Show your colours: TECNOGRAFICA
The desire to express one's personality while communicating over zoom and other apps at home has caused demand for expressive wallpapers from the Italian manufacturer TECNOGRAFICA to boom.
By TECNOGRAFICA and Dominic Lutyens for
TECNOGRAFICA
November 29, 2020 | 11:00 pm CUT
The warm tones of Tecnografica’s Futura wallpaper intriguingly depicts arches receding into infinity
One unforeseen consequence of the pandemic is that we have been able to see our homes with fresh eyes, especially during lockdown. We’ve rediscovered the joys of nesting, updating our homes and home offices with new furniture and, in some cases, radically redecorating them. What’s more, our need to communicate with others via Skype and Zoom has encouraged us to present our homes as stylish extensions of our personalities.
It’s a development Tecnografica, Italian manufacturer of wallpapers and decorative panels, is all too aware of. Founded in 1992, and still a leading company in the design of ceramic tiles, it has since carved a niche fabricating digitally printed wallpapers and decorative panels.
The panoramic exotic jungle scenes of Manaus (top) and Polly (above) show the immersive impact of Tecnografica’s wallcoverings
Its huge, eclectic selection of super-definition (SD), richly colourful, textured wallcoverings offers its clients, many of them architects and designers, a wide spectrum of styles to choose from. These are created in-house or by freelance artists, designers and illustrators, whose personal vision enriches the brand’s repertoire of styles.
‘The desire to express your personality while talking at home on Zoom and other apps has boosted our designs’ popularity’
Aesthetically diverse, the wallcoverings are suitable for interiors in myriad styles, encompassing geometric patterns, exotic foliage, Warhol-esque flowers, hazy beaches and scaled-up reproductions of iconic masterpieces by Italian Renaissance artists.
Iconic art is brought into the home with Leonardo da Vinci’s Annunciation (top) and Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus (above) from the Italian Masterpieces collection
The latter, called Italian Masterpieces, include Botticelli’s pastel-hued The Birth of Venus and Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro rendition of Bacchus, both displayed in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. Italy’s Ministry for Arts and Cultural Heritage granted Tecnografica permission to reproduce these on a monumental scale. By allowing its customers to enjoy such world-renowned images in their homes, the company is helping to democratise art.
Architects and interior designers feature Tecnografica’s wallcoverings in residential and public spaces alike, but it’s in the domestic sphere that demand for its panoramic wallpapers is rising in particular. The company attributes this partly to the recent boom in home-working.
‘The desire to express your personality while talking at home on Zoom and other apps has boosted our designs’ popularity,’ says Stefano Lamberti, the brand’s CEO, who plays a key creative role, too, helping to develop new products.
Metropolis, picturing an axonometric view of a city, is another elegant architectural design
Not that he sees this as merely a phase since other factors are driving this: ‘There’s a greater awareness of our brand now. Architects and designers are drawn to our products as their individuality allows them to put their stamp on their projects.’
Tecnografica’s website is easily navigable and its Wallpapers section features three menus: Collections, which lists 20 ranges; a filter for colours and styles, and another for finishes. One particularly popular finish is called Soundproof, which efficiently absorbs sounds – a boon to those video-conferencing in adjoining rooms or nearby spaces who want to avoid disturbing others.
Another option is the environmentally friendly Natural, made of 100 per cent cellulose-base, which is free of PVC and chemical solvents. Images with this finish lose none of their pin-sharp clarity or vibrant colour.
The charmingly retro, stylised Ki wallcovering illustrates the variety of Tecnografica’s wallpaper range
The wallcoverings can be further personalised as they can be ordered in any colourway and size. Tecnografica also offers a radically bespoke service. ‘Customers can choose to start from scratch, providing us with their own image which we can convert into a wallcovering,’ explains Lamberti. With this level of input, clients feel they’re part of the creative process, and ultimately that they own the design.
With their panoramic vistas of life-size or supersized motifs, Tecnografica’s wallpapers are often immersive and enveloping. Illustrative of this are two domestic projects boasting wallcoverings in contrasting styles.
For a home in Hamburg, interior designer Julia Korzilius picked the extravagantly tropical-themed wallpaper, Polly, picturing a jungle scene of luxuriant blooms and yellow cockatoos that seamlessly lines an entire hallway, including a built-in wardrobe.
On closer inspection, Polly’s intricate, rich details are revealed in all their pin-sharp clarity
Meanwhile, Italian interior designer Federico Lissignoli chose the Ki wallcovering for his bedroom but used it in a different way – as a decorative frieze above a band in the same shade of mushroom. The design pictures a woodland scene in a stylised, mid-century style. In contrast to the room’s minimalist light fixtures, bedding and bedside tables, it has a decorative, retro look that creates a cosy atmosphere.
Tecnografica’s wallcoverings depict a panoply of environments to suit a multitude of personalities who can lose themselves in anything from a sumptuous Renaissance painting to a mysterious, mythical forest. There’s no limit to the worlds they can identify with and inhabit.
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