I find the design format of the Industry wallpaper particularly appealing. The pattern’s symmetry creates a nice sense of balance, while the monochrome gray colorway with equally spaced elements makes for a nice visual flow. Following all reason these factors should create a calm, neutral background. But when you start identifying individual elements such as the gas masks, dense clouds of smog, and weapons of mass destruction, you have to take a step back and say, whoa! Industry is a dense pattern with a trompe l’oeil effect created by the use of shadows on the overlapping shapes. Industry mixes images of industrialization alongside those of mass destruction, so transmission towers, factories and gears are interspersed with bombs, gas masks, and containers of toxic waste. Studio Job sees this as a commentary on the twenty-first century, where industrialism initially leads to progress and wealth but can ultimately lead to mass-destruction. While the symmetry and monochrome colorway help soften the design, the imagery of cooling towers, pollution, and weapons of mass destruction impart a dire, doomsday feeling, which goes against the expected connotation of wallpaper.
This wallpaper is part of a collection called Archives Wallpaper as each of the patterns was culled from past works created by Studio Job. The Industry pattern was originally created for the Industry Series, a collection of inlaid furniture introduced at Carpenters Workshop Gallery in London, 2010. The furniture was made of Indian rose wood inlaid with maple silhouettes. After transforming the design to create this thirty foot non-repeating wallpaper design, this theme was again reworked by Studio Job to create cast iron garden furniture for Seletti. While keeping the traditional chair form with cabriole legs they swapped the typical Victorian frills on the back and seat with their trademark silhouette forms.
