design for plastics

It is hard to understand why some materials are so niggardly treated from the design point of view, when others are so carefully considered. Why are linoleum manufacturers apparently ignorant of the possibilities of design, when wallpaper manufacturers are so wide awake to them, why is there no attractive oil cloth or American cloth, and why are all the plastic curtains so poorly designed? Perhaps a certain improvement may be encouraged by the publication of a catalogue of P.V.C. plastic materials designed by Professor Arnold Bode of the College of Art at Kassel, Germany, which has reached us. The manufacturers, Goeppinger Kaliko Works, have produced this material in varying thicknesses and textures, for a large variety of purposes. They can be used as permanent and washable wall coverings, or as curtains, tablecloths, as furnishing materials and car seat covers, as book covers and for handbags. There are some as thick as elephant hide, and others as flimsy as tissue paper. A few illustrations will give an idea of the attractiveness and versatility of these new materials.

Table of cloths and furnishing fabric in "abstracta" design.

Transparent curtain material with vertical stripe in combination with a sturdier materials for hangings and furnishings.

Two pattern of the diversa range of medium weight hangings.