Extra Moooi: Dutch design brand Moooi is launching a new company called Moooi Carpets with an inaugural collection of photo-realistic designs by Studio Job, Ross Lovegrove, Neri&Hu and more in Milan today (+ slideshow).
Moooi is presenting the new brand and collection within a vast warehouse at Via Savona 56, along with its 2015 collection of furniture and homeware.
The company uses advanced technology to print designs directly onto carpet at a higher definition than has been possible before. Its printing plant can print everything from rugs to full-width fitted carpet and can produce one-off designs.
"It's the reinvention of the carpet," added Moooi CEO Casper Vissers.
The carpets are produced using a giant machine that measures 100 metres long. Its size allows it to print designs up to four metres wide in unlimited colours, without having to change the dye injectors in its Chromojet printer.
"Moooi Carpets opens up new horizons in the design world by introducing a technology that generates extremely high-definition prints, which can even result in photo-realistic flooring solutions," said a statement from the brand.
"This revolutionary machine is the cutting-edge result of a massive investment in terms of money and time," said Moooi. "Several million euros and two years of building and testing have paid off."
The brand's collection is composed of three different families: Signature, Moooi Works and Your Own Design.
"Each family group offers a number of different solutions to meet the many demands of projects and individual taste," Moooi said.
The 48 printed rugs in the Signature range include designs by Moooi co-founder Marcel Wanders, who has used crystal formations to influence a set of kaleidoscopic patterns and geometric graphics.
Similarly, Maison Christian Lacroix used precious stones as motifs on its colourful design called Jewels Garden.
British designer Ross Lovegrove has created a digital-inspired pattern made up of connected pixel-like cubes to cover one carpet and a close-up photograph of seaweed to adorn another.
The hexagonal designs by Belgian artists Studio Job are covered in woven strips with woodgrain details, while the pebble-shaped Scribble rugs by Swedish studio Front look like they have been shaded with coloured pencils.
Shanghai studio Neri&Hu has collaged black and white images of architectural elements in China for its two Remnant designs. The first is overlaid with a grid of red dots, while sections of blue floral patterns similar to those found on Chinese ceramics fill in gaps on the second.
Other designs in the Signature collection were created by Bas Kosters, Bertjan Pot, Broersen en Lukács, Edward van Vliet, Jurgen Bey, Klaus Haapaniemi, Marian Bantjes and Sonya Pletes.
Wanders has also designed five carpets that are woven on a jacquard loom to look like intricate carved stone reliefs.
Customers will be able to customise the size and colours of the carpets using the Moooi Works service, and a selection of the printed rugs will also be available as wall-to-wall layouts for large spaces.
There is also the option to create a bespoke carpet from scratch with the help of the Moooi team with Your Own Design.
"This is just the beginning of a new platform that will lead to the most unique ways of creating, customising and developing flooring solutions," said Moooi.
Dezeen and Moooi launched a year-long collaboration last week with the first in a series of movies about the brand.
Throughout the year we'll be working with Moooi in Milan, New York, London and Amsterdam, getting under the skin of the brand, its products and designers as part of our Extra Moooi collaboration. There'll be movies, interactive slideshows, competitions and more. All the content will be posted at www.dezeen.com/moooi.