About our Collections
If you ever wonder how we choose our funny Mid Century Style Shop collection names, here's a little insight...
Astroids
RETRO STARS IN A COSMIC PATTERN |
Here's a word that sounds very Mid Century with its galactic feel. Actually, this little diamond shape is really called an “Astroid” (It's not perfectly the same but it's close enough!).
BingoStars
A REVIVAL DESIGN FROM THE SIXTIES |
We've all seen a version of this design here and there when shopping for Mid Century stuff. I just couldn't go without it. The circle reminded me of the old bingo chips that were eventually replaced with ink stampers. The little star in the middle completed the idea for the name. Design-wise, it's the same as "Astroids" but using the outer shapes instead of the center star with a larger pattern.
Eclipse
ALIGNMENT OF THE PLANETS |
Here's a fun story... In building this store, I had to order samples to make sure colours would come out as expected. Instead of ordering a useless and boring multicolour swatches test product, I worked on a design that would include all of the 50 colours palette that I specially created for my products. A good friend looked at it and said out loud “Wow, it looks like a series of stills taken from a moon eclipse, like in the old days”. And that's how this design and it's name were born!
FlowerPower
LATE SIXTIES PEACEFUL REVOLUTION |
Coming back from a Sunday breakfast with friends, waiting in a subway station to get home, I was struck by the beautiful mid-century tile flooring. I took a picture, posted it on Instagram and knew that those orange circles would be a great inspiration for a new collection. The next day, I was already creating different patterns from it. Since I always wanted to tackle a flowery design, either with daisies or lilies from the sixties, the circled shapes quickly turned out as a mix of the two. And that's how Flower Power came to life!
LoverLeaf
THE MANY COLOURS OF LOVE |
A cloverleaf design derived from those funky sixties tiles and wallpapers with psychic neon glow circles in bold colours. Originally named CleverLeaf, an accidental heart shape appeared during the final stage of design. That's what gave it it's full meaning and final name.
LozAnges
LOS ANGELES MEETS LOZENGES |
Remember the chic style of the 1960s Hollywood hotels? Gorgeous lounges, mixed brass and silver chandeliers, low-profile curved sofas, and magnificent fabrics. This is where the inspiration came from for this beautiful mid century modern pattern of colourful triangles. Los Angeles meets lozenges. I present you the “LozAnges” collection.
PanAmTrays
FROM AVIATION FOOD TO TV DINNERS |
You might not know this but TV Dinners got their eureka moment thanks to the way the airline industry used to serve food in little containers organized on trays. After designing those cute interlacing squares in the same spirit, I thought it would be sweet to honour the golden age of flying.
PolaRise
RISE OF THE POLAR STAR |
When I was a kid, my grandma always put me in charge of the multiple vintage Christmas decorations. There was this beautiful star on top of the tree, chiseled and sparkling. It was always the very last thing to install, as a special reward. Years later, I'm working on a star-based design rising from the background in 3D, and that's when I realized it reminded me of my childhood's star also called North Star or Polar Star.
PsychoFlakes
HITCHCOCK PRESENTS SNOWFLAKES |
This funky collection with an hallucinating colour mix honours the golden movie era of Alfred Hitchcock and his incredibly particular style mixed with the ubiquitous snowflake-like star design of the mid-century period, all in a colour harmony derived from the Corn Flakes' marketing mascot, the rooster "Cornelius" (Corny), introduced in the late 1950s: green, red, orange, yellow. Mix it all together for a flaky-psychedelic design!
SpaceCadet
SPACE: THE MID CENTURY FRONTIER |
Everyone remembers the fun and futuristic space cartoons of the late mid-century. Up until the 70s, kids of all ages couldn't get enough. Today, the stylish designs of the space age, starting with the launch of Sputnik in 1957, still enjoy a huge popularity. Here's my take on this amazing odyssey.
TikiMaze
BREEZE BLOCKS WALLS REVISITED |
I just love the “breeze blocks” that made Mid Century architecture so recognizable with beautiful see-through walls. You can find that design just about everywhere. So I decided to give it a little spin by detaching the shapes from each other. The end result looked like a labyrinth. Since I love everything "tiki" (like in Tiki Bar of course...), I mixed them up for our favorite name of the bunch.
TopperWaves
SURFING THE CLASSIC PLASTIC |
Well, the sound of this first collection is definitely familiar. You probably remember those colourful plastic containers sold during parties back in the days. Their huge popularity in the 1950's offered women even more independence by allowing them to make an income without sacrificing their role as head of household. They're still around after all these years and I wanted to celebrate them in a fun way.
ZipperDee
SUPER ZIPPING RETRO OVALS |
This design looks like a zipper on purpose. Finding a name, however, wasn't so easy. “Zipper” alone felt simple and obvious. Searching for ideas to tweak it, I came across the 1940's Disney song Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, still well known to this day. “Zip-a” and “Zipper” sounded quite the same and it was a nice twist to honour the mid-century era where their first theme park was built. Why just keep the “Dee” you might ask? A nod to Sandra Dee, the Hollywood icon in the late 50's and 60's.