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Ceramic Tile Designs

As with all tile designers and potters, there is the excitement of opening the kiln to discover whether one has achieved one's objectives. After years of making tile designs, designers get the greatest pleasure from designing and making ceramic mosaic panels. In mosaic, the colours are fired and ready for use, whereas with almost all other tile dedesigns you have to have a pretty accurate visual concept of what the tile will look like when fired. You therefore must constantly apply your concentration, combined with a wealth of past experience. With mosaic you can build up subtle variations of colour and tone that are not possible with the square tile. As a result, the blended colours will give a unique visual resonance and vibration. Few non-professionals realize that many of the glazes and colours used in production will look profoundly different when fired. Skilled ceramicists can, in time, with fair accuracy predict the final fired result to a point of fine tonal variations in colour.

Most of the individual tile designs and murals produced in the early post-war years were easy to read visually by members of the general public. There was little ambiguity or confusion of message, nor an attempt to portray some deep concern of the designer. Murals were well thought out and often designed with clear images that interlocked in a continuous composition, not unlike a jigsaw puzzle. By the early 1950s, when
restrictions were being lifted, people craved more colour in their lives so that the development of coloured glazes was welcomed and found a ready market. Geometric and abstract designs sold well on individual tiles well into the 1970s.




By the late 1970s, the concerns of fine art were impinging on ceramics and those studying the subject were more interested in ceramics as art rather than having any wish to make domestic ware or create designs for people. Many students claimed to express some pretty diverse theories before having sufficient command of ceramic knowledge or skills. Some with more developed knowledge were using clay successfully in a painterly or sculptural fine art manner. With tiles, and particularly mural work, imagery was seen less as a matter of decoration than through the technique and eyes of a painter. There was much talk of working in metaphors and in the creation of murals that abandoned the more formal length and height concept. Large free form shapes were created making a rich pattern of various shaped tiles with graphic work using deconstructed images.

By the turn of the century, large and small murals were being produced for schools, hospitals and public bodies under schemes funded by local councils, lottery money or a combination of other sources. Many were intended to celebrate the new millennium, while others were the work of community groups or were produced by international co-operation.

In some of the murals, imagery was mixed, with some using drawn subject matter combined with computer manipulated imagery borrowed from other media, both contemporary or historic. Many of the images were applied to the biscuit ceramic surface or fired glaze, in the form of a direct print or transfer.

Between the 1970s and the year 2000, there were tile designers who worked with their own drawn visual statements, combined with an intelligent use of various computer systems.
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