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Dynamo teams up with Kelly Hoppen to create beguiling 3D wallpaper

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Today's celebrity folk are rarely content to stick with the roles that made them their millions. The Hollywood rolodexes are full of actors wanting to become musicians, rappers wanting to become talk show hosts, and sports stars wanting to become models. And the models? Well, they want to be everything. Very rarely though, will you find a celebrity dipping their toes into the design world, especially interior design. Enter Bradford-born magician Dynamo, who has cast aside the card tricks and disappearing acts to create a unique wallpaper that could potentially transform your home into an optical illusion. Rather fitting given the man's day-job.

Having been in the design industry for 40 years, there isn't much I haven't done

Dynamo, known as Steven Frayne to his mother, who is best known for his live and televised illusionary magic, has team up with interior design impresario Kelly Hoppen to launch this collection of 3D effect wall coverings, which have designed to create the illusion of more space in the home. It's just like magic! Billed as the first magician and designer collaboration, Hoppen and Dynamo worked together to design the two digitally printed wallpapers, both of which feature “Trompe l'oeil” techniques, used to produce an illusion of depth and create a sense of additional space. The effect can also be found in wallpaper collections by Maison Martin Margiela and Fornasetti, and the effect was also used as a backdrop for the OMA's installation to present furniture by Maarten van Severen.

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The Paradox Design

Dynamo and Hoppen's design use the effect in a manner that's elegantly subtle, but doesn't lack pizazz. The Enigma design is the more natural-looking of the two, featuring a cluster of pillars that appear to extend horizontally into whatever room they are inhabiting. The overlapping blocks look similar to a dense cityscape as seen from above, and splay dramatically from a central vanishing point. The Paradox design, meanwhile, is a bolder beast patterned with sections of angled, aged concrete, and decorated by intense shadows and highlights, which are used to amplify the effect of different facets and corners. Hoppen said of her and Dynamo's dynamic designs: “When Dynamo and I initially met and started discussing the idea of an illusion wallpaper, I had no idea how fascinating it would be to work on such a different project. Having been in the design industry for 40 years, there isn't much I haven't done, but magic was new to me and I enjoyed every second.”

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The Enigma Design

Whilst she might not be as celebrated in mainstream circles as her magical cohort, Hoppen herself travels in some rather impressive circles. Born in South Africa, she has a celebrity client list that includes such globally recognised names as David and Victoria Beckham, as well as Judge John Deed himself, Martin Shaw. She's also previously enjoyed her own taste of the limelight appearing in her own British interior design TV show, “Superior Interiors with Kelly Hoppen,” and more notably featured on the panel of Dragon's Den between 2013 and 2015.

The “Illusionist Wallpaper Collection,” the wallpaper will be available later this month from UK brand Graham & Brown, with prices starting at £30 per square metre. A percentage of the proceeds will be donated to The Prince's Trust youth charity, for which both Hoppen and Dynamo are ambassadors. Alan Kemp, Head of Brand Marketing at Graham & Brown, said: “Graham and Brown are delighted to support this fascinating partnership that has produced an amazing result that challenges people’s perceptions of wallpaper. As we celebrate our seventieth anniversary, it has been pleasure to once again challenge and innovate our print and finishing techniques as well as support the work of the Prince’s Trust.”

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A “Trompe l'oeil” Wallpaper Design by Maison Martin Margiela

Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and musician from Kidderminster in the UK. He once saw Dynamo live and was convinced the man is some kind of warlock.

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