Anything but superficial: Inkiostro Bianco

Surface specialists Inkiostro Bianco are anything but superficial.

Having established themselves in the market as go-to brand for expressive, space-defining flooring and wall decoration, this Italian-based company goes deep – both creatively and materially – offering interior architects and other specifiers a far more expansive, continuous and individual effect than traditional wallpaper.

Marrying collaborations with talented artists and designers with innovative production techniques, they’ve managed to create a unique collection of Made-in-Italy products that transform a room’s surfaces, its margins, into something altogether more centre-stage. Call it aesthetic necessity, or maybe even philosophy (as they choose to refer to it), for Inkiostro Bianco a space isn’t fully dressed without some decorative surface expression.

Operating like an atelier, the company is continually engaged in experimentation: how to implement graphically distinctive schemes into interior spaces via a research-driven use of smart, high-performance materials. Their highly popular vinyl wallpaper, for example, consists of a top, printable vinyl layer combined with a layer of non-woven fabric, meaning high-dimensional stability during application and drying.

Be the artwork from Inkiostro Bianco’s extensive collection of designs or a custom graphic – the company offers a print-on-demand service across all of its products – the result is a surface that’s a true architectural element. A host of contract projects internationally – hotels, restaurants and retail environments – have all specified Inkiostro Bianco to inject some identity into their spaces, supported in no small way by the brand’s dedicated in-house contract division.

Stores in particular can benefit from Inkiostro Bianco’s new Tela covering, which is ideal for pop-up or non-permanent stagings. A robust, polyester stretched fabric, its exclusive, 110-threads-per-inch weft composition can be digitally printed on, providing an easy-to-install and easy-to-change spatial solution for boutiques, showroom and exhibition stands that lends character and drama.

EQ.Dekor fibre-glass, meanwhile – a game-changing product borne out of a clever collaboration between Inkiostro Bianco and Mapei, the leading Italian adhesive and sealant manufacturer – makes graphically customised floor and wall coverings possible in high-traffic spaces that are also prone to splashes and spillages. Think kitchens, bathrooms and even showers, in both contract and residential contexts.

Here, customisable decoration dovetails with high performance; extremely hard-wearing, EQ.Dekor comprises a special bidirectional fabric with a fibre-glass surface that’s been treated with a polyurethane, alkali-resistant stiffener. With careful installation, the result is a super-smooth and structurally sound surface. It’s even designed to lower the risk of detachment in the case of earthquakes.

A further collaboration, this time with Listone Giordano, sees the arrival of Undici – a parquet that, thanks to Inkiostro Bianco’s laser-engraving technology, provides exquisitely textured flooring (and wall panelling), which brings with it an air of hand-carving precision. The company takes Listone Giordano’s premium raw product and amplifies its value by unlocking its textural potential: geometric lines and decorative patterns harness the grain of the wood to produce architecturally intriguing surfaces that truly get into the groove.

The collection is composed of three lines, one designed in-house, the other two by Como-based Studio Zero and architect Emanuele Missaglia. Each displays an intricacy of detail and a high degree of material respect. And with Touché, Inkiostro Bianco’s fully customisable line of laser-engraved parquet, the creativity of the designer is lent its fullest expression; the depth of the engraving and its colour, as well of course as the design itself, can all be individually determined, meaning no compromise in artistic vision. In addition, both Inkiostro Bianco and Listone Giordano actively guide clients through the design phase of the project with their invaluable know-how.

This April’s edition of the Salone del Mobile sees the launch of two new products. The first, Lineadeko Collection new wood wall surfaces designed by Aldo Cibic for Inkiostro Bianco and Listone Giordano, featuring geometric patterns and floral graphics, with a unique graphic effect. The second, something altogether more fluid – the Georgette curtain, a taffeta textile that does for windows what the Tela stretch-fabric range does for surfaces.

With Inkiostro Bianco’s total, space-shaping collection, scratching the surface has never been more profound.

© Architonic