For the Bruxelles Design September Event, the Belgian initiative 'De Invasie' (the Invasion) organized a Color expo in coorperation with the La Fabrika design shop in the trendy Danseart quarter of Bruxelles. This expo can be visited throughout september. The Invasie supports independent creatives by offering a platform for them to showcase and sell their work. Asking some of their so-called 'strijders' (warriors) to create the expo, Studio Woot Woot, Jeffry van Hille, Eric Guen and Ilse Acke worked together to combine their different works into one cohesive expo with colors. Having met Ilse Acke at the opening in Bruxelles, she explained to us how the expo came about, and told us about her relationship to colors.
Color is a very broad topic and they needed to create a framework from which each designer could create something independently for interiors. Having a graphic design background, the 'warriors' choose to use the CMYK colors (a color system used by graphic designers) as a base to individually create specific works for the exhibit. All interior works, Ilse was faced with a new challenge as works for interior is new for her.
Ilse is very comfortable with colors. Naturally attracted to bright colors, she works intuitively to create combinations that surpise, at times trying to touch the boundaries of harmony. Similar to what many painters would do. In a gray piece for example, there could be strands of yellow or orange that you don't conciously notice until you have a closer look at the threads of textile.
There are many different textiles with all sorts of textures. The added challenge here is finding the combination of textile and color that work best as one color can look quite different on different sorts of textile. There's a game that needs to be played, and Ilse's succes is based not so much on the application of learned theory, but talent and spontanaity.
