the profiles of the faces behind the places arcifiles.

What an amazing mosaic of creative people, businesses, and organizations make up the Portland design-build community! From designers to contractors to craftspeople, from product designers to vendors to nonprofits that support the industry, it takes a community to build, remodel, and restore our village. In this edition of ArciFiles, we introduce Melanie Nead, founder and creative director of Lonesome Pictopia.

Melanie Nead

Company: Lonesome Pictopia

Duration: 6 years

Role: Founder and Creative Director

Pattern Language

Role at Lonesome Pictopia

The pattern that connects all of Melanie Nead’s work is...pattern. “I talk a lot about how much meaning and narrative there is in pattern and the way different patterns make you feel.” As Founder and Creative Director of Lonesome Pictopia (LP), which creates unique, often nature-based patterns in wallpapers, murals, and painted objects, she’s the lead designer and driving force behind an all-woman “design collective in the spirit of the Arts and Crafts movement.” What’s in a name?” I wanted something that felt cinematic, narrative, evocative. Also, because I worked alone getting the business started, it was like, ‘Who’s gonna join me in this beautiful, lonely queendom I’ve created?’”

Getting Started

Melanie has a fine art background studying sculpture in college. As a tattoo artist and the owner of Icon Tattoo for 15 years, she also has a long history of design. In 2017, she swapped drawing on skin for creating patterns on walls, partly because of the physical difficulties of sitting hunched over a tattoo needle for hours. When she created a stenciled, hand-painted mural for Bernstein’s Bagels, incorporating “all the ingredients of an everything-bagel,” she knew that walls were her next canvas. “I loved it. That was the seed of the business getting started.”

Favorite Product

The “Chanterelles” wallpaper is Melanie’s favorite creation. “It’s simple. But there’s a complexity to it. I had this vision of Chanterelle’s as an Art Deco fan pattern, an interpretation of one of the oldest, most universal human patterns, which is that scale or scallop shape. Chanterelles is our best-selling pattern. I think part of it is that there’s something really evocative that connects to the deepest, oldest parts of our humanity with these classic, recognizable shapes. That’s meaningful to me. Not only am I able to communicate with the past 500 years of wallpaper design, but on a deeper level, I can explore some really profound things about human nature.”

Proudest Accomplishment

Melanie’s satisfaction in being able to bring her “design superpowers” into the world, providing profound patterns in public buildings and private homes, is evident. She’s also proud of being able to give back to the community. “After we hit breakeven on a pattern, a small percentage of its sales are donated to a nonprofit that addresses housing security.”

Experience Working in the Local Design-build Field

Over 90% of LP’s projects are with designers. “I love working with the trades. It feels fun and collaborative to work with amazing designers who are super visual and are usually really good at clearly communicating parameters but then giving a lot of trust within those parameters. It’s the ideal situation for any artist.”

How do you see the future of designbuild and Lonesome Pictopia?

Melanie loves traditional crafts and wants to see them remain a component of home design. “I want to create traditionally block-printed wallpapers with our original designs. It feels really important to me to continue to explore and reinvent and reinvigorate old crafts.” Most recently, LP has added Tempest Tiles, a line of handpainted tiles. “I love having a manufacturing component; we’re craftspeople first and foremost. I love the idea of having people come in and watch us work. Anything is more interesting when you learn about the processes that made it happen. Long-term, I want to make so many fabulously beautiful things, try to make the world more beautiful, a little bit at a time, do a lot of good, and create meaningful jobs for women in the arts.” •