Bert & May X Kitesgrove: The Irregular Collection
By Victoria Smith
Sep 20, 2022
In partnership with London-based interior design practice Kitesgrove, we are delighted to introduce Irregular, a new collaborative collection that celebrates our mutual passion for meaningful design, classic craftsmanship and natural materials.
Our Creative Director Ruth Webber and Kitesgrove's Senior Interior Designer Katie Lion
This special new range combines modern lines with a timeless feel, comprising two abstract designs in soft, muted tones from our curated palette of handcrafted colours.
Fragment, in Brighton Stone and Sweet Yellow, features four broken shapes that can be aligned to create one larger fragment, or tessellated in an irregular format to create an organic and fluid pattern of smaller silhouettes, while Quad, in Brighton Stone and Mandarin, features four subtly different designs, each contained within the tile’s border, allowing for a nuanced yet dynamic tessellation.
Both designs offer myriad options for bespoke arrangements and can be repeated or interspersed with plain tiles in the same or complementary colours to intensify or pare back their impact.
While developing the design concept, the Kitesgrove team explored simple mark making, and experimented with different patterns, lines, textures, and shapes. This prompted them to delve into the mark-making process through embossing folds, collage, rips, and fragments.
Katie Lion, Senior Interior Designer at Kitesgrove, explains, “It was very much a process of breaking it down and looking at motifs and ripping and collaging and folding. There's something really quite satisfying about that process, like putting puzzles together and doing origami.
They're quite contemporary and simplistic designs, definitely not traditional, and I think they've got a good balance and can be used in any setting.
It was really nice to keep stripping the design back, and then make it a bit more playful through tessellations and colours.”
When it came to choosing the colour palette, the team considered the ways both designs may potentially be used and selected impactful but easy-living hues to ensure maximum flexibility. “We do work with lots of colour and sometimes it's brighter, but we are very much about making things calm and welcoming,” says Katie. “I think these colours can be used anywhere.”
Bert & May creative Director Ruth Webber comments, “We love the simplicity of the design and colour choices. Mandarin and Sweet Yellow are both from the softer, earthy end of the Bert & May palette, and give the contemporary designs a pared-back look. We think Kitesgrove has created a new Bert & May classic.”
Natural partners
Both designs from the Irregular Collection work well with warm neutrals and natural finishes likes woods and terracottas. Try them with…
To officially mark the launch, we hosted an event at our Chelsea showroom alongside the Kitesgrove team. It was the perfect opportunity to showcase the collection, discuss the inspiration and design process behind it, and get some early verdicts from industry experts…
The tiles are still on display at the showroom and will be for a couple of months, so do call in to see them for yourself! You’ll find us at 48 Lots Road, SW10 0QD.