A Celebration of Paper: G . F Smith Showroom in London by Made Thought & d-raw.

Housed across two floors in an elegant dark-grey building just off London’s Oxford Street, G . F Smith‘s striking multipurpose showroom provides a place to meet Paper Consultants, act as an event and exhibition venue, and offer an immersive insight into the company’s remarkable products and history. For the papermakers and curators of G . F Smith, the showroom marks the beginning of a new chapter in its 131-year story, and gives the company a unique central London venue to explore and share the possibilities of paper with its audience of designers, luxury brands and anyone passionate about the creative power of print.

The architectural concept and creative direction of the 370sqm showroom has been developed by long-term G . F Smith creative partner Made Thought, and designed in collaboration with architects d-raw. Bold, contemporary and engineered to keep paper centre-stage, the space has a dark grey palette matched to one of the most popular Colorplan shades, and designed to provide the perfect backdrop to showcase the visual and textural subtleties of paper. At the heart of Show Space, the 14-metre Collection Wall presents every paper G . F Smith has created or discovered, spanning every shade in the iconic Colorplan range to the most precious, technologically advanced and unique papers from around the world – sourced everywhere from the Lake District to Japan.

Downstairs, the White Space gallery presents a shifting series of exhibitions, ranging from creative takeovers from partner brands and designers to illuminating insights into art and science of papermaking. At launch, the gallery hosted an installation entitled ‘Tidal’, the ocean-themed G . F Smith contribution to Kyoorius Designyatra festival, held in the pink city of Jaipur in September, to mark the launch of Colorplan in India. Designed by Made Thought, the installation fills the space with a spectacularly colourful undulating seascape created in vertically installed rolls of Colorplan paper.

‘Turbulence’, showroom’s equally eye-catching window installation inspired by air, echoes and intensifies this riot of colour: rods of coloured paper are seemingly hurled from one end to the other, creating an explosive and dynamic visual effect.

In an age where digital technologies have overturned the ubiquity of paper as a communication material, it has become an even more precious and rarified commodity – today, paper makes a stronger statement than ever before. Ultimately, the G . F Smith showroom celebrates this unique potential – and acts as a testament to paper’s enduring position as the cornerstone of creativity.

[Images courtesy of G . F Smith. Photography by Guy Archard.]