The Rug Company

Tom Dixon for The Rug Company London Design Festival 2009

The Rug Company, the leading name for handmade contemporary rug design, will launch a new four-piece collection by British maverick of design Tom Dixon at the London Design Festival.

The bold graphic forms and unexpected colour combinations of the rugs Beam, Tube, Step and Tile are inspired by the iconic TV test card, which used to appear regularly at the start or finish of television transmissions. Each design takes as its central theme the careful repetition of a strong, basic graphical shape - a circle, triangle, square or diamond – which is transformed by the varying colour spectrum into a developed pattern. The rugs are unified by the confident use of the colour black as a backdrop for Dixon’s unusual yet precise colour palettes.

The Rug Company will exhibit the rug collection in a pop-up tented installation at The Dock, a new creative hub curated by Tom Dixon off Ladbroke Grove, during London Design Festival. The Rug Company will encourage visitors to experience the luxurious quality of its pieces, inviting them to relax on the rugs as well as 30 floor cushions of the Beam and Tile designs specially commissioned for LDF, and enjoy first hand the textures, patterns, colours and craftsmanship of the pieces.

In keeping with The Rug Company’s philosophy, the collaboration marries exceptional quality and traditional craftsmanship with the best contemporary design.

Tom Dixon remarks, ‘Working as we often do on the computer screen, it’s impossible to predict the effect of light and shade on the pile. The fact that wool is a natural material and ‘softens’ the design is likewise very difficult to anticipate – the great thing about it is the joy and surprise of unrolling the samples for the first time and seeing your idea, which you have previously seen in a 15 inch pixellated screen format transformed into a massive, luminous, soft plane of colour.’