Today, Design Pool, LLC announced a new partnership with Museum L-A in Lewiston, Maine. Design Pool will be offering a selection of historical textile designs from the Museum L-A archives in their online design library, available to anyone who wishes to license the designs for their products and projects. 100% of the proceeds from use of these designs will go directly to Museum L-A to fund their cultural and educational exhibits and programs.

Museum L-A is devoted to telling the story of work and community in the Lewiston-Auburn region of Maine. Founded in 1996, the museum resides in the former Bates Mill which officially closed its doors in 2001. The museum wanted to tell the story of – and pay homage to – the workers from this area that were the anchor of the community for generations, including the textile mill workers. Its mission is to connect generations and cultures and to help people experience the rich history and heritage of work and remember its importance in the community.

“When the mill closed in 2001, we did not want to see its rich design archives, many of which were hand painted, end up in a landfill and be forgotten,” said executive director Audrey Thomson. “Through this partnership with Design Pool, the public can once again use and enjoy these beautiful designs.”

Design Pool founder and CEO Kristen Dettoni worked with the museum staff to pick a selection of designs that she saw as suitable to current market trends. From there she worked to put these designs into repeat sizes ideal for today’s manufacturing capabilities and develop color ways that work with modern tastes and trends. As with all Design Pool designs, the Museum L-A patterns will be available in seamless repeats and available for download in a vector format, making them easy to scale without losing detail. Design Pool partners with a variety of print on demand manufacturers making it easy for designers and architects to order directly from the printer.

“We are so excited to breathe new life into designs from the museum’s rich archives and also help the museum reach its development goals,” said Dettoni. “I would love to see these designs used by interior designers and architects in the area. What better way to honor the rich history of the industry that built this town, than by incorporating that history into new interiors.”

Design Pool is based in East Hampstead, New Hampshire and launched in January 2019. Their online digital library of over 300 high-quality designs is paired with exclusive relationships to the industry’s leading print-on-demand companies. All of Design Pool’s seamless, vector format patterns can be printed on a variety of materials for a wide range of products. The Design Pool library is a valuable resource for interior designers and architects.

View the complete collection of designs here:
Museum L-A Designs

Ray D'Amour was one of many talented artists that worked in the Design Department at the Bates Manufacturing Company. This photograph of Ray hand painting some of the designs in 1965 is indicative of the detailed work that went into creating the designs used for the bedspread line at the mill during its 150 years of operation. Photograph from the collections of Museum L-A.