Details
The image
Water seen from above, the reef drawn as a pattern of overlapping shapes in turquoise and sand, fish reduced to small marks scattered across it. The composition has no horizon, so the sheet reads as a map rather than as a view.
Where it comes from
Travel posters of the mid-century discovered that a landscape could be sold by its pattern rather than by its landmarks and coral reefs suited the method: photographed from the air, the water becomes abstract. Designers used that abstraction deliberately, because a pattern printed in flat colour reproduces better than a photograph and looks the same on every wall.
On the wall
It suits a hallway, a bathroom or a child’s room, where cool colour and movement can hold a wall without weight. Because the palette is limited to two families, it balances warm wood and strong textiles. In a group it should be the piece that introduces cool colour.
In company
If you want company for it, the Travel collection is where to look.Avoid hanging it beside a second pattern of similar density, two maps on one wall compete rather than combine and the sheet works best where the light is even rather than raking across it.
