For this year’s Clerkenwell Design Week, wallpaper designer Erica Wakerly teamed up with contract furniture specialists sixteen3 to launch her new fabric collection.
Wallpaper designer Erica Wakerly is bringing a playful modernity and unique individuality to workplaces with her latest textile collection ‘Modern Flock’, showcased at this year’s Clerkenwell Design Week in partnership with contract furniture experts sixteen3. An extension of the designer’s 2022 Modern Flock wallpaper collection, which was recently awarded the prestigious Design Guild Mark, this collection is a new direction for Wakerly with it being her first range of fabrics.
Consisting of two patterns, Scoop and Buzz, the collection combines neutral hues and a selection of brighter shades which inject a vibrancy to any interior setting. “Although a workspace must be practical, it does not need to feel formal,” comments Wakerly when discussing the inspiration behind the designs. “People think clearly and creatively when they feel content and at ease in a space. If a workplace can provide a feeling of stimulation but also wellbeing and be a place where people can feel at home, this is ideal. It drives people’s ability to connect with each other and to collaborate as a team.” Merging a modern aesthetic with traditional skillsets, Wakerly is helping to bridge the gap between design eras. “The skill which goes into weaving a fabric, or roller printing a wallpaper, enhances the contemporary composition or graphic pattern,” she continues. With the chenille yarns of the fabric softly juxtaposing the geometric motifs, she also says how they bring character and comfort to the workspace, imbuing a sense of personality that contrasts the clinical, corporate interiors of many commercial spaces. “They are designed to inject a fresh aesthetic and, as with my wide range of metallic wallpapers, the fibres, pigments and reflective surfaces help to soften the shapes within the patterns.”
With all the studio’s fabrics and wallpapers produced in the UK, Wakerly states it offers her a close oversight of the manufacturing process. “I collaborate with suppliers in order to work as sustainably as I can and to collect and recycle waste during the production process,” she explains. “We also use recycled and recyclable packaging, and our substrates are FSC certified. In addition, there is zero waste going to landfill.” A mix of nylon and cotton, the fabrics can be ordered with Crib 5 treatment and have been tested for commercial use.
Also alluding to the distinction between home offices and commercial workspaces becoming less, Wakerly’s partnership with sixteen3 helped to showcase a different design direction for more functional interiors. “Our showroom is usually focussed on spaces and layouts with a real workspace feel,” says Charles Bramwell, sixteen3’s Product Designer. “This collaboration steps away from that to create something more illustrative and punchier. It’s about drawing attention to the collaboration by emphasising the furniture and fabric, and not necessarily representing a realistic work environment for a change.” With the Clerkenwell Design Week installation displaying the fabrics upholstered onto the brand’s Sedir sofa and Artus panels, it also featured two new designs from the studio – the Ada stool and Eden planters.
Looking ahead, Wakerly feels a bespoke, hand-crafted approach to workplace interiors will become more commonplace bringing a welcome informality to such spaces. “This approach has been happening for some time with smaller and more creative businesses, but it is filtering down to more formal and corporate settings too through the use of soft-seating, pattern and an enhanced materiality,” she states. “I work on a broad range of custom design projects for commercial clients with bespoke wall coverings or fabrics and it is becoming less about the placement of a company logo and more about extracting the essence of a brand in a more abstract way.”
With such collections giving us an insight into how workspace design is continuing to merge towards more convivial settings, it is exciting to think of the design opportunities that will come from such a shift. “Encapsulating a brand through material, surface, pattern and form ultimately channels an atmosphere or ethos,” she concludes. “It can reflect a company’s values as well as reinforcing a sense of place and subsequently having a positive effect on the way people interact, think and work.”
The new Modern Flock fabric collection begins at £156 per linear metre and can be found here.
Imagery courtesy of Erica Wakerly and sixteen3.
