The Creative Space: Calvin Pope, Residential Designer at Ulster Carpets

With our material focus for the month being Concrete, we had an interesting Creative Space contribution from Calvin Pope, one of the residential Designers for Ulster Carpets.

Surfaces are a great source of inspiration for designers and conrete is a great one with its varied looks and uses. We asked Calvin about how he was inspired by it for a recent design. Can you tell me about a space or environment that has inspired you recently and why?

Elements of Ulster Carpets’ Fusion range (Fusion Reverb alloy and Fusion Sonic alloy, pictured below) were influenced by patterned cast concrete architecture of the late 1960s.On my daily work journey to the Ulster Carpets residential design studio in Kidderminster I pass a dramatic series of concrete blocks that run parallel to the ring road. This was designed by sculptor William George Mitchell and erected in the early 1970s.

The carved organic feel to these is in stark contrast to the often bland smooth surfaces of modern buildings and creates a refreshing patterned backdrop. These sculptured textural designs still feature in most urban city landscapes and provide large scale design statements. The Fusion range uses muted grey colour to replicate contemporary designs of this era and is a departure from traditional Axminster carpet designs.