When Elsa Kirstine Krogh takes a walk in surroundings of natural beauty, she often brings along her camera and sketch-block as she finds inspiration for her work everywhere: It could be a sea shell she finds on her way, a shadow, some crumpled leaves or maybe a nice looking stone.
- I am very open to everything I see, and in my mind I picture the final result. It is really exiting, so in reality my biggest problem is to confine myself, as she says.
Elsa is the only full-time wallpaper designer in Denmark. Her title is Design Manager and she is employed by Fiona in Faaborg, which is owned by Flügger A/S.
- As regards wallpapers we have skipped a generation. The so-called sixties generation liked sawdust wallpaper and painted walls. Fortunately, this attitude has changed: Today, young people care much for interior decoration as they wish to put their personal touch on their homes. Walls are no longer something which just needs to be painted. The walls should signal who are living in the home, Elsa says.
Elsa has always been interested in designing things. When she was a child she put colours and patterns on paper forming a beautiful and exiting connection. Her fortune was made when she was apprenticed to a big furnishing shop and later worked in a large department store. But Elsa wanted more, so she applied to the school of arts and crafts where she majored in textiles.
- I wanted to affect a large group of people, so my dream was to work within the industry, she says, and 1981 Elsa was employed with Fiona.
- Yet it was very difficult, she admits. - Suddenly, I had to work with large areas, and that is completely different than working with textiles. With wallpapers you also have to think very far into the future. A collection is not only a few months on the way, it can take a very long time.
Hence, Elsa had to think differently and very creatively.
- Then as well as now I have to keep myself orientated with what moves within the walls: The interior, how people are dressed, what they do in their spare time, etc. It must be a definition of how people live a while into the future.
Moreover, Elsa says that she does not care about what in fine terms are called trends.
- I seek the personal style and the simple, but I do not mind it being a little distinctive as well. And then I always have to bear in mind that my wallpapers should be applicable in most of the world.
It is a fact that the largest part of Fiona’s wallpaper production is exported, and therefore, you can find the same wallpapers in the hall of a hotel in New York as e.g. in Tokyo. Every year Elsa makes numerous suggestions to collections, but it is only a part of them which turns into reality.
- It is incredibly interesting work where I have to restrain myself all the time. The most important thing for me is that people should feel comfortable and be pleased with their wallpapers.