TILE maker Feruni recently collaborated with designer Lisette Scheers of fashion house Nala Designs on a collection that unifies tiling innovation and craftmanship with artisanal hand-drawn illustrations to create a wall surface design for interior spaces.
The Mandi Bunga collection is a feast for the eyes with its captivating floral-inspired patterns featuring subtle three-dimensional textures.
Scheers, a Kuala Lumpur-based Dutch designer and founder of Nala Designs, loves art and the Malaysian heritage – two elements that has become the defining aesthetic of her lifestyle brand.
Pattern royalty
Known as the “Queen of Patterns”, Scheers specialises in pattern design, where each hand-illustrated creations draw inspiration from the diversity of Asian culture and heritage that translates to various medium like fabrics, wallpaper, clothing, accessories and homeware.
“I draw every single element of my designs by hand while the computer is merely a tool to construct the pattern,” Scheers revealed.
She adopted the same approach for the Mandi Bunga collection, where she desconstructed the flowers, drew all parts individually, and reconstructed them again.
“I wanted to make the flowers carry some graphic elements to spark the imagination.”
The design process for the Mandi Bunga collection began with a visit to a fruit orchard to discover flowers of fruit trees that are primarily indigenous to Malaysia and Southeast Asia.
Scheers envisioned the Mandi Bunga collection as a versatile and timeless tile pattern that delivers a touch of beauty in any application.
She hoped the collection would deliver happiness to those who experience it, just like her experience in bringing her ideas to fruition.
“Whenever I design something, I put my heart and soul into it. I hope that when people look at the Mandi Bunga designs, they will feel the same energy from it.
“If you stand under a fruit tree, the flowers drop and you’ll have this beautiful floral carpet. For me, whether the tiles is on the wall or on the floor, the collection makes you feel like you’re surrounded by flowers in your space,” she explained.
Mandi Bunga collection
The Mandi Bunga collection takes inspiration from Malaysian flowering trees, showcasing 15 types of indigenous fruits from the country, such as rambutan, durian, mangosteen, starfruit, longan and custard apple, among others.
Mandi bunga translates to floral bath, a traditional ritual in the Malay culture to cleanse and promote general well-being.
Similarly, the design of this collection is created to spark happiness and inspiration with varied floral patterns in a space.
Scheers believes that flowering trees hold a special meaning – to bring beauty to the land. The Mandi Bunga collection recreates this natural scenery on wall surfaces and surrounds the space in a beautiful setting.
The collection features four variations in an exquisite blend of colours derived from the fruit flowers to complement the organic hand-drawn patterns. From the romantic blush of durian flowers to the bold hues of jacaranda blooms to the soft pastels of water apple flowers, this collection is a masterpiece of colours.
The collection is realised on a large format porcelain surface as a medium for this pictorial language and applies the innovative third-firing production process to bring to life the exquisite hand-drawn floral patterns, the tactile properties and the three-dimensional effects of the tile surface.
Pushing boundaries
Feruni’s collaboration with Scheers is part of “The Art and The Artist” – a collaborative platform by Feruni with artist from different creative disciplines to create art and beauty that inspires, as the tile maker challenges itself to push the boundaries of creativity.
Besides Scheers, Feruni has also teamed up with Valhalla Garage to suit up a Porsche 911 with an armour of tiles. This project, called The Art 911, was carried out by Studio Feruni using a spread of tiles to cover the Porsche 911.
These partnerships with designers come as Feruni refreshes its brand, concurrently revealing its largest collection of 175 tile designs. As part of the rebranding, Feruni’s new vision is to be the world’s most disruptive tile maker and designer that transforms living and working spaces, in line with the brand’s new tagline “Where Every Tile Is A Work of Art”.
Feruni CEO Datuk Ngei Chee Chau said its journey has been guided by its determination to do things differently and bring about transformation in Malaysia’s tile industry. Feruni’s ethos is simple, which is to bring art, beauty and inspiration into everything it does.
