Grcic is similarly renowned for his analytical eye and also deft hand – outcomes of the training as a carpenter before studying industrial design at London’s Royal College of Art. He has created some of that most persuasive designs for mega-brands such as FLOS, B & W Italia, ClassiCon, Magis as well as MUJI over the past two decades.
Soft furnishings contrast beautifully with hard architectural finishes. Courtesy Mutina
He eventually relinquished plans for an all-white tile collection (although, within a post-pandemic moment from sanitation obsession, they may well have been a new hit) in favour of a palette of black, light green, dark eco-friendly, light blue, dark glowing blue, rose and then red with the option of tactile matte or glossy finishes. Oh, and white. All muted hues, what the French call enterré (“buried”), they appear to pay homage to the Architectural Polychromy colour chart devised by means of Le Corbusier within the early 1930s.
“Even though I was reluctant, I really do enjoy the depth and warmth the colours add that will a space, ” says one of the designer, who also has won two prestigious Compasso d’Oro awards (the Oscars from the design world) since founding his studio in Munich in 1999.
Now based in Berlin, he continues to be one concerning the industrial designers – along with France’s Bouroullec brothers Ronan and Erwan, England’s Jasper Conran coupled with Holland’s Hella Jongerius : the design press flock so that you can see at the Milan Furniture Fair each year. Not because they make any most Instagrammable pieces but because they’re the ones the industry looks to with regard to innovative ways with cutting-edge technologies and therefore new typologies, the types who push the aesthetic agenda forward in terms of which go way beyond mere style.
“I wasn’t trying to reinvent the ceramic tile, ” says Grcic of his or her collaboration together with Mutina. “It’s already a beautiful piece of industrial craft, so we respected that base and focused on enhancing its intrinsic qualities; slightly adjusting length, height and thus depth, refining the glaze finishes ~ even around the edges. All of those things that most people won’t notice, yet we believe make the difference.
“The best outcome we can hope for is that people see the tiles and just think, nice ceramic tiles. ”
Mission accomplished.
Need to know
Mutina ceramic tiles are available through Artedomus showrooms inside Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne combined with Perth.
