For this week’s instalment of Design Life we catch up with tex-tile founder Candida Wigan, in the run up to our Making exhibition for The London Design Festival .
Candida, a Chelsea College of Arts/Camberwell College of Arts graduate, founded tex-tile after studying both textiles and architecture. This, alongside her culturally rich upbringing in Portugal led her to create the tex-tile concept as a natural synthesis of this twin heritage. The process involves imprinting textiles onto ceramic tiles, in order to create a unique and individual product – available in an endless array of colours and finishes.
Candida is currently participating in the Design Takeover on the Material Lab Instagram feed, and you can learn more about the process behind tex-tile at our Live Making event here at the studio on 18 September. For now, here is a glimpse into Candida Wigan’s Design Life.
"Silence – to create sensory space that allows ideas to materialise. Inspirational images – as visual aids for the imagination. Materials – these are tactile references that connect the eye to the hand."
"Textiles because of how varied and dynamic they are – they have the ability to be transformed into countless different forms."
"The Adjaye Associates concept store in Lagos, Nigeria. I am a huge admirer of (architect) David Adjaye’s work, and so it was a privilege to be associated with him on the project. Further to this, the process by which we reached the tile designs was extremely rich and intuitive – we used local textile designs, sculptures and Nigerian icons as a starting point for the design. The client and Adjaye were not afraid of taking risks, and in doing so we created an African adaptation of the tex-tile."
"The Lisbon Metropolitan project by Maria Keil, between 1957 and 1972. She had tremendous creative freedom in the process, and succeeded in reinventing the Portuguese tile from its relatively unchanged history. It was a neat marriage of utility and aesthetics – whereby, the train stations needed cheap, durable, and cleanable surfaces, that also served as a means to ‘dress’ the stations."
"Designing tiles for the façade of an old shopping centre in the grand but derelict Martim Moniz square in downtown Lisbon. An installation of the tiles used in the Adjaye Concept Store in Nigeria. And an installation of tiles in a private project in Queensgate, London – we used the Mouraria rope tile to clad an entire internal space."
Meet Candida at our Live Making event on 18 September, as part of our Making exhibition running from 15-26 September. For more information on tex-tile visit the website, and keep an eye on our Instagram feed for Candida’s Design Takeover.
