It started with a slightly mad idea: why not ask design students to come up with some new carpet patterns? The first trial with the Fine Arts School in Lyon exceeded all expectations: an enthusiastic welcome, an array of talented budding designers, and the publication of a design book that quickly became a collector’s item.
This is how Dare your Dreams came about, a now international collection that already features 10 different editions! From Paris to Tokyo, Stockholm to Singapore, the young designers of tomorrow are bringing new sources of inspiration to today’s professionals for revamping hotels, with custom carpets injecting meeting rooms with personality, enhancing co-working areas, and so on.
Talents 1 Avec les Beaux Arts Lyon (France)
This first design book of designer carpets threw down the creative gauntlet, diving deep into the pool of young talent from the Fine Arts School in Lyon. This successful venture led to fifteen brilliant projects and inspired Balsan to renew the initiative.
Talents 2 With Olivier de Serres (Paris, France)
The personalities of the Olivier de Serres students shone through in the eight creations that made up this carpet design collection. They worked hard to bring to life comprehensive projects which unveiled the talents of these eight new designers.
Prio 3 Rugs by Natacha Froger
The PRIO rug collection came about after an encounter with interior designer Natacha Froger: P for Paving, R for Ramé, I for Imago, and O for Optical. These four lines form this collection of original creations, designed for the contemporary hotel market.
No Limit 4 Freedom of expression for our stylists (France)
Reinterpretations, reappropriations, trompe l’oeil, kaleidoscopic effects, contrasting materials, floral prints and more. This design book full of trends reflects the unbridled creativity of our stylists and reveals new perspectives on designer carpets.
Talang 5 Beckmans College of Design (Stockholm, Sweden)
Balsan came together with the budding designers from this famous Stockholm college, which was founded in 1939 by Anders Beckman, giving them carte blanche to create their own designer carpets. These 14 functional and colourful projects embody the new Scandinavian vision of design, which is both naturalistic and minimalistic.
Talento 6 IADE School of Design (Madrid, Spain)
Over time, Spain has been enriched by many artistic influences from Europe, North Africa and Latin America. This history has given rise to carpet patterns that are bright, original, sometimes eccentric, but always full of style, just like those in this booklet.
Talenty 7 The Higher School of Art and Design (Łódź, Poland)
Head east, where a new wind is blowing in the textile flooring design world. Agnieszka, Bartlomiej, Tatsiana and other talented young designers draw inspiration from the graphics of socialist realism as well as current trends. Amazing.
Saino 8 Tama Art University (Tokyo, Japan)
Drawing inspiration from timeless themes in Japanese culture, such as gardens, koi carp ponds and calligraphy, 13 students from Tokyo's Art University have created stylised carpet patterns that pack a powerful emotional and contemporary punch.
Talents 9 Lasalle College of the Arts (Singapore)
Students at this major arts facility reflect the uniqueness of Singapore as a laboratory of modernity. Through their creations, which are free from any restrictions or traditions, they express universal themes in a universal graphic language.
Tehets Egek 10 Pécs University (Hungary)
Balsan is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus movement in Hungary, at a school founded by the pioneers of this major philosophy linking architecture, art and design. Drawing on various sources of inspiration, they have created carpets with extraordinarily abundant graphic styles.
Integrating technical constraints
With Dare your Dreams, Balsan gives carte blanche to budding designers all over the world while ensuring they observe the constraints of the carpet production process at our production site in Arthon, Berry, such as broadloom width, number of colours, industrial feasibility, and so on. As a result, their projects are operational and can be produced on request. Many carpets from the design books have already been installed in hotels or offices in France and around the world.
