybe a bra for Lady Gaga’s next outﬁt? I don’t know really. We are generally very open and that’s what is always fun. You never know what’s around the corner. HD: How has your work evolved in the past 20 years? PS: It’s strange that we started from a specialization within a specialization (we studied printed textiles), and managed to branch out from that. If someone [told] me 10 years ago that we would be doing all these different things, I would have keeled over. I guess that means we have evolved.

Above: The look of the devil is subtlety woven in the Devil Damask pattern, part of the Lace collection. Right: A closer look at the front and back of the digitally printed Moth Blotch Cushion.
memorable. I think design can be a lot bolder in these spaces and deﬁne the space a lot more. I think the work we did for the Brintons collections is not necessarily to be lived with, but to be experienced.

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - November/December 2010