JARED BECKER, vice president of design, product development, and brand marketing at Walker Zanger
You have a background in art.
Yes, I got my bachelor’s degree in fine arts. Drawing and painting. And a little bit of sculpture. So that definitely influences or helped influence how I approach tile design for sure.
What are the elements of a successful tile?
A lot of it depends on what user needs the tile for, right? You could say that a flat 3X6 subway tile with an opaque glaze on it is not very interesting from a design point of view, but if it serves the purpose of the user then that’s a successful tile. From my point of view, I like to think that a successful tile has some originality to it, some unique element–whether it’s shape, color, surface design, texture–something that makes it different than other products on the market. We take a lot of time to develop new products. As a matter of fact I’ve run into this complaint about how long we take, but we take a lot of time on those particular characteristics. What is the color going to be? What is the surface sheen going to be? Is it going to be a crackle or gloss glaze? If it’s transparent, how transparent? How will the different sizes in that collection fit together? How will they complement each other? So, a collection of tile often for us could have 20 or 30 different elements, including the field tile or decorative pieces and moldings. We have to think a lot about how their going to work together so if the client wants to use them in different ways it is going to end up looking nice.
Are you driven by tradition, the avant garde, or both?
I would say both. The one thing about tile is that it is a relatively permanent product to install. I mean, people do remodel their homes, but they don’t rip out their tile as often as they replace furniture or paint the walls or do other updates. I would say we are informed by tradition, but particularly in the last ten years or so, when we are looking at a traditional product–let’s say, our Tuileries collection, is influenced by neo-classical French design. We are always looking to update or make those traditional patterns practical for today. Let me give you another example, we just came out with a collection called Villa d’Oro, it’s a mosaic and water jet stone collection inspired by a bunch of Mediterranean cultures–Moorish designs, Italian Renaissance, North African–some of those designs are very intricate and very colorful and too much for most people today, in terms of their decorative aspects. When you strip those designs down to some of their basic graphic elements, they take on a more contemporary flavor almost. So mine tradition a lot, but we look at ways to update it, change it, make it applicable to what people are looking for today in terms of design.
Deconstructing the design to its essentials and then building it back up again to see what happens.
That’s our favorite way of working on things right now. Even when we are looking at classic modern or things that are influenced by midcentury design-some people want an reproduction of that exactly, let’s say they’re renovating a midcentury home-a lot of people just want that feeling, and they wouldn’t want an exact reproduction of that, so we approach it to try get the flavor of it, but to give some of today’s design flavor, too.
How much is science a part of the art of tile making?
For ceramic tiles specifically, it’s all science, basically. Chemistry really. And quite complicated chemistry. You are dealing with the variables of the raw materials, which are minerals taken out of the ground and refined to a certain extent, but you’re always going to get variation in those minerals in terms of the percentage of oxide or metal might be in the glaze. Then you are dealing with the variation in the clay itself. You are dealing with the variation in the temperature of the kiln. Even things like the relative humidity in the air at the factory at the time that also affects the outcome. It’s serious science. People who know a lot about tile making have PhDs in ceramic engineering. It’s intensive. There are ceramic enthusiasts, who have learned about it and can make tile, but if you are getting down to the nitty gritty of trying to create a tile that you can also reproduce on a consistent basis in the same color range, then you are talking about pretty complicated chemistry.
What is the most exotic tile you have encountered?
There was a tile that we used to sell that was made in Bali, and the original designs were hand carved in wood by Balinese craftsmen. The local clay mixture was a unique liquid mixture. They would make these trays filled with large beds of volcanic sand from the beaches there, then take the carved master and press it into the black sand and fill the impressions in with the liquid mixture. After it dried they would pull it out and the sand on the face, so when they put the glaze on it and fired it, you would get a really incredibly unique, kind of crusty texture with these very vibrant-colored glazes on top of it. That was probably one of the more interesting ways tiles that I’ve seen.
Are there key histories you draw inspiration from?
I have two real touchstones. One is Moorish culture and what I mean by that is the blending of European and Islamic design that you can find specifically in Spain and Portugal. There is something really beautiful about the Moorish attraction to geometric pattern. Combine that with some European influences and it softens it up a bit, it has a unique organic architectural feel to it that I really appreciate. And the other one I am attracted to is Venetian architecture, especially Venetian Gothic, because it’s combining a couple different influences. You get the Byzantine and Northern Gothic coming together. I like artistic and cultural traditions are a mélange. Right now, I also like classic modern like art deco 20th century, but the more luxurious French art deco that’s not overly designed, that uses high-quality raw materials–woods and metals–that’s something I also draw on a lot for inspiration. But I would say it’s a Mediterranean thing for me in a lot of ways.
You mentioned high-quality raw materials.
Well, Walker Zanger started in the stone business in 1952, so we have always been connected to the stone side of things. We have an office in Carrera Italy where the marble comes from. That office is specifically for the purpose of selecting the best quality white Carerra and Calacatta. We’ve experimented and dabbled in making tile out of metal, glass, cement and other materials. Right now, we are making a high-tech porcelain tile in Italy that looks like wood or fabric or all different kinds of textures because their using digital technology, talking about science again, to control how the glaze is being applied to the porcelain and getting amazing effects out of it.
Microprecision.
Yeah, I mean you go into some of these porcelain factories in Italy and its like an automated car factory, it’s very high tech. Everything is done by computer and machine, but you get a tile out of it that’s really well made and offers opportunity for design. For different applications. You want a shower that looks like its built out of barn wood? Well, you can do it, because the porcelain tile is completely durable, gives you that look, and easy to maintain.
What distinguishes Walker Zanger in the marketplace?
We represent a classic style that is informed by the trends of the time, but not driven by it to the extent that the tile they buy from is going to be out of date in a few years.
What drives you?
My personal drive and passion is the limitless possibilities of being able to create new things. Having at my disposal the technical capacity and creativity of so many different small- and medium-size companies that make tile and stone–all over the world–and being able to say, “This is some new idea we have, let’s make it.” And then seeing that come to fruition and then seeing that end up in somebody’s home is pretty cool.
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