Walpole: Please tell us a bit more about your role at Cole & Son...
Marie Karlsson: I have a background in art and the interior design industry, and I have been in my current position at Cole & Son for close to five years. As the Creative & Managing Director, I have a multidisciplinary role where I am driven by my passion of art and craft. I am beyond proud to be leading a luxury British design house, strengthening its lead in the global luxury market together with my amazing team.
What was your inspiration for the design of the cover of this year’s Walpole Book of British Luxury?
After receiving Walpole’s brief, I knew there were elements I was very keen to include in this year’s cover. My team and I interpreted the cover from an existing hand-painted toile de Jouy design, adapting one of our design house classics. Providing a nod to the UK through various fauna from across the country, it was important to the team to represent local endangered wildlife in this whimsical design. We nestled select animals such as the red squirrel and the natterjack toad in the scenery amongst other hidden treasures. We wanted to bring the cover some of that beautiful, magical English quirkiness.
Were there any design challenges that you had to overcome to realise your vision?
Designing can take many forms and, initially, finding one idea to hone-in and develop was the main challenge. From the initial brief, our creativity took flight and we were proud to have several strong concepts to evolve.
What’s your favourite element on the cover and why?
The final design is such a wonderful scene with many beautiful elements, so it’s difficult to select one favourite. However, the graceful peacock holds a special place for Cole & Son as this is a motif that has feartured on a number of our most-loved designs throughout our history.
What has been a real design highlight of your time at the company?
Working with our design partners Fornasetti and Ardmore is always a joy – it's a real pleasure to be able to work with these two art ateliers to create stunning collaborative designs. Another more recent partner I was excited to collaborate with was Stella McCartney on our 'Funghi Forest' wallpaper as this partnership married perfectly with Cole & Son’s goals to drive sustainability innovation within the world of interiors.
Of course, it was also an honour to be asked to be included in the upcoming House of Walpole: a luxury apartment bringing together the best of British craftsmanship in one extraordinary home, a stone’s throw away from one of the world's most iconic homes: Buckingham Palace.
Inspiration often strikes in mysterious places. What unexpected thing, place or person has inspired your work and why?
Travelling and meeting new people inspires me every day, and London is always in my heart with its captivating atmosphere. A truly beautiful and inspiring place is the Cole & Son archive, it’s just an endless source of inspiration when you live and breath art and history. When I'm in the archives, I’m always looking out for two things. Firstly, I observe the beautiful designs and authentic carved blocks, colour, patterns, textures and symbols. Secondly, I love to imagine and think about stories of how the design has touched our lives - everywhere from luxury interior settings to a sophisticated dressing room somewhere in the world.
And finally, what makes British luxury “British”?
Heritage, style, elegance, innovation and creativity and made in Britain. Quality, craftmanship in excellence are also some key elements that I believe are synonymous with British luxury. At Cole & Son, we take pride in producing quality products in-house with best-in-class artistic design and hand-painted technics. These are the key qualities that we keep at the forefront of every design we create.
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