19th October 2020 | IN PRODUCT NEWS | BY SBID Share Tweet Pinterest LinkedIn While the world spent the past six months figuring out how to cope with COVID-19’s “new reality,” TSAR Carpets’ Melbourne-based Head Designer, Ross Cleland, channelled his creative exploration into a series of soothing and biophilic floor covering designs. For its new Fall 2020 product launch, TSAR is pleased to release The Retreat Collection – available exclusively at the company’s studios in Melbourne, Sydney, New York, London, and Shanghai. “The word ‘retreat’ connotes withdrawal and seclusion from it all,” said Cleland. “I found my retreat in the countryside with my family to be quite the opposite. The river next to our house was the source of my renewed artistic vigour despite everything that’s going on in the world – and challenged me to try out new colours, patterns, and techniques. The end results are carpet designs flowing with positive, wholesome energy. I am so proud to introduce The Retreat Collection of Axminster carpet designs to the world, especially during these precarious collective circumstances in which we find ourselves.” The Retreat Collection started out as an investigation of fluid mechanics in the art studio—a sort of trial-and-error experiment with inks on paper and air propulsion from a hand dryer. Cleland played with particular blues and greys, and then added more vibrant colours such as reds, yellows, purples, and greens. He ended up with a series of free-flowing textures that give the collection a freeform, unstructured quality. Using natural bodies of water as an inspiration and art as the means, Cleland transcended two-dimensional surfaces into modern architectural complements. While the Retreat Collection’s design vocabulary was initially developed in a series of hand-crafted moments within the artist’s studio, TSAR’s Retreat Collection distils moments of serendipitous ephemerality into a range of carpet designs that are balanced with a marked timelessness and a purposeful approach. Leveraging TSAR’s vertically integrated manufacturing, TSAR realised Cleland’s vision into an Axminster carpet collection to be applied to a variety of interior design programmes and architectural sequences. Framed around the concept of the future of hospitality design and suitable for a wide variety of interior applications, TSAR’s Retreat Axminster carpets add visual movement and flow underfoot. By using interchangeable colours, each design can take on a new meaning and purpose, responsive to the architecture and bespoke to its interior context. Designs can be applied with individual room placement or as continuous patterned carpet. Specification, colours, and image scale can also be customised to suit any project scheme. Standard Axminster carpet appearance is traditionally plain cut pile—which means manufacturers would usually need to simulate the pattern’s visual depth—by using trompé-l’oeil effects. TSAR has innovated three proprietary techniques to deliver custom, large-scale carpet and rug designs that allow for true depth and a hand-tufted feel while maintaining the value-driven price point of large-area Axminster carpet applications. Carving This is a process of hand-shearing areas of the carpet’s pile in order to create textures around woven design elements. This particular technique transforming one-dimensional perspectives to patterns that draws the eye across the carpet with ridges and valleys, enhancing and highlighting areas of flat designs woven in Axminster. Raised Kristal Pile Available as limited quantities, this technique brings lustre to the carpet, which is otherwise not possible in Axminster production. Again adding depth and dimension, but also elevating the product for a lusher, more textural and hand-tufted outcome. Loop Pile Using small quantities of loop pile in TSAR’s Axminster designs means that the visual can be broken up, and stop the eye from scanning the floor plan with no pause point. About the Author TSAR Carpets is a Melbourne-based design brand with over 30 years of expertise in the manufacturing of luxury custom carpets and rugs. A family-owned business founded by David and Kerrie Sharpley, it is now a global company recognised for its passion for textiles and its profound knowledge of the hand-tufted technique. TSAR delivers bespoke floor coverings for high-end residential, hospitality, and commercial environments worldwide. If you’d like to become SBID Accredited, click here to find out more.