Oblique & Chevron, 2019

Designers: Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Atelier Bouroullec, Paris, France
Manufacturer: Skyline Design, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Skyline Design is pleased to introduce a line of architectural glass designs created by the renowned team of Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. The brothers’ Oblique & Chevron will debut at Skyline Design’s Merchandise Mart showroom (Suite 1040) during NeoCon, the annual design show in Chicago, which takes place from June 10 to 12. 

With Oblique and Chevron, the Bouroullec brothers study the interaction of a color spectrum with two distinct angular patterns. The collection is composed of 4 pattern variations that build a “family”: Oblique Regular, Oblique Bold, Chevron Stroke, and Chevron Fill. Each of the patterns is available in four monochromatic colors, which study subtle shifts in tone, and polychromatic palettes, which seek a more dramatic color contrast. 

Oblique & Chevron express the luminosity of glass, particularly the immersive quality of stained glass. Traditional stained glass—with its faceted surfaces and dazzling colors set in lead frames, which both define and offset the richness of the color—was designed to evoke a sense of magic and wonder among medieval churchgoers. The Bouroullecs bring the same otherworldly and nearly mystical sense to more abstract patterns, delighting in the play of scale, light, and fluidity created by the interaction between pattern and palette. 

The colors of Oblique & Chevron have been distilled and extracted at a nearly molecular level from eight photographs taken by the Bouroullecs. When overlaid onto the patterns and viewed at a large scale the colors multiply, revealing a fluid and harmonious color landscape. 

As stained glass is shaped by its lead frames, the colors are shaped and reshaped by the lines of each individual pattern, their density and distribution changing almost imperceptibly. The result is a sense that the glass is almost alive with a delicate pulse, capable of evoking the same sense of wonder as its medieval counterpart. 

In the Skyline Design showroom in the Merchandise Mart, Oblique & Chevron will be displayed in an immersive installation composed of six staggered translucent glass panels up to 8 by 12 feet in size. Visitors will be able to see how the colors shift and shimmer across the expanses. 

The patterns and colors are achieved on such a large scale with Skyline Design’s digital print processes, but the company can customize size, scale, color, and process according to client needs or application. Oblique & Chevron are available for both, interior use such as feature walls, space dividers, railings, elevator cabs, and for exterior applications on facades, railings and canopies. Skyline Design fabrication specifications include low iron tempered safety glass and laminated glass in individual panel sizes up to 72” x 144” and in all standard glass thicknesses.