CLAIR® Pando: Inspired by Nature

In August of 2019, the Wolf-Gor­don Design Stu­dio took a trip to Manhattan’s Muse­um Mile to see the ​“Nature — Coop­er Hewitt Design Tri­en­ni­al.” The exhi­bi­tion fea­tured works of var­i­ous design­ers who col­lab­o­rat­ed with sci­en­tists, engi­neers, and artists to reflect on man’s trans­for­ma­tive rela­tion­ship with nature. Inspired by the exhib­it and in acknowl­edg­ment of the cli­mate crises we are cur­rent­ly fac­ing, the stu­dio con­tin­ued its explo­ration of a more sus­tain­able wall­cov­er­ing prod­uct, seek­ing to reduce our industry’s impact on our declin­ing eco­log­i­cal system.

The result of the research is CLAIR—a PVC-free wall­cov­er­ing that meets or exceeds Type II per­for­mance stan­dards, and is bleach clean­able. Ten designs were then devel­oped for the CLAIR col­lec­tion, fea­tur­ing clas­sic and nature-inspired pat­terns with a con­tem­po­rary attitude.

Inspired by the deep-ridged tex­ture of the bark of an oak tree, our lead design­er, Michael Lough­lin, took a spe­cial inter­est in devel­op­ing the pat­tern Pan­do. Lough­lin trans­lat­ed the bark tex­ture into a line draw­ing that was the basis for this dis­tinc­tive design. The mid­scale pat­tern will grace walls with an intrigu­ing organ­ic qual­i­ty, suit­ed to inte­ri­ors that incor­po­rate bio­philic design. Print­ed, for the most part, in low-sheen metal­lic inks, the linework is set against a fuzzy tex­tured back­ground that melds with a hor­i­zon­tal rip­pled emboss­ing to com­plete the nat­ur­al effect. The neu­tral palette ranges from soft gold and sil­ver inks on white, beige, and tan grounds to cop­per and pewter on brown, taupe, and slate.

Free of PVC, phtha­lates, and oth­er Red List chem­i­cals, Pan­do makes for a per­fect sus­tain­able alternative.