Dezeen promotion: ceramics brand Mirage has collaborated with Studio Job to design a range of brightly hued floor tiles influenced by the pop art movement.
The collection is called Pop Job and features tiles that give the appearance of wooden flooring. Mirage, which produces porcelain stoneware in Italy, teamed up with Belgian duo Studio Job to find alternative ways of working with ceramics.
"While visiting Mirage I noticed there was little relief and depth in some of their collection...but it gave me an idea," said Studio Job co-founder, Nynke Tynagel. "A transparent enamel coating on top of embossed tiles would create a smooth floor, while also giving a sense of depth."
Tynagel and the studio's other founder, Job Smeets, decided to amplify the natural pattern created by wood grain, printing it onto tiles in contrasting tones to create a three-dimensional effect.
A thick layer of crystalline glass is then added to each tile as part of Mirage's "twin-surface" production technique, which results in a shiny finish that heightens colour pigmentation.
"We approached the wood structure in a more graphic way, exaggerating it and making a pop-like parquet with bright colours, nothing like reality," added Tynagel.
Studio Job has applied this maximalist aesthetic to several of their design collaborations.
Previously the duo has teamed up with Italian brand Seletti to create furniture shaped like fast food fast, and with another Italian brand, Bisazza, to produce a range of spooky tiles emblazoned with animal skeletons.
Available in pink, blue and green, the bold shades of the Mirage tiles are a nod to the colour palette of the pop-art movement, from which the collection takes its name. They can also be purchased in more neutral tones of beige, white, grey and black.
Mirage is an Italian stoneware company that has been producing porcelain flooring and wall coverings for over four decades. Its joint collection with Studio Job will be shown at booth D235 at this year's 100% Design event, taking place 20 to 23 September 2017 at the Olympia venue in London's Kensington.