Product designers design products. Color isn’t really important in a product design education. It that sense, it’s good Liz Eeuwes, founder of Studio Eeuwes, started with a fine arts training where color is important. After all, where would art be without color? Liz realised how many are affected by colors and was already sensitive to them herself.
So what about these rugs she designed? She came up with the idea when travelling and flying over the vast landscapes. Seeing the patterns from the sky inspired her to make the Terre des Hommes rug series featured here. To her, design is about the joyfulness of life. So you can imagine her surprise when, at her first exhibit in London, she found that children, not adults were the first to recognise the patterns as landscapes. The more abstract the designs get however, the more difficult it gets to recognise the landscape patterns. Terre des Hommes is her most abstract serie yet.
Her rugs aren’t made to just sit there and look nice. They have to be used. This does affect the colors you can use. A completely white rug is going to get dirty if it’s lying in the entrance hall of your home. Even more so if you also have some kids running around. The materials have to be washable, and the color of dirt and other mess can’t be allowed to ruin the rugs’ look. The colors also aren’t necessarily accurate depictions of a landscapes original color in the Terre des Hommes series. As said, it’s more abstract than earlier series where Liz did make an effort to recreate the original colors. Her colors have now become bolder, more pop-arty. Each color is dyed separately, so you can imagine how much work it can be just to get the wool in the correct colors. The weaving takes up to 16 weeks. Making a rug from design to final product can then take up to 18 months in some cases. It helps to work with professional weavers then. They have more hands-on knowledge on what will and will not work in terms of look or amount of colors that can be combined. Rug collectors will look at the variations of color as a sign of craftsmanship, so it is important to her to get this right. Working with professionals helps to get things right as they have more control over the process.
