Flotex FR created by
September 2023
TRANSPRESS
Forbo Flooring's designer ranges are a result of fruitful collaborations with world-renowned designers, bringing together creative minds from across the globe. With Flotex FR flocked flooring, we offer an exceptional canvas for vibrant and captivating graphic designs. Utilizing cutting-edge digital printing technology, we breathe fresh life into our captivating patterns, which are meticulously crafted by our dedicated design team in partnership with talented designers.
The illustrious roster of designers who have lent their expertise to Forbo Flooring includes the likes of Tibor Reich, Phillipe Starck, Ettore Sottsass, José Medina Galeote and Mac Stopa.
Together, they have infused their unique artistic sensibilities into the creation of stunning Flotex FR flooring designs. Each designer brings their distinct preferences and style, resulting in a diverse range of designer brands, each with its own extraordinary characteristics.
Tibor
Pioneering textile designer Tibor Reich - creator of Tibor - was one of the most prominent figures in the British post-war textile industry. Although his striking patterns date from the 1950s, they could have been designed yesterday.
Forbo Flooring has teamed up with this British design legend to create an exciting new flooring range. Most of the designs selected by Forbo are from Tibor’s ground-breaking Fotexur collection, launched in 1957, winner of the Council of Industrial Design’s inaugural Design Centre Award.
Had he been alive today, Tibor would have relished working with Forbo. Thankfully his creativity lives on through his internationally recognized archives, housed at the Victoria & Albert Museum and University of Leeds International Textile Archive.
Flotex FR provides the perfect medium for Tibor’s dynamic graphic designs. The cutting-edge technology of digital printing gives a new lease of life to his arresting patterns.
Starck
Forbo Flooring Systems collaborated with visionary creator Philippe Starck in designing a highly innovative collection of floor covering systems: Flotex FR by Starck. Using a high-definition digital printing technique with the dense fibre surface of Flotex FR, Starck’s collection features unique patterns. By playing on scale and transition, each of the 3 systems challenges tradition and creates a new language in the perception of interior spaces and floor covering design.
The many colour options and different combinations of the 3 systems make Flotex FR by Starck highly adaptable to every location and project.
The pattern of each full design system stretches 10 metres in width, made up of 4 different components; a central design, a left and a right transitional design and a semi-plain texture design that features a variety of accent colours. Each component spans 2 metres in width. With the design system, it is possible to play with different combinations.
Sottsass
Flotex FR by Sottsass is the result of a creative collaboration between Forbo Flooring and the Italian design studio Sottsass Associati. The late Ettore Sottsass and his partner and head of studio Christopher Redfern have together created the 3 designs that comprise this Flotex FR collection. It is manufactured using specially developed digital print technologies which have set a new benchmark for rendering high-quality images onto textile.
The collection compromises 3 designs: Terrazzo, Wool and Bacteria. The designs feature irregular, apparently random and organic forms, and the “optical” feature to play with scale, an aspect which is especially relevant to flooring, where the dynamics of perspective are constantly at work.
A unique floor covering like Flotex FR offers an opportunity for creative designers as within Sottsass Associati. Thanks to the ease of printing, almost every design is possible. This gave Ettore Sottsass and Christopher Redfern the freedom to use their creativity and let art do the talking.
Galeote
The collaboration of José Medina Galeote and the design teams of Forbo Flooring Systems gave birth to an unique collection of flooring in which the artists’ creations are given a new dimension through the medium of flooring. By bringing his works of art right under our feet, José Medina Galeote explores new perspectives on various textures, such as textile and vinyl flooring. Thanks to high definition printing techniques, Forbo Flooring Systems can bring the creations of José Medina Galeote to life on any floor.
José Medina Galeote is an artist who uses painting and other techniques to reflect on the creative process. In his work he first establishes themes sometimes stimulating, sometimes provoking, in which the roles of artist and spectator are interchangeable.
In his deep reflection on art in general and on painting in particular, José Medina Galeote undertakes an optical experimentation building a particular aesthetic which distinguishes it, both stylistically and in terms of the ideas it carries. Within his work there are clear references to the minimal and conceptual art of the sixties as he raises the question of the very concept of representation reality.
Stopa
Mac Stopa is an award-winning architect and designer whose work spans several design disciplines: architecture, interior design, industrial design, art, graphic design and fashion. He is founder of Massive Design, an architectural design firm specialising in corporate interiors.
The Created by Mac Stopa collection is based on the idea of architectural modularity and the desire to organize the space around us in an architectural way. This is realised through the use of repetitive geometric forms, such as hexagons, trapezoids or braided structures, which form the base of the collection. Mac Stopa’s experience in interior design has inspired him to combine these structures with the textures of classic interior materials such as wood, fabrics, metal and leather.
This Created by collection is inspired by Mac Stopa's experiences, observations and fascinations in various fields of design. In collaboration with Forbo Flooring, his ideas were visualised using high-definition printing techniques. Each floor gives its own unique characteristics to the imagery of Mac Stopa.
“As a designer of industrial forms, I am fascinated by organic structures but also new technologies related to 3D printing. By combining these elements with the geometric shapes, the designs I have created achieve a quality of softness and three-dimensionality.”
Mac Stopa
Red Dot Award for Material and Surface Design 2023
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