In Conversation with
Claire McPoland
Claire leads the creative direction for our products and brand. She is an interior designer and has worked in London and New York designing globally.
Her projects span hospitality, wellness and workplace each focussed on sense of place and the ways in which our environments shape us.
You’re known for an inherent love of materiality and a constant desire to research and test new concepts. What does the testing phase look like in your rug development? Where do you start?
The joy of design for me is in discovery. As a interior designer I am constantly exploring ways to complement and contrast existing environments to create something that feels both inviting and unexpected.
Our approach to research and testing follows a similar path. We are always exploring new textures and construction techniques, and we work very closely with our factory from the earliest stages. Together we can explore ideas, experiment and really learn what is possible.
Product development typically takes anywhere from three to six months. During this time we review control samples to assess how our chosen yarns and dyeing techniques have come together. With our more complex patterns simply switching a single colour for a warmer or cooler pom can completely transform the impact of the design. This is also the stage at which we test product stability to ensure it meets our quality standards.
What is the most unusual or unexpected source of inspiration you’ve drawn from recently that ended up influencing our brand's direction?
Our Pathways collection was born from a series of photographs which I took in Northern Spain. We were in Rupià shooting the Origin Collection when we were caught in a heavy storm. Later that evening, the sun broke through and reflected off the rain-soaked ground. The colours and textures in that moment were beautiful, shadows cast long across the wet stone, sunlight transforming everything it touched. Those images became the foundation for the collection.
From the initial spark of inspiration or a raw material test to the final day of a campaign shoot, what does the timeline of a TOTZKE collection look like? At what point in that process does the visual storytelling and marketing strategy begin to take shape?
Showcasing our products in a way that conveys their true quality and tactility is something we care deeply about. We shoot each rug in the factory with full images alongside detailed close-ups because we know how valuable these are for moodboards, presentations and the design process. But it's our collection photography where the collections really come to life.
Our images become a storytelling medium, whether playing with texture and the beauty of natural light for our Pathways shoot, or the intimacy of shooting our Azadi collection in Nasim's stunning Sydney apartment. Each shoot is an opportunity to communicate not just how the rug looks, but the feeling it brings to a space.
