Form students in exciting pattern collaboration

The year 1 form students recently completed their first design collaboration with a professional actor – Forbo Flooring. The collaboration is part of a course that deals with surfaces and patterns and where all students have had to create two patterns each. 

- It is incredibly valuable for students to learn how a professional company works during their studies. I am impressed by what the students have achieved in this short time! During three packed weeks, they have had color theory, textile material theory and digital tools, knowledge that they then applied to the task from Forbo. Forbo has in turn been very generous with their time and expertise, says Peter Nylander, lecturer at the Design Program and responsible for the course.

Patterns based on Forbo's design philosophy 

Clients from Forbo have been Marijke Griffioen, Senior Designer and Dorothé Kessels, Director Global Design from Forbo's design office outside Amsterdam and Josefin Larsson, Nordic Marketing Manager. They tasked the students with developing two different repetitive patterns each that should function as a family, i.e. they should be possible to use individually but also together. That patterns can be mixed and matched and thus cover an entire building is part of Forbo's design philosophy, which they call Dynamics of a Building. The philosophy involves dividing buildings into five different room functions: "receiving, moving, connecting, concentrating, and recharging", functions that are increasingly woven together and require that surfaces and furnishings are flexible. 

"Forbo's design philosophy fit very well with this course, which deals with surfaces and patterns. We wanted to bring interiors into the course because patterns are not only something that is printed on fabric for, for example, pillowcases, but which can also be an important part of an interior. When a pattern is to be used for spatialities, it also means thinking long-term with patterns because the rooms should last over time," says Peter.

Different techniques and different inputs to the five selected patterns 

At the end of the course, Forbo's design department selected five students whose designs they now want to continue together with them. The ten patterns are created using two of the technologies that Forbo works with – digital printing and Aqua-jet. With digital printing you can choose from an unlimited number of colors and the pattern is applied to Forbo's textile rug Flotex. The second technique, Aqua-jet, is a costly and time-consuming method in which a jet of water cuts out positive and negative pieces from their products, and which is then assembled to create patterns, much like intarsia.

The selected patterns were created by Carl Folkesson, Cecilia Mosesson, Olivia Ståhl, Annelie Wihlborg and Max Lundén Jansson, who all had different entrances to their respective designs and used Forbo's techniques in different ways. 

Carl's starting point has been the saying "you take what you have" in two patterns created by patch technology. In one it is linoleum pieces that have been patched together and in the other he has mixed pieces of linoleum and Forbo's textile carpet. Cecilia was inspired by Japanese flower arrangements, Ikebana, and Japanese Zen philosophy to achieve a harmony and balance in the patterns. One pattern is created with aqua-jet technology, which is well suited for eye-catching spatial design. Olivia Ståhl's designs are in turn retro inspired and created with digital print on Forbo's Flotex mat while Annelie Wihlborg was inspired by pedestrian crossings that she turned into patterns. The idea is that the design should be used in corridors as a pattern to guide the visitor right. Max Lundén Jansson instead wanted to create a calm atmosphere by letting nature into his pattern of branches, which work well both for themselves or together. 

The selected patterns will now be developed in larger sample pieces and hopefully also exhibited at fairs. The hope is that a real order will be placed on one of the designs so that they come into production.

Guest teachers in the course have been Asta Florestedt, designer and Marie Dreiman, interior designer, who has taught color theory and textile materials.