Contract Magazine - October 2017 - 20

Designer
You
Should
Know
Shanan
Campanaro
of Eskayel
Shanan Campanaro leads the Brooklyn, New York-
based studio Eskayel that designs beautiful rugs,
textiles, and wallpapers. A native of San Diego,
California, Campanaro holds a bachelor's degree
in fine arts from Central Saint Martins in London
and began her career in graphic design and fashion
graphics with an emphasis on painting as the initial
design inspiration. She started Eskayel at the
end of 2008, at the height of the Great Recession.
Her five-person team produces designs for both
commercial and residential interiors.

our papers to at least learn about the alternatives
to vinyl through their interactions with us. We hope
to effect change in the industry.
What is important in design today?
The designers with strong bodies of work that
I love are those that stay true to themselves, are not
following trends, and have a cohesion throughout
their work that is recognizably their own. This
is so important today when everything is viewable
as soon as it is released on social media. It can be
difficult to maintain a space in which one can create
with authenticity.
What are the latest collections from your studio?
I am excited about our first-ever mural wallcovering
series called Beautiful Decay (left) that we just
released as well as Nocturne (below, three). And
we are highly anticipating the first-ever jacquard
woven iterations of our designs.
What do you enjoy most about what you design?
The most exciting aspect about designing rugs,
textiles, and wallpaper is that they are the elements
that are the most wild and fun in an interior space. c

What does the name Eskayel mean?
Eskayel is derived from the phonetic spelling of the
letters S, K, and L. S is for Shanan, while K and L are
the first initials of two college friends.
Explain your unique design process with paintings.
The design process generally begins with travel
and photography to gather inspiration. Then, I bring
the photos back to the studio to paint from. After
I am finished painting, I use this material to create
repeats, murals, and colorways, which usually take
form from a color story that somehow ties in to the
original photographs. From there, we begin working
with our printers and factories on sampling.
Is wallpaper "cool" again?
Having a lot of new, more nontraditional types
of wallpaper motifs has allowed interior designers
to have more options to work with-making it more
exciting, fun, and "cool."
Explain how being environmentally conscientious
is important to your design and production?
Wallpaper manufacturing-especially with vinyl-
is often incredibly toxic. Our standard lines are all
digitally printed to order on FSC-certified papers
with water-based inks so there is no run off or
overstock waste. Currently, we only print on Terralon,
from DreamScape, which contains 31 percent
postconsumer recycled material, and no plasticizers,
phthalates, chlorine, or formaldehyde. The environment
is a major concern for us, and we give a percentage
of all of our sales to environmental organizations.
We refuse to be part of an existing problem of toxic
material use, and we want the people who specify
20

contractdesign.com 	

OCTOBER 2017

PHOTOGRAPHY: PORTRAIT BY JAMES NORTON; ALL OTHERS COURTESY ESKAYEL

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Contract Magazine - October 2017

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