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Home > Interview - Thomas Paul
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July 19th, 2008
Q & A With Designer Thomas Paul
DM & India
When some of the staff at Domestic Modern and India from Apartment 528 sat down with Thomas Paul (who’s fantastic collection of modern rugs are sold here!) we got some great insight into his inspiration behind his line;
How would you best describe your style of your rugs? Usually my designs are categorized under modern or contemporary, but I see what I do more along the lines of traditional, but with a twist. Many of the design elements I use are very classic and traditional, but I give them new life with a different scale or updated colors.
Will we see you hosting any design shows in the near future? I never say never, but I really treasure my privacy and the ability to walk around New York anonymously. Television is a really powereful medium and once you go there, you can never go back. I always said that I wanted a famous name, but not necessarily a famous face.
Your line of rugs has obviously been very successful thus far.Which rugs are your personal favorites and what was your inspiration behind those pieces? Probably the Lovebirds and the Robin. These bird images were really successful in melamine, so they naturally were expanded into other categories, but I like them best as rugs because they are huge in an 8'x11' size. I have the Robin rug in this size in my own apartment.
How do you go about selecting fabrics and colors for your collections? Well, I don't select fabrics, all of my textiles are designed by myself and printed just for me, so they are not open line fabrics that I just buy to use for my pillows. In terms of design inspiration and color, it works in different ways. I usually see something that sparks an idea-it could be at the flea market, or from a museum, or even in a store. Whatever that spark of inspiration is, there is usually a lot of research that comes after the fact. For example, my newest pillow collection features some insect designs. Once I had this idea to do insects, I searched books, prints, paintings, natural history museums, wherever to find the right insects that I liked and to just take inspiration from these different insects. In the end the final design is just a big mix up of all of these different images that I have seen, but the final work never really literally looks like anything I have seen. Any design I do is probably 90% research and only 10% of actual time sitting down and putting the design to paper, or in my case computer screen.
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