At 100% Design London: Noodle’s Digital Wall Coverings and Lampshades

When I was about eight years old, my parents bestowed upon my oldest brother the estimable honor of giving him his very own room. Admittedly, it was in our recently finished basement, which, lover of air and light that I was, disqualified it for me. Even so, it was an enviable space for a kid.

Digital wall coverings and lampshades. Designed and manufactured by Noodle.

But the kicker was that they let him choose his own wallcoverings; thus, my ten year old brother’s nifty pad was clad floor to ceiling in an oversized, hyper-real forest plateau, the effect being somewhat like that of the bedroom scene in Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits, wherein the protagonist discovers that if he pushes hard enough on his wall it just might slide out into the great outdoors, or, as it turned out, into the cavernous darkness of the greater cosmos. But, wow!, was my brother’s wallpaper cool. To my neophyte’s eyes, entering his room invited a stroll among gigantic maples and towering elms; you could almost feel the dampness of the October breeze as it lifted the carpet of golden autumn leaves and twirled them around your feet.

At 100% Design London: Noodle’s Digital Wall Coverings and Lampshades

At 100% Design London: Noodle’s Digital Wall Coverings and Lampshades

At 100% Design London: Noodle’s Digital Wall Coverings and Lampshades

Memory paints a pretty picture, indeed. I’m sure if I could transport back to 1977 the effect would be somewhat diminished, to put it mildly. But back to 2008 and the recently concluded 100% Design exhibition in the great city of London, UK, where one of the showstoppers of late September was Noodle‘s collection of digital wall coverings, lampshades, and window blinds. For me, the concept does re-visit the era when 60’s psychedellica morphed into disco funk: shine a light through any geometrically complex and vibrantly colored surface and you immediately evoke the age of lava lamps. But Noodle’s collection goes beyond such simplistic fare, to be sure. Yes, among the 100 + designs to choose from, botanical prints are writ large, but this is botany for grown ups-a Japanese bamboo forest, the stalks so real you half expect Chow Yun Fat to emerge from the bowers; an intertwined network of maple leaves in ruby red; the magnificence of a silver birch forest in autumn. And enough flowers to fill a concert hall: delphiniums, iris, a carpet of bluebells… either au natural or in kaleidoscopic patterns (the 70s don’t stay down for long).

But really this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Other designs include colorful computerized “extrusions” that evoke both our current technology as well as the burgeoning age of “Pong” and “Asteroids,” as well as larger landscapes like the precipitous snowfield of “Chamonix” or the limitless ocean expanse of “Hove Beach.” But the best is for last: Noodle can reproduce any image you provide at up to 100 cm wide and “any length.” This means, if you should so desire, outfitting your 30 ft. high wall with images of your pet or pets (my wife might make this choice, did we have the wherewithal and the ceiling height); or with images of your favorite athlete or film. But these are pedestrian examples to be sure. Best to leave it up to the innovators of design to incorporate Noodle’s technology into new eye-popping schemes.

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