Intelligentsia?s blue-and-white tile (center) is emblematic of the bold, graphic patterns populat today.

Bold and graphic tile is covering surfaces everywhere About 12 years ago, Los Angeles-based architect Barbara Bestor was hired to design a new outpost of Intelligentsia Coffee, in Silver Lake. She ended up creating a neighborhood icon and an internet phenomenon thanks in part to the blue-and-white tile that sweeps from the outdoor seating area into the cafe and right up the sides of the counters. This defining feature of the space, which has become a popular backdrop for Instagrams (interestingly, the cafe opened well before Instagram existed) was inspired by cafes in Havana and a restaurant dating from the 1950s that she visited in Istanbul. The rest of the cafe is covered in plywood, inspired by Donald Judd; the idea was to use sparse design elements in the space to highlight the baristas at the counters. ?You couldn?t put a shock-of-the-new in the neighborhood [back then], and I was trying to think of something that you couldn?t quite tell if it was new or old,? Bestor says. ?I guess that was one of the first times someone was doing a new thing with tile, because it became a meme on Instagram!?
Tile is one of the world?s oldest and most beloved materials. It?s trendy now, sure?but it has been for thousands of years. It just surfaces in different ways, regionally and historically: the mosaics of ancient Mesopotamia; the intricate geometric patterns of Moorish z...