Rolling to the east

Alumna Anita Modha is a designer of the year

Two-time alumna Anita Modha’s customer wallpaper business found great success in Vancouver, and she’s expanding to Toronto.

By Erin Mason

Anita Modha, BA’97, MEDes’05, and business partner Jonathan Nodrick’s custom wallpaper business, Rollout, is award-winning and expanding to Toronto.

Since starting Rollout in 2005, Modha and Nodrick have worked with a list of impressive clients–Starbucks, Ralph Appelbaum & Associates and Microsoft Zune, to name a few –participated in New York’s esteemed Fashion Week and expanded their business from just them, to an organic one that grows and gets smaller based on project needs.

Modha and Nodrick were recently named Western Living’s Industrial Designers of the Year for 2010, which Modha calls both “rewarding and unexpected.”

“We’re proud of the work we have done, but we never expected to win,” says Modha from her downtown Vancouver studio where preparation for the move to Toronto buzzes in the background. “It’s so rewarding to be recognized by your peers and it’s great for our team we work with.”

Rollout’s makes its Toronto debut tomorrow and Anita is excited about the future. “Interior design is different in every place, much of it influenced by the site and situation of the city and having traveled to the East quite a few times this year, I can see there are a lot of opportunities. We’ve been developing our brand and portfolio and working with clients who are open to doing really innovative things.”

Modha is exploring putting designs on fabric and learning more about the production process for textiles. She’s also expanding Rollout into a full-service firm. “We’re not just wallpaper, we can do logos, branding and come up with solutions for many design problems based on our experiences and team education and history. We want to be a full-service firm.”

The growth of Rollout and its team lets founders Modha and Nodrick do more research and development and get involved in the community. They’re participating in the Interior Design Show 11 in Toronto and have also been asked to participate in the Casey House Dinner by Design Auction and Exhibit charity project.

“For this project we really wanted to bring industrial design back into our work and also incorporating graphic elements,” says Modha. It’s also a great opportunity for Rollout to meet potential clients, and find inspiration for their next project or design and give back to the community.”

“Inspiration can be found anywhere–in Barcelona we were inspired by wrapping paper crinkled up in a garbage can. It’s taking that inspiration and bottling it to make it work for clients.”

To learn more about Rollout, visit www.rollout.ca