Colour Me In - Scholten&Baijings

BY LAURA HOUSELEY

Colour and pattern is much more than mere decoration in Stefan Scholten and Carole Baijings design; it is integral.

Colour and pattern is much more than mere decoration in Stefan Scholten and Carole Baijings design; it is integral. And how rarely we get to say that in product design. In just a few years Scholten&Baijings have created a body of work that is instantly recognisable, through the application of a signature palette and attitude to motif.

In textile, on wood, in glass, woven, screen-printed or painted, Scholten&Baijings’ colour is at once both soft and hard; neon and pastels are frequently played off against each other. The convergence of feminine and masculine attributes in their work is something Carole and Stefan acknowledge and credit. Importantly, colour is never used at the expense of form or materiality, rather all these elements coexist happily in their covetable designs.

At the very least, Scholten&Baijings are responsible for elevating colour to a point where it plays a key role in product design, rather than being a sorry afterthought. Scholten&Baijings approach to colour was the subject of a recent exhibition at the Stedelijk museum in Amsterdam, chronicled in a publication ‘Blush – Design In Full Colour’.