V&A Pattern: 100 Postcards box

Shinkichi Tajiri’s wallpaper design ‘Lousiana’ designed and printed in 1954 at Rasch & Co is now part of the V&A Pattern: 100 Postcards box. This box contains 100 unique postcards with different patterns from the eclectic collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum. These designs- intended for textiles, fashion and furnishing - range from the intricate floral motifs of William Morris to the wit of Pop design; from the cool restraint of 1950s textiles to the fresh patterns of Liberty fabrics. In 1951 Shinkichi Tajiri worked as a guest professor for a year at the Werkkunstschule (school of applied arts) in Wuppertal, Germany, after his stipend ran out in 1951.

“They found a wall paper company to pay my salary and asked if I would do some designs for them. This meant two jobs for one salary. I quickly learned the techniques of designing and printing wallpapers and received a prize for the best German wallpaper in an international exhibition of wallpapers in Darmstadt in 1953. Later the company asked me to take over the design department, but I wasn’t ready to settle down to a nine-to-five job. I returned to Paris.”

To the right: 'Louisiana' wallpaper by Shinkichi Tajiri

Machine-printed paper, Rasch & Co, Germany, 1954

Click here for the V&A: 100 Postcards box.