One of the refreshing highlights at NeoCon 2022 was the introduction of Wolf-Gordon’s new collections, produced under the direction of Marybeth Shaw, chief creative officer, marketing and design, for the company. The company previewed its upcoming Curated Collection introduction, Chromalis by Bradley L Bowers, a collection of three upholstery textiles and one wallcovering, which blends advanced technology and cutting-edge design to create a collection that is an exploration of color and movement, imparting the influence of optical illusions and dimension.
Like many other companies during the pandemic who were faced with offices shutting down, and people working from home, Wolf-Gordon used the time to accelerate a number of initiatives. “In November 2019, we introduced a new website with increased functionality and content – this was very fortunate because, obviously, our design specifying customers needed information on our products at their fingertips over the past two years,” said Shaw. “We worked to provide multiple digital touchpoints for our account executives so they could continue to serve their accounts and make them aware of product introductions that continued throughout the pandemic.”
Although many design firms are back in the studio or working on a hybrid schedule, Wolf-Gordon continues to generate extensive digital content on a tight schedule for their website, virtual sales presentations, emails, and social media. “In a sense, our marketing team resembles more of a publishing organization as we diversify the communications to cover subjects beyond products,” Shaw said. “These are done through case studies, trends, features on specific vertical markets, and unearthing inspiring design stories through our quarterly publication, Howl, which is curated by design journalist Paul Makovsky. I think the point is not to replace our very material-based interactions with interior designers, but to supplement them and offer individuals the choice of how they prefer to be made aware of Wolf-Gordon products, as well as our brand-wide priorities.”
Shaw also observes that wellness is growing as a factor in the design of all different types of workplaces, and incorporates psychological and experiential wellbeing as well as physical health. “Returning to our work communities in a post-COVID world requires a heightened design sensitivity,” she noted. “For example, we’re emerging from a lot of privacy and nesting, and sound mitigation is essential to creating an environment of calm, comfort and stress reduction.” To that end, Wolf-Gordon also previewed GATHER™ Acoustical Materials at NeoCon 2022. The product is offered as simple color panels or can be engraved, printed, layered, folded or woven to achieve noise reduction coefficients between .25 and .75. According to Shaw, “It’s also really beautiful!”
The officeinsight team was particularly impressed with the debut collaboration between Wolf- Gordon and Bradley Bowers, a New Orleans-based artist and designer. Curious about this new collaboration, we interviewed both Shaw and Bowers about their launch. According to Shaw, Bowers was seeking to collaborate with a textile company and when she was introduced to him, she realized that his unfettered sense of pattern and color would bring an infusion of optimism to their 2022 offering. “I had also seen his ceramics and was so impressed with their beautiful asymmetries,” she said. “I believe three-dimensional designers bring a particularly interesting process to two-dimensional pattern design, and Bradley did not disappoint!”
Bowers had an appreciation for the commercial textile and wallcovering industry, only after making wallpaper himself. “I’m not even close to the level that they do it,” he said, and was asked by an interior designer in New Orleans to create a wallpaper collection. “That was the first time I ever did a repeat pattern. We found a company that did print-on-demand, and I made little sample books to give out.”
The fresh and polychromatic Chromalis Collection includes four patterns, each one distinct in its design development process and final effect. “We’re creating Bradley’s patterns in large repeats, which are enabled by digital printing,” Shaw explained. “Fauna, Graffito and Phantom—the three upholstery textiles—are beautiful on small surface seating (which allows a whole room to be held together by color) and dramatic on larger scaled benches and sofas.” They are digitally printed on high performance Supreen® fabric, which has a built-in moisture barrier that makes them ideal for public areas. Wolf-Gordon is the first to market with this technique on Supreen. Borealis, the wallcovering in the collection, demonstrates human scale strokes of color that are softened by its gradient. The overall effect is of mysterious forms in states of flux. “It’s a really wonderful contribution to our Curated Collection,” said Shaw.
In designing the textile collection for Wolf-Gordon, part of Bowers’ design process came from his exploration of moiré patterns, while the other patterns of Graffito, Borealis, and Fauna developed out of what the designer believed was needed in the interiors market. Bowers views the Chromalis collection as a creative color exploration allowing designers to be expressive themselves. “I want people to see things in their day-to-day life that allow them in a weird way to stop accepting the norms,” he said. “I’m just trying to introduce people to different ways of seeing–to break up the monotony, and give people options.”
As a multidisciplinary artist and designer, Bowers’ inspiration for the collection came from a range of sources: art, gardening and physics, just to name a few. “When I design using the computer, I’m not just placing lines, dots, and emblems to create patterns or objects,” he said. “I experiment with many permutations. The computer gives me access to things that we couldn’t get to do otherwise.” The Borealis wallcovering, for example, is inspired by morphology, with a look of subtle movement. “The idea of morphology is about changing,” Bowers explained. “With Borealis, it was all about how can I make gradients into patterns.” Graffito references street art, something Bowers loves to find in the urban environment. Bowers admires the work of artists like Sterling Ruby, as well as street artists like Nashville muralist Brian Wooden (a personal friend) or Miami artist Johnny Robles. “My favorite part of graffiti art is the aspect of reclamation,” he said. “Because I live with this collection, it was kind of me saying I want to reclaim some things: I’m tired of things looking so dead and gray and oatmeal.”Phantom is inspired by moiré effects, and was created using the process of programming algorithms to generate intersecting linework that creates the illusion of shape and depth, and Fauna began with an aerial snapshot of a digital landscape that Bowers distorted by changing its perspective and manipulating its planar geometry.
With a successful launch at NeoCon, what future projects are in the works for Bowers? He is debuting a lighting collection at the end of the month with a lighting company in San Francisco that does 3D printing. He is also working with Dolce and Gabbana and Italian artisans on a creative project which marries technology and hand craftsmanship. “I want to see more work that is unique and unachievable without technology, but I don’t want it to be at the expense of people losing their livelihoods,” he said. “I’m also working on a cool hotel in New Orleans that should be opening next year.”
