Brooklyn Toile

Mike Diamond of the Beastie Boys wanted a Brooklyn-inspired toile wallpaper to line the walls of his Cobble Hill brownstone. The vision was to pay tribute to all things Brooklyn in a way that would appear to be a traditional French Country Toile, but at a close look the pattern reveals elements and vignettes that make up the truth about Brooklyn.  We executed his vision artistically, partnering with Flavor Paper to produce the design as wallpaper.

TAILOR-MADE

Every element of the toile pattern was hand-illustrated in Micron Pen. We sat down with Mike and asked him questions pertaining to his experience growing up in 1980’s New York such as his musical influences, what subway station he took to buy his kicks, the impression the city’s grit left on him, and so on. Additionally, we took the more traditional toile subjects and replaced them with subjects unique to the city. Chickens are replaced with pigeons, steam engines trains are replaced with the New York City subway speeding along on overhead tracks, complete with the requisite graffiti. Your typical farmer was replaced with a B-Boy & B-Girl. Houses were replaced with city landmarks such as the Brooklyn Bridge & Coney Island Cyclone, and so on. The longer you inspect the pattern, the more you are bound to notice.

Go on and get some!!!

IT’S THE BROOKLYN WAY

Brooklyn Toile captures many angles of life in the King’s borough from Coney Island to Hasidic Jews to Notorious B.I.G., covering many aspects of daily life dealing with subways and pigeons in a poetically beautiful way.

FOREVER IN HISTORY

Aside from occupying pride of place in Mike D’s home, Brooklyn Toile has been recognized by MoMA: Destination NYC, acquired by the Brooklyn Museum as part of their permanent collection, and featured by the likes of the New York Times.