Alfred Herrmann, artwork for film poster “Asphalt”, 1928. UFA Berlin. Via filmposter-archiv
The graphic designer Herrmann designed advertising brochures, advertisements and also many film posters for the UFA from the 1920s to the 1940s. As a signature he used a lying “H.”
Blair was an Oklahoma-born artist who climbed the ranks of Disney’s art department in the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s, eventually designing Disney’s “It’s a Small World” in 1964. A graduate of LA’s legendary Chouinard School, her facades bring to mind the work of Alexander Girard, Charles and Ray Eames, and Stig Lindberg; all playing in a similar way with stacked shapes and kinetic sculpture. An imaginative painter and designer, Blair helped introduce a modernist style to Walt Disney and his studio, and for nearly 30 years, he touted her work for his films and theme parks. She has more recently been referred to as the mastermind behind animated films like “Cinderella,” “Alice and Wonderland” and “Peter Pan,” although her credit on these films was often “color stylist.” Animator Marc Davis, who put Blair’s inspiring use of color on a par with Henri Matisse, recalled, “She brought modern art to Walt in a way that no one else did.“ Below is a sampling of her architectural work and film concept paintings.
Arcade: It’s all about play. This modern take on a traditional pattern emerged as we began taking apart circles and finding new ways to put them back together again. A vibrant, dynamic look softened with hand-drawn lines.
We’ve been giving you sneak peeks here and there. Now it’s here! Today marks the launch of Heath for Hygge & West wallpaper, a collection featuring four patterns in four colorways each. Hygge & West is a boutique wallpaper company known for its unique collaborations with highly regarded artists and designers. Created by our design team, the Heath for Hygge & West wallpaper collection incorporates many of the values we hold dear, producing a series of lively patterns that feels unmistakably Heath.
Given Hygge & West’s expertise in producing diverse designs and aesthetics into successful wallpaper collections, they were a natural choice for us. Plus, we love that they manufacture their wallpaper in the US, hand screen-printing patterns on clay-coated paper in Chicago. Their ethos feels familiar to ours for a good reason.
Quilt: Hard meets soft. Inspired originally by layering the geometries of some of our favorite tile shapes (hexagons and diamonds), we stepped back and saw the lines that recall the stitching we’ve seen in some of our favorite quilts.
Although the medium might seem radically different from the ceramic dinnerware and artisan tile we make, our design team created a collection showing off our signature clean graphical style and strong yet muted color palette inspired by our glazes. Through our experience in designing and making Heath tile, we’ve learned a lot about how color, scale, pattern and texture work together to enrich and even form the foundation for the design of a room through its surfaces.
We designed the wallpaper with the big picture in mind, using strong design elements that you can build around. Different from a paint manufacturer that just gives you one element to work with, our designs give you lots of different elements in composition.
The nine month design process was true to the way Heath works in clay, embracing the constant conversation between designing and making. In this context, the team went into it without any fixed idea of what the output would be, and the process started not with a computer, but with a more material-based approach: deliberately starting by hand and not with the computer, experimenting with watercolors to drawing to collage. The final designs reflect that well: they don’t look digitally produced, because they aren’t!
Slice: What happens when you introduce a square into a circle? Graceful geometries: a cool, sophisticated pattern that pulses with movement and life. Discover a new element every time you look.
The wallpaper was not designed to “go with” Heath tile, but the same creative team that creates Heath’s tile collection also designed the wallpaper collection. The shared aesthetic allows the two surface coverings to live in harmony in the same space. While some of the wallpaper colors were inspired by Heath’s tile glazes, the glazes were more a jumping off point, unfettered from the constraints of clay and grout.
Strike: Bold, dramatic, yet minimalist, Strike emerged by pushing and pulling a simple grid into a more dynamic, unexpected form reminiscent of traditional plaid. The simple shapes puts the emphasis on the hand-drawn lines.
The patterns—geometric Slice, dynamic Strike, energetic Arcade, and the sophisticated Quilt—each comes in four different colorways, inspired by Heath’s signature glazes and glaze techniques. The collection features blues, greys, white, and a few pops of red, and some patterns feature gold and copper metallics.
Heath for Hygge & West wallpaper is now available to order online and through our showrooms. View the collection and place your order online here.
