Design Works (Goes) International

Happy Friday everyone! Before we head off into the weekend we want to share a little inspiration from our creative director, Nancy Fire, who spent the last week traveling through Paris, Lisbon, and Madrid. Nancy discovered and captured some gorgeous colors and patterns on her adventures and we thought we would share a little bit of her finds with you today! (Aren’t you lucky?) So sit back, relax, and lets go on a little trip to Europe (visually, at least).

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From the world traveler herself:

“Inspiration is everywhere in Lisbon, especially if you love Azulejos Tiles. Today these tiles are dominant in every Portuguese city and are embedded in its history and culture. The word “azulejo” means “small polished stone” and although they are not a Portuguese invention, by the 18th century no other European country was producing as many tiles as Portugal. Over the years, azulejo tiles have become an art form used for a variety of design applications both in exterior and interior home design. Spending time in Bairro Atlo and Principe Real, two older areas of Lisbon, I spotted various azulejo tiles on homes in different color combinations and patterns.”

In the name of print & pattern,

DW

Throw Waaaay Back Thursday

The Cleveland Museum of Art came to us with with this scan.

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It is a tapestry from the Byzantine Era and is over 1100 years old!! It is one of only two examples in the world today. Obviously it is severely damaged. What they wanted to do was recreate a piece, digitally, so the viewer could understand the complete design.

They also had scans of the one other fragment and we were tasked with combining them so that First2Print could print a piece on fabric for display in the museum.

Here is our finished piece. The other fragments coloration was different so we had to adjust the two to work together and we filled in some areas on one side with pieces from the opposite. 

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Here is a link to the piece at the museum, which you can actually order as a print if you are interest.

We can make your work museum quality as well! Visit designworksintl.com or first2print.com for more information.

Throwback Thursday – Colonial Williamsburg

First2Print teamed up with The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation to recreate a special time period dress. Inspired by an antique swatch of silk shantung and a historic design, the costume replication was created digitally by Design Works International artists who scanned and cleaned up the image in Photoshop, for preparation for digital fabric printing.

Before-After

 

Progress