The patterns on traditional tiles have been described as “quintessentially Maltese”.

The patterns on traditional Maltese tiles are the inspiration behind a series of new artistic concepts by an innovative graphic designer.

The first in the range of artistic concepts will see the familiar pastel patterns go from the floor to the wall in a limited series of framed prints.

“It’s art, that is completely unique to Maltese design culture,” designer Matthew Demarco, 25, said.

The traditional tiles have long been a source of inspiration for Mr Demarco, whose obsession with documenting local design heavily influences much of his work.

“One of the main motives for the project was to get something that many people take for granted because they’re used to seeing them in certain contexts and then reinterpreting them.

They instantly take me back to my grandmother’s house

“I put them into new contexts and this brought out a new life in them,” he said.

An avid archivist, Mr Demarco is also co-founder of local “font directory” maltatype.com.

The customised version of popular social media service Tumblr invites people to send in photos of Maltese shop signs, labels and anything else that might exhibit “Maltese typography”.

“So many design concepts which are only found here are being lost to modernisation.

“These should be protected, catalogued and possibly brought back to life. That’s what I tried to do with the tiles,” he said.

Mr Demarco first turned his camera lens to local tile prints last year, documenting the different patterns and colour schemes in hard drives with little idea of what they would go on to inspire.

Several months later, he has launched the first in a series of collections inspired by the designs.

“There are a lot of areas of artistic products that haven’t been fully explored in Malta. I’m using the tile prints to explore this,” he said.

Mr Demarco was reluctant to announce the next range of design concepts, but did reveal that a limited number of lapel pins and “larger” products would soon be released.

Historian and graphic designer Philip Galea des-cribed the patterns as “quintessentially Maltese”.

“There are elements of foreign influence, which is the nature of all things Maltese.

“However, what perhaps makes these patterns so Maltese is that through the ages, people have been able to relate to them.

“To me they instantly take me back to my grandmother’s house. I think it’s the same for most people,” he said.

To see more tile pattern concepts, see www.demarco.bigcartel.com.