Hollywood Palm is Martyn Lawrence Bullard's Los Angeles drawn through Cole & Son's long history with the palm. The frond is the house's own motif; what Bullard brought to it is the geometry of Palm Springs deco, the tessellated screen wall, the breeze block, the patterned surface used as architecture rather than as ornament.
It is set as a spot repeat, which means the fronds are placed on an alternating grid rather than in rows, and the result is an all-over density with no visible direction and no obvious seam in the pattern. Read as a whole it is closer to a woven texture than to a botanical print; read closely, each frond is individually drawn. Several colourways introduce a metallic, which gives the leaves an edge-light and makes the tessellation legible under lamplight while the ground stays quiet.
The all-over quality makes it easier to place than most large-leaf papers. It will take a whole room without becoming oppressive, in a dining room, a dressing room, a bar or a stair, and it works particularly well where there is little natural light and the metallic can do the lifting. Rattan, dark timber and unlined linen suit it, as does a single strong lamp rather than a flood of light.
