The decision to collaborate for the Dwell Patterns collection was born when husband and wife team Catherine Bailey and Robin Petravic of Heath Ceramics and Lara Hedberg Deam, founder of Dwell Media, and her husband, achitect Chris Deam, shared a table at last year's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards White House luncheon.
Both companies are based in northern California and both are committed to making design an integral part of what they do. Dwell Patterns celebrates the belief that modern design is collaborative and holistic, hard and soft, deliberate and organic.
The collectionis comprised of three tile shapes, half hex, wide hex, and little diamond, which give rise to many combinations of layout, pattern and color possibilities. As explained by Heath’s Creative Director, Cathy Bailey, “there’s handcrafted warmth even within a very modern design.”
Of the initial ideas for the collaboration, Deam explained, “Dwell comes from a more architectural perspective, and Robin and Cathy from that of a product perspective, but there’s such a sympathy between the two that it was very easy. We were both trying to see where these disciplines of architecture and product designed overlapped. Architectural tile seemed to be that place.”
“These designs are more expressive but still highly functional,” said Bailey. The tiles are two-dimensional, yet in combination, imply a three-dimensional presence and perform as an integral element of the whole design, not just as a decorative counterpart. The tiles are very much in line with Heath, a company that has been making trend-resistant tableware and tile for over a half-century.
“Dwell has always believed that modern design is the best tool for people to express their ideas,” says Cathy Bailey. “That belief really ties into these tile systems. We’re giving people a tool to create something unique and beautiful.”
The Dwell on Design show at the Los Angeles convention center June 25-27 will be the first display of the tile line. The line will be available as of August 1, 2010 and only directly through Heath Ceramics. Prices range from $20-$40sf.
