Commercial wallcoverings can be complicated. Often adorned with two or three different layers of print, color, and texture, these accents certainly capture the eye—but also run the risk of competing with other design elements.
As such, the desire for a simple, modern collection of wallcoverings led manufacturer Wolf-Gordon to collaborate with Me and General Design, an interior design firm led by Christina Casañas-Judd and General Judd, who possess a passion for mixing elements, breaking rules, and defying trends. The resulting SO GOOD collection of digital wallcoverings demonstrates that beauty and boldness are often found in simplicity.
“This type of really clean, contemporary patterning was not in our collection previously,” says Marybeth Shaw, chief creative officer of Wolf-Gordon. “I loved the scale of what [Me and General] brought to the table: medium and large-scale patterning that wasn’t fussy. I think it was just really missing from what we were offering.”
Shaw notes that what makes the SO GOOD collection so unique, in part, is its ability to either be the focal point of a wall or a complement to a piece of art, for example, without losing any of its appeal. “I don't think too many strong patterns have that ability to play both the foreground and background role,” she observes.
Understanding the interplay between different parts comes naturally to Casañas-Judd and Judd, who both had careers as individual collaborators in large-scale TV and theater productions before successfully veering off into the interior design space. The husband-and-wife duo allow an organic process to take the leading role in their interiors work, as well as for this collaboration with Wolf-Gordon. “We create what we feel is needed together with what is requested of us,” Casañas-Judd explains. “If we can think it, we can make it ... from our wallcovering designs to Swick Board, our WiFi Bluetooth speaker housed in a life-sized surfboard. There are no rules!”
While SO GOOD represents the first collaboration between Wolf-Gordon and Me and General, it was not the design firm’s first foray into wallpaper design. “We had already begun to exercise our design muscles in the wallpaper field a few years back when we were requested by clients to come up with a design/brand for their home or building,” Judd recalls. “We started creating custom wallpaper designs that adorned their interiors, and we reached out to Wolf-Gordon to manufacture these custom patterns.”
Inspiration from All Around
With their working relationship firmly in place, Wolf-Gordon approached Me and General last year to create several more unique, bold designs for the company that were not inspired by a specific project, per se, but whatever inspired the trailblazing design team. “Wolf-Gordon allowed us to design what we love—bold shapes, movement, inspired by all things from architecture, music, fashion, art, and the very elements that surround us as we move throughout our day,” Casañas-Judd says.
Me and General’s inspiration resulted in four modern patterns—Echo, Nouveau, Vista, and Perch—that comprise the SO GOOD collection. Vista and Echo are both completely new patterns, while Perch and Nouveau were inspired by the firm’s projects but tweaked for the collaboration.
As its name implies, Echo depicts the sound of design reverberating through a space. The elongated diamond shapes formed from parallel lines appear to shift back and forth, giving walls a sort of kinetic energy. It is offered in colorways of silver MylarTM on soft gray, gold on black onyx, and copper on pinkish-gray.
Nouveau repeats a simple diamond shape in a mirrored kaleidoscope sequence for an ever-changing design. The standard matte off-white, sand, and dark gray grounds form the basis for the decorative linework in gold, silver, and copper Mylar, respectively.
Check out Rampart, by Wolf-Gordon
Perch is a lively geometric inspired by the Perch/Harlem building, designed by Me and General. Inspired by the building’s asymmetrical windows, the pattern is offered in standard colorways of Blush, Dusk, and Smokey.
Finally, Vista is characterized by a rhythmic, interlocking cityscape design informed by the sharply defined outlines, geometric motifs, and zig-zag forms of the Art Deco style. It is available in combinations of silver/steel blue, reflective white/opaque white, and high gloss black/matte black.
Beauty + Performance
Beyond its aesthetic appeal, the SO GOOD collection also features all the durability a designer could ask for thanks to its construction. The patterns are all digitally printed on 100-percent Mylar-faced vinyl with a nonwoven polyester/cellulose backing. The collection also meets all commercial standards for performance, including an ASTM Class A and NFPA 286 fire rating. Additionally, SO GOOD wallcoverings are free of phthalates (BBP, DBP, DEHP, DIDP, DINP, DnHP, and DnOP), as well as conflict minerals and heavy metals.
“SO GOOD has the advantages of a Type II,” Shaw says. “It’s got a non-woven backing that, when we print it on the digital printer, there’s dimensional stability to receive the pattern and, therefore, the seaming can be a nice match. It’s a very reliable product for our market, and I think definitely there’s going to be a lot of interest—and there already is—in hospitality and retail [settings], in those environments that need a little more character on the walls with the added benefit of very high-performance characteristics,” she adds.
