Faux Florals is an interactive design tool that allows users to generate custom motifs based on pixel manipulation of flower photos. The tool bridges the gap between digital design and analog application in form of casting traditional cement tiles. Thus, individual, contemporary cement mosaics can be easily and accessibly designed.

Cement mosaics are much more than decorative elements: they are a medium that conveys historical, cultural, and political narratives. On the one hand, they are characterized by their industrial origins, and on the other, they symbolize the nostalgia of Catalan Modernisme with their medieval-style floral patterns.
A fundamental aspect of my bachelor’s thesis was to research the traditional production of cement mosaics and learn how to make them myself in order to develop my own creative adaptations. The manufacturing process for cement tiles differs fundamentally from the design of more common ceramic tiles. They are not printed or painted afterwards. Instead, the design is already part of the manufacturing process, as the motif is cast from colored cement. One stencil or mold equals one image.
The aim of my work was to build a bridge between this analogue technique and digital design and work processes, and to integrate the limitations of analogue work into the latter. For the design of the tiles, I programmed an interactive tool in p5.js, which can be used to generate individual floral motifs based on pixel manipulation of images. Since the tool can be adapted to my tile manufacturing process, the designs can then be implemented almost seamlessly as tiles. Applying the pixel display logic of digital design to create a grid of cells that can be individually filled as the stencil used for the casting enables the creation of a multitude of 15×15 pixel images instead of just one. The combination of these two techniques creates a mixed aesthetic, blending the digital pixel look with the colourfulness of natural pigments and the material properties associated with cement casting. This also expands the artistic potential of cement tile casting.

Hannah Friedrich, Creator