Wolf-Gordon Brings Inspired Design Out of the Archive

Under­stand­ing the val­ue of look­ing back in order to ven­ture for­ward, Wolf-Gor­don Design Stu­dio reviewed hun­dreds of his­tor­i­cal designs with the inten­tion to infuse vin­tage motifs with fresh ideas for Out of the Archive. The collection’s 10 dig­i­tal wall­cov­er­ing designs embrace the influ­ence of res­i­den­tial trends on com­mer­cial inte­ri­ors for a calm­ing effect that is ide­al for health­care and assist­ed liv­ing facil­i­ties, as well as tra­di­tion­al and tran­si­tion­al hospitality.

Out of the Archive recon­tex­tu­al­izes well-known motifs such as botan­i­cals, flo­rals, damasks, and large-scale geo­met­rics. We reimag­ined each of these ten designs to meet the need for tran­si­tion­al and tra­di­tion­al pat­tern­ing in com­mer­cial spaces.

- Mary­beth Shaw, Chief Cre­ative Offi­cer, Mar­ket­ing & Design

The goal was to trans­form tra­di­tion­al pat­terns into larg­er-scale pat­terns that reflect a bold­er 21^st cen­tu­ry aes­thet­ic. The col­lec­tion diver­si­fies Wolf-Gordon’s offer­ings, from cap­tur­ing the beau­ty of nature indoors with strong botan­i­cal and flo­ral pat­terns, to emu­lat­ing his­toric tex­tile tech­niques and sophis­ti­cat­ed archi­tec­tur­al ele­ments as inspi­ra­tion for updat­ing damasks and tra­di­tion­al geo­met­rics. Each of the 10 pat­terns in Out of the Archive is offered in three col­or­ways, cho­sen to com­ple­ment a wide range of inte­ri­or themes. Because they are print­ed dig­i­tal­ly, cus­tom col­or­ing — as well as changes in scale, tex­ture, and sub­strate — is avail­able, and the designs will trans­late seam­less­ly to rotogravure print­ing for large orders.

Pat­tern Highlights

Arca­dia: Adapt­ed from a his­tor­i­cal wall­pa­per pat­tern that has been re-ren­dered with a graph­ic etch­ing effect, the for­est of lis­some trees in Arca­dia cre­ates a sim­ple and serene background. 

Canopy: As if look­ing up at the sky through a canopy of rose bush­es, Canopy evokes a sense of calm and reflec­tion typ­i­cal of bio­philic design.

Flo­ra: A vin­tage flo­ral wall­pa­per from the 1940’s was the basis for this mul­ti-col­ored pat­tern, ren­dered in soft water-col­or hues. With the con­tin­u­ing influ­ence the res­i­den­tial mar­ket has on var­i­ous com­mer­cial inte­ri­ors — and how bio­philic design has proven that an expe­ri­ence of nature can elic­it a restora­tive response — it seemed nat­ur­al to include a flo­ral pat­tern with a hint of nostalgia.

Hed­era: The graph­ic appeal of this whim­si­cal ivy leaf wall­pa­per pat­tern from the 1950’s finds new life with a larg­er scale, smooth tex­ture, and con­tem­po­rary col­or palette.

Lat­tice: Adapt­ed from a clas­sic trel­lis wall­pa­per pat­tern, this quin­tes­sen­tial motif can be traced back to the 12^th cen­tu­ry. By divid­ing the thick linework into sev­en fine lines, Lat­tice was giv­en an airi­er feel­ing that also pro­vides a sense of move­ment as the eye fol­lows them through­out the composition.

Manor: Dat­ing back to the 16^th cen­tu­ry, the damask is said to be the ear­li­est known wall­pa­per design, orig­i­nal­ly intend­ed to imi­tate tapes­tries that were woven with a dif­fi­cult tech­nique when the real thing became dif­fi­cult to import. Mod­eled on a wall­pa­per design that was like­ly pro­duced with flock­ing, the updat­ed Manor cou­ples a sol­id, mat­te fore­ground with a print­ed back­ground tex­ture rem­i­nis­cent of a woven textile.

Palaz­zo: A clas­sic acan­thus leaf damask wall­pa­per with an antiqued effect was revamped to cre­ate the large-scale, dis­tressed look of Palazzo.

Rajah: Based on a tra­di­tion­al ogee damask — used for cen­turies in Indi­an tex­tiles — Rajah is a sim­pli­fied ver­sion with a look that recalls the arti­sanal qual­i­ty of a wood­block print.

Samoa: An exu­ber­ant pat­tern of palm fronds with a retro vibe, Samoa was achieved by play­ing with the scale, tech­nique, and col­or­ing of a trop­i­cal pat­tern found in the archive.

Tri­en­ni­al: Embroi­dered Folk art com­posed of tri­an­gu­lar shapes inspired this mod­ern redux. Triennial’s ​“stitched” linework recalls the pattern’s ori­gin, and its back­ground is print­ed with a sub­tle tex­tile texture.

About Wolf-Gor­don
Wolf-Gor­don is an Amer­i­can design com­pa­ny offer­ing design­ers a wide range of inte­ri­or sur­fac­ing prod­ucts unit­ed by the com­mon qual­i­ties of excel­lent design and depend­able per­for­mance. Found­ed in 1967 as a com­pre­hen­sive source for wall­cov­er­ings, its prod­uct line has since added wall pro­tec­tion, uphol­stery tex­tiles, paints, and Wink clear, dry-erase coat­ing. Through its col­lab­o­ra­tions with lead­ing nation­al and inter­na­tion­al design­ers and in its Design Stu­dio, Wolf- Gor­don con­tin­ues to devel­op new work that is provoca­tive, inspir­ing, and of our time. Wolf- Gordon’s grow­ing port­fo­lio of licensed col­lec­tions includes designs by Lau­rin­da Spear, Karim Rashid, Petra Blaisse, Grethe Sørensen, Kevin Walz, Boym Part­ners, Frank Tjep­ke­ma, Mae Engel­geer and Ali­ki van der Krui­js. Wolf-Gor­don account exec­u­tives are based in all major mar­kets in the Unit­ed States.