Sometimes good design stays with you. When pondering today what I should write about for my "Lily Inspiration" blog, I started remembering a few designers that I drew inspiration from when I was studying interior design in Montreal years ago. I was most inspired by a duo from Glasgow who called their design studio Timorous Beasties; Alistair McAuley and Paul Simmons attended the Glasgow School of Art together and founded the company in 1990.
Aside from the lush, detailed imagery of flowers, fish, lizards and insects that they convey with their textiles and wallcoverings, what impressed me most was the way they could take something done many times before and completely redefine it in a provocatively contemporary way.
Take the Glasgow Toile, for example. From afar, the fabric seems to closely resembles the classic Toile de Jouy wallpaper from the early 1800's, which featured impressively intricate scenes of couples picnicking and was used for wallpaper, teapots, curtains and bedding. Up close, however, their Glasgow version has crumbling infrastructure as a backdrop to homeless people on benches, people being mugged at gunpoint and scavenging pigeons. Social commentary and interesting design make for a memorable combination.
Timorous Beasties design with the production process in mind, as they do everything themselves with a combination of traditional and technological methods, including blockprinting, silkscreening and digital printing. You can learn more about their designs and ideas here.
Glasgow Toile
Iguana Wallcovering
Grand Thistle Wallcovering
Lampshades
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