From canvas to commercial interiors: Woven Image collaborates with Ben Goss
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As Woven Image celebrates 40 years, it introduces a new collection developed in collaboration with Australian artist Ben Goss, inspired by his original artwork Where the Kookaburra Sits into a vibrant collection of digitally printed EchoPanel® murals and patterns.
Woven Image has been collaborating with Australian creatives – from Mambo to Dinosaur Designs, Akira Isogawa, and Minnie Pwerle – to transform the brand’s award-winning EchoPanel® into a canvas for large-scale, expressive storytelling since 1990. As Woven Image approaches its 40th anniversary this year, it’s continuing this collaborative journey with a new collection in partnership with Australian artist Ben Goss.
“Ben’s work is so rich in colour and motif,” says Anna Chappell, product designer at Woven Image. “When I saw it, I could immediately visualise the ways we could translate his work for interiors.”
The new collection centres on Goss’s painting Where the Kookaburra Sits, an abstract composition of deep blues, charcoal tones and pale marks that evokes the Australian landscape. The artwork is printed at full scale across three EchoPanel® panels to create an enormous mural that can be used to dramatic effect in spaces that need visual impact. Alongside the hero piece is a series of supporting repeat patterns drawn from motifs within the painting, which can be used independently or as part of a broader scheme.
The process of adapting the artwork for the collection was a true collaboration. Goss produced a series of black-and-white brushwork studies that extracted elements from the original painting for Chappell to develop into the repeatable patterns. “It was an extremely fun part of the process,” says Goss. “I was always conscious that we were trying to make motifs that would echo what was happening in the main piece, but also stand alone in their own right.”
Chappell then scanned Goss’s paintings and translated them digitally, playing with scalability and finding the balance between artistic expression and commercial viability. “The collaboration was so successful because of the process we went through,” says Goss. “Anna and I each brought different skills to the table and had a clear role to play.”
Developing the colour palette for the collection was also a collaborative effort. While some tones are drawn directly from Goss’ painting, others respond to Woven Image’s internal trend forecasting and the broader EchoPanel® palette. Custom colourways can also be easily developed as the patterns are digitally printed onto EchoPanel®, Woven Image’s original PET acoustic panel, made from recycled content and manufactured in Australia.
“Acoustic panels aren’t the first thing that comes to mind as being expressive in interiors,” says Goss. “This collection is a great avenue for bringing art into a commercial context in a meaningful way.”
For Woven Image, the collaboration with Goss is about more than the resulting collection. “It shows that we are willing to experiment and work with artists in meaningful ways to create products that respond to emotion as well as performance,” explains Chappell. “It’s also a celebration of Australian creativity – an Australian brand working with an Australian artist to create something exciting for the design community.”
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