Faye Toogood Turns Tiles Into Faces and Figures for Her Debut Mutina Collection

British designer Faye Toogood has unveiled her first tile collection, a partnership with Italian manufacturer Mutina called Faces and Figures, as first reported by Wallpaper*. The collection was unveiled this week at Mutina's headquarters in Fiorano Modenese, Italy, and marks the outcome of an approach Toogood had turned down when it came from other tile companies, in the hope that Mutina would eventually call instead.

The range centres on three sizes of plain geometric tiles in four colours, chalk, sand, clay and mud, each available in glossy and matte finishes. Alongside them sit two organic tile forms in a brushed matte clay effect and a series of extruded bricks, with sculptural eyes, ears, noses, mouths and other features emerging from the surfaces to give the collection its name.

Toogood developed the range from her London studio using clay, cardboard, paper and canvas, the same hands on materials she uses to prototype furniture and objects, before working with Mutina to translate the results into an industrial tile process. Her aim was to challenge that industrial process into producing something that still read as handmade, despite being manufactured at scale.

Toogood has described her approach to design as rooted in how the body meets an object. "It's all about how the body connects to furniture and objects," she said, extending that same thinking from chairs and tables to the tactile, anthropomorphic surfaces of the new tiles.

Faces and Figures joins a roster of designer collaborations at Mutina, a manufacturer based in Italy's ceramic tile producing region that has previously worked with Patricia Urquiola, Barber Osgerby and Nathalie du Pasquier. More on the brand and its collections is available through Mutina.