10 to Watch: Jon Sherman & Josh Minnie

Flavor Paper
www.flavorpaper.com

The story of Flavor Paper is filled with little serendipities—owner Jon Sherman stumbled onto a cache of color screens and equipment back in 2003, and printmaker Josh Minnie stumbled upon Sherman after moving to New Orleans in 2006—but no matter. All you need to know now is that Sherman and Minnie are the minds behind one of the most adventurous wall covering producers we’ve ever seen.

Sherman and Minnie work as a well-oiled team in the Flavor Lair, the company’s studio in Brooklyn, where they churn out rolls of bold, ultramodern prints in front of their first floor windows, much to the delight of passersby. Sherman brings a finely honed sense of style to the operation, while Minnie leverages his deep knowledge of graphics and design as Flavor Paper’s master printer. It’s a collaboration that has given rise to products ranging from angular geometrics to the more esoteric, like scratch-and-sniff and glow-in-the-dark papers.

It has earned Flavor Paper a dedicated following among the high-design set, with their work popping up everywhere from W Hotels to Banana Republic photo shoots (Sherman says his favorite project thus far has been creating an Air Jordan wallpaper for the shoe’s 20th anniversary installation at the NBA All-Star Game). But despite all of the craziness the two have already cooked up, it’s clearly just the beginning.

“I’m excited to see the convergence of new technologies and traditional pattern making in the world of wall coverings,” Minnie says. “Who knows what we will be doing with our walls in 10 years?”