For Festival 09, we commissioned Scottish design company Timorous Beasties to create an Edinburgh toile in celebration of our exploration of the Scottish Enlightenment. It was featured throughout our website, on the cover of the Festival brochure and all across the city during the Festival itself.

The design studio Timorous Beasties was founded in Glasgow in 1990 by Alistair McAuley and Paul Simmons, who met while studying textile design at Glasgow School of Art. They're known for creating surreal and provocative textiles and wallpapers and in 2009 they added an affectionate, frank and bold vision of modern Edinburgh to their portfolio especially for the Festival.

Timorous Beasties has defined an iconoclastic style of design once described as “William Morris on acid.” The Edinburgh Toile is a typical example - at first glance it looks like one of the magnificent vistas portrayed on early 1800s Toile de Jouy wallpaper, but closer inspection reveals a modern vision of contemporary Edinburgh.

McAuley and Simmons also execute special commissions, such as fabrics for Philip Treacy’s hats and for the interiors of the Arches Theatre in Glasgow and 50 Piccadilly, a London casino.

Timorous Beasties are experimental in approach to both hand-printing and machine production. These changes are reflected in an evolving aesthetic: from early wayward interpretations of naturalistic images of insects, plants and fish; to a searingly contemporary graphic style which, as Edinburgh Toile illustrates, explores social and political issues.

Visit Timorous Beasties online at timorousbeasties.com

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