For children’s bathrooms, kids of all ages will enjoy “Piep!,” a new tile series with green, orange, yellow and blue birds that tug, swing and hop on wire in Piep!’s playful scenes. White, matted field tiles provide a playground for the brightly colored animal drawings and add a youthful embellishment to the bathroom’s overall design.
Similarly, the “Janosch” series and “Little Artists” series depict cartoon animals against a white background. For older children, Steuler has a line of “Blue Jean” tiles mimicking the pockets, belts and button holes found on your favorite pair of blue jeans.
The next tile series is not necessarily appropriate for children’s bathrooms, but I can’t help but mention this one-of-a-kind tile series that has recently peaked my interest. Though they have not made their mark in the U.S. with this tile series, Steuler presents a series of “Ass Tiles.”
The main pattern consists of — you guessed it — a grainy, photographic presentation of a naked bottom on a square, 15 x 15 cm tile. It is based on a design by Alessandra Carlotta Alessi Anghini. According to Steuler, the designer, who was born in Milan, used photography to pick up aspects and fractions of our environment and confront the observer with greatly magnified, and thus alienated, images. In this way, she forces us to reflect on old and conventional ways of looking at things.
The creative team at Steuler will continue to design everything from yo-yo printed tiles to kitty romance tiles, as long as there is a market for light-hearted, adventurous home designs.
Carie Schelfhaudt works as public relations coordinator for Communicators International, Inc., a marketing communications firm in the heart of the Old Port, where she helps numerous clients in the tile and stone industries. She can be contacted at cshelfhaudt@yahoo.com.