Sometimes designers take on problems that are very, very big, and sometimes designers take on problems that are very, very small. When I saw Stamp Rugs, which are designed, very simply, to resemble Royal Mail postage stamps commemorating Queen Elizabeth II, I couldn’t help but feel that the brand’s designers had done something small just right. They took one idea and executed it perfectly.
These candy-colored rugs, lining the walls of a small booth at the AD Home Design Show, lit up the place. Unlike a lot of the other goods being peddled there, high-tech and high-minded luxury goods, the rugs were lighthearted. Their blooming colors mirrored the lovely, unexpected, spring weather that had just arrived in the city. It takes just an instant to see the rugs and “get it” and yet they’re not kitsch. They’re hand-woven from wool and have rich textures and irregularities that come to life as you look at them closely. In their absolute clarity of intention – making rugs that reproduce postage stamps featuring the Queen of England – the rugs honor that lady perfectly.