(INNOVATIVE APPLI CATIONS)

“wake Up” says Graffiti to those of you who think that tiles are meant for just bathrooms and kitchens. Keeping the core value of why tiles where first produced in mind, Graffiti has innovated with formats, designs and patterns to give them a “designer status”, and moving them beyond their traditional usage. There first design Head Quarter in Mumbai is an extension of exactly this trend setting motive of the graffiti team. “Our most basic brief to the architect was that we don’t want bathroom mock-ups in the showroom”, explain the director duo of Graffiti, Bhavin Shah and Sachin shah. Consequence, with the influence of designer showrooms in Italy, the designer sensibility of the directors where combined with the expertise of Architect Hiren Patel to cerate a Space that spells class and provides an ambiance that allows one to contemplate one current trend and future forecasts in architecture, styling and lifestyle.


The 45,000 sq. ft. space has been utilized to provide mock-up for a bedroom and kitchen, cafeteria (which is functional), a library (which can be utilize by client to take decision in peace), conference room and news area (this is where you can get all the latest about the company and products). This space has also randomly utilized to provide ideas to employ tiles in innovative way to create a design elements like an interesting curved wall that holds a vase, office table with metallic mosaics, cabinet clad with tile, etc.

As, we enter , grey stone-look porcelain tiles welcome us to the grand display set amidst a warm and welcoming ambiance. The wall on the left showcase the evolution of ceramics aptly titled ‘Evolution to Innovation’ displaying the history and innumerable uses of ceramics to give a holistic feel to the category of products. Straight ahead is the news area that acquaints the customer with the latest introductions by the company accompanied by samples. Mood lighting has been innovated used in this area to add a little funk and life to the setting, also because this is the area is usually the first visited by a prospective customer.



To the right of the news area is the cafeteria/bar counter with striking use of design tiles. Circular metallic beauties adorn part of the floor while saicis tiles add beauty to the counter. The red colour of the cafeteria/bar counter adds a splash. The brightness to the showroom. The upper part of the wall has exposed bricks to further enhance the beauty of the tiles. “We wanted to show how tiles can be utilized to add glamour in common areas like restaurant, office cafeteria’s, hotel lobby’s, etc. Thus, we thought of a bar mock-up”, explain the directors in unison.


The bedroom mock-up has tiles serving as a beautiful backdrop to the bed, while in the adjacent kitchen mock-up, a platform of wooden look-alike tiles with sliding back-drops provide visual options to clients and ease decision making. The wall at the further end is clad with protruding swatches that display Graffiti’s ecomomic range of tiles.

On the other side of the news area in the library, which with its dim lighting and homely ambiance is designed to be the apt place to take decision peacefully. The floor of the library displays experimentation with tiles of different sizes, while the fireplace adorns 3-D masaics lending a dramatic look to the wall. Tactfully mounted mosaics have been used as art pieces in this room with low seating. Further ahead is the conference room, where the highlight is the floral tiles placed in niches.

In a small area near the entrance, a beautiful display of tiles showcase how grouting can be tactfully used to cerate various looks. This certainly displays application of sound technical knowledge in design. Throughout the showroom, ample seating has been providing for discussions and sample viewing while architect board have been mounted to aid customers who want to try out combination. An area has been especially allotted to view tile swatches that are fondly called the “title wardrobes”, by the Graffiti team.

Lighting has been tactfully used to ensure that though the warmth in the ambiance is maintained, the beauty and finish of the products is highlighted. “Taking advantage of the exceptional height of the showroom we used hanging lights and avoided a false ceiling. There is no natural light in the showroom that’s the for both white and yellow light”, explains the design team. A combination of spotlight (QR lights) and metal highlight lights (PL lights) has been used to create the desired effect.

While indoors create magic at Graffiti DHQ, its window display is another piece of beauty worth mentioning. It has been done in three layers: first is a wall painted deep grey; second is the human element with vinyl picture of day to day activities portraying lifestyle; and finally the different unit of tiles mounted on channels. The play of light with spotlights falling on the tiles and white light subtly highlighting the picture has been brilliantly used to attract prospective customer in ‘Graffiti ishtyle!’

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