Greetings to all my fellow Tile Addicts and apologies for the brief gap in posts.  In my defence, I spent last week at Cevisama, and also celebrated my 60th birthday in Valencia.  But now, refreshed by a wonderful vegan feast with my entire family and selected friends from the world-wide tiling family on Monday 5th February, I am back with all the latest news and designs from the ceramic tile scene.

I will start my Cevisama coverage with a new company to this blog: Bouquet Ceramic.  It is one of my secret pleasures at the large international tile fairs to seek out new companies that bring fresh design ideas to the market.  Bouquet was a new name to me, but the parent company – Tres Estilos – will be familiar to many as a decorative piece producer who have supplied countless OEM lines to the trade over the past few decades.

For Bouquet, of course, this is a massive advantage.  In launching this new retail brand to the market, Tres Estilos has been able to leverage years of expertise in 3D forms, glazes, shapes and patterns … and it shows.  Bouquet Ceramic’s Cevisama stand was a riot of commercially-aware, decorative designs in small formats, featuring unusual shapes, eye-popping glazes, beautiful graphics, sculptural forms and technical expertise in tile form.

Bouquet Ceramic is an international tile company with production in Spain.  It draws on centuries of tiling tradition in its portfolio, but is also not afraid to produce contemporary ranges.   Modular tile patterns combining several sizes dates back from the time of the Romans, and Bouquet’s Chic is a modular range with four sizes, created so that all pieces and all sizes can be combined on the same wall to create almost unlimited combinations, both in flat or relief patterns.

Chic offers both relief and 3D forms, with several patterns and designs in rectangular and square formats.  But Chic also has all sizes in plain flat tiles facilitating custom combinations mixing traditional flat surface tiles with reliefs. There’s almost no limit to what you can achieve with this line.

Bouquet also deliver forms, shapes and volume in improbable forms such as Fan and Diamond.  Here high gloss finishes, and incredibly detailed ink jet decoration techniques, allow the delivery of unique effects on irregular tiles, including metallics, glazed colours, marble-, and slate-effects.

All this choice can make presenting the tiles to potential customers quite difficult.  Bouquet Ceramic has realised this and come up with a really natty solution.  Customers can download the APP Bouquet Product & Create from the App Store – for iPad only – free of charge.  This is a really user-friendly, versatile and practical interactive catalogue with all necessary product information and high resolution images of individual pieces and room sets.  Once downloaded, it works in off line mode: and it is one of the best pieces of hi-tech sales solutions for the tile sector I have ever seen.

Since it was founded in 1978, Cerámica Tres Estilos, fhas been awarded the Alfa d’Oro six times, and Bouquet is continuing this proud heritage of delivering unique shapes that take of the finest details.  For instance the Diamonds range can be used in seven very different laying patterns to create powerful optical effects both using a single colour or multi-coloured designs.

Aurea is a range of 175 by 300mm 3D white body wall tiles with around 38 different variations per design to prevent visible repetition.  There are plain box-form simulated 3D tiles in opal, onyx, pearl, sapphire and citrine colours.

Other stand-out ranges include Ethnic wood-effect tiles 175 by 300mm, in grain-effect, plain wood decors and coloured wood decors.  Nordic features Scandi-influenced pale woods, both cushioned and flat diamond-shaped tiles, in pale oak and pale maple.

Dolmen is a range of 254 by 254mm 3D sculpted relief tiles with inverted diminishing centers that create complex chiaroscuro effects.

Joker is a broad range of hexagonal porcelain tiles, 218 by 228mm, in plains, Provençal decors, and even stone effects: a very flexible and very commercial offer.  Domo is another hexagonal tile featuring concentric 3D rings.  Measuring 267 by 232, this porcelain range comes in beige Petra stone, and neutral grey Vulcano stone, as well as dramatic multi-coloured Electrum and Aureo metallic effects.

A similar range is the 254 by 254mm white body Piramid, that comes in white, grey and black plain gloss options; plus two wood-effects: ash and oak.

Zigurat offers another hexagonal option, this one featuring bright metallics combined with sharp patterns, triangular sub-divisions and plain panels to create very powerful optical effects.  There is even a multi-coloured option, Vitral, in this 250 by 280mm range, for those seeking a truly dramatic design statement.

Enmallados is a range of 12 different multi-image mosaics – some monocrome, others multi-coloured – featuring graphics, photographic images, and art; together creating a melange/scrapbook look.   The 300 by 300mm tiles comprise 36 or 144 separate images, depending on the model selected.

Fan is a range of 250 by 250mm white body tiles in an interlocking curved tricorn shape. It comes in plain gloss colours (black, white, pale blue, grey, and graphite; plus wonderful Kashmir gold on blue paisley decors, incredible flat and 3D metallics, including pieces decorated with pops of rich glaze in patterned depressions.  This range also has the striking fun look of Pop with bold plains (black, white, red and yellow) complemented by snakeskin decors or Psico black and white visual distortions.  There are even stone-effect plain pieces with Andalusian style delicate floral decors.

On a more sober level, Modular offers plain glazed and curved corner relief tiles in 254 by 254mm, 126 by 126mm, 126 by 382mm and 62 by 382mm. Bowed, plain colour accent tiles are offered in 62 by 382mm, and 126 by 382mm, in two options: one with a single arch and one with a double arch.   There are just three colour option – white, grey and black – but, as the Modular PDF catalogue shows, the scope of potential laying options is vast.

The Cuadrado collection brings together a selection of different designs from around the world in 235 by 235mm and 300 by 300mm wall and floor tiles.  The design options span Caribe with restrained hydraulic patterns in grey, black and blue.  Dusty Provenzal is an even more knocked-back version of the same palette, while more earthy encaustic-style decors make up Criollo; with sharper-edged geometrics in a monotome palette in Milano; and something similar, but more, homely in Eiffel.   Zement fuses a similar decorative vibe with an on-trend cement-effect.  For a lighter touch, Tiffany has very delicate patterns in black and white.  Feminine, but far from girly, this is a very grown-up decorative option.  White Satin offer more of the same, but is more about surface appeal and lustre than pattern, with glaze-on-glaze effects to the fore: very up-market and timeless.

You can download the general catalogue at: http://www.bouquetceramic.com/pdfs/CAT%20GEN%20OK%2017052017.pdf

bouquetceramic.com

A new post by Joe Simpson, Diary of a Tile Addict, February 2018.