Edwardians: The Age of Elegance, is a new exhibition at the King’s Gallery, London on the aesthetics of the Edwardian age. It includes more than 300 artefacts—paintings, photos, books, fashion, ceramics, jewellery belonging to the two couples, Edward VII and Queen Alexandra and their successors George V and Queen Mary, nearly half of which have never previously been publicly displayed. These objects were created by the eras most fashionable figures such as John Singer Sargent, Carl Fabergé, Edward Burne-Jones and Oscar Wilde. 

Working with Drinkall Dean our brief was to reimagine these couples impressively cluttered private residence interiors and their appetites for collecting: souvenirs from balls indicate their penchant for parties and dozens of family photographs and trinkets show their devotion to their loved ones. 

The Kings Gallery has strong jewel coloured fabric wall coverings, the 3d and graphics worked with these rich palettes without overpowering the varnished paintings that catch the light so well against the fabric and ‘pop’ from the walls. 

The graphics had to compliment the glamour and opulence of the Edwardian Age-we referenced William Morris’s elegant and naturalistic decorative borders for calligraphy and page decoration-extracting the tessellation and using elements on object plinths covered with custom wallpaper-no surface was left uncovered. To add further to this sense of luxury we took the Morris decorative elements onto the room panels and printed them in raised gloss finish inks on GF Smith smooth matt multiplexed colorplan card.