Tom Dixon took Design Miami/ by storm with the launch of a new collection of bold, graphic carpets for The Rug Company. Renowned for his forward-looking lamps, chairs, and tables, the avant-garde British designer took a dip into nostalgia for this project, drawing inspiration from the television test cards that once appeared regularly at the start and finish of television transmissions. Each of the designs in the four-piece collection is based on the repetition of a strong, geometric shape that is transformed as it travels along the color spectrum into a complex pattern set against a dramatic black field. In both form and sensibility, the designs echo the work Hungarian Op artist Victor Vasarely and Danish design maestro Verner Panton. In particular, the blues and greens in the Tile and Step patterns evoke Panton’s Carpet 8 Series.
“Color is all too often misunderstood or ignored, but interestingly, it always produces the most emotional arguments whenever it’s seriously discussed,” says Dixon. “Working on the computer screen, it’s impossible to predict the effect of light and shade on the pile. One of the great things about this collaboration with The Rug Company is the joy and surprise of unrolling the samples for the first time and seeing your idea, which you have previously seen in a 15-inch pixellated screen format, transformed into a massive, luminous, soft plane of color.”
See more of Tom Dixon's designs in our photo gallery.
