New from TSAR Carpets, the Chromatic Collection, designed through digital abstraction, offers a customizable wayfinding option for the evolving hospitality sphere.
By Rachel Gallaher
Digital still created by 3D artist Joe Mortell and creative director Charlotte Taylor featuring the Lucid rug from TSAR Carpets' new Chromatic Collection.
When Andrew Cenita, a New York-based designer for Australian textile company TSAR Carpets, was tasked with exploring “the future of hospitality,” he immediately thought of words like ‘hope’ and ‘optimism.’ As the entire industry was brought to a screeching halt by COVID-19, and subsequently forced to start rethinking its future reemergence, Cenita headed to his computer and started experimenting in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop with colors and patterns that elicit feelings of joy and happiness. The resulting Chromatic Collection offers six patterns in various colorways that are arguably a maximalist’s dream.
“My goal was to put a fresh design spin on an old technique (Axminster weaving was invented in 1755),” says Cenita. “The end result is a series of visually interesting designs that draw inspiration from visions of futurism and fantasy. The surreal and abstract designs elicit a sense of optimism and hope and underpin TSAR’s vision for the next wave of high-end hospitality.”
Closeup up the Ember rug from TSAR Carpets' new Chromatic Collection.
Created using gradient mapping—a Photoshop tool that allows the user to map different colors to different tones in an image—the patterns (inspired by various phenomena including the Aurora Borealis, burning flames, the interplay of shadows with a textured surface) started as rough shapes and abstract forms in the computer programs. Eventually, these forms began to emerge as potential wayfinding tools—the kind that many in the hospitality were looking for as a means to help keep people distanced and safe.
“I experimented a lot, layering patterns with gradients and paint strokes, and soon noticed some of the patterns I created could act as paths,” Cenita explains. “In the wake of COVID-19, mitigation strategies are all the more relevant to interior designers and a building’s end-user. With Chromatic, the Ripple pattern, for example, is designed with two sides to the composition: one with a soft focus and the other side with a more vivid ‘ripple’ effect. This could be used to delineate a room. The way I constructed the Aurora pattern also allows one to customize the design’s overlay pattern to break up different floor plans.”
Digital still created by 3D artist Joe Mortell and creative director Charlotte Taylor featuring the Aurora rug from TSAR Carpets' new Chromatic Collection.
As part of its release campaign for the Chromatic Collection, TSAR partnered with 3D artist Joe Mortell and creative director Charlotte Taylor to develop a suite of digital stills and animations depicting the collection within a series of futuristic hospitality and interior environments. From a seemingly sun-drenched space featuring millennial-pink walls and the Flame rug to a nighttime scene with the shadowy Aurora rug beneath two light-blue amoeba-esque couches, these spaces are pure escapism that makes me want to crawl through my computer screen and hang out for a while.
Like many designers, Cenita was hard-pressed to give out top honors to any of his creations. “It’s truly hard to pick a favorite!” he says. “The collection is special due to the variety of abstractions and colors between each pattern—from a mixture of earthy tones and liquid textures to simple geometric patterns reimaged in a new light. Each design introduces a new experimental aesthetic into TSAR’s ready-made offering and provides our customers with an array of customizable options.”