ONE of Blackburn's most successful companies is heading for a brave new world with the help of the some of the most famous designers in the country.

Graham and Brown, which employs nearly 500 in East Lancashire, is preparing to turn the old concepts of wallpaper on their head.

It has hired East Lancashire style gurus Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway and Changing Rooms' Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen to create what they think we will be hanging on our walls in the future.

And Burnley-born Gerardine Hemingway has said how great it is to work again with people with "proper accents and a great sense of humour."

The company's bold move is a far cry from the humble beginnings of the company set up in cramped and primitive premises in Water Street, Blackburn by Henry Brown and Harold Graham in 1946.

In the post-war years rationing meant there were shortages of paper and Barbara Castle MP had to go to Parliament to campaign for more allocations so the entrepreneurs could meet growing consumer demand.

The company took off and with it did the sense of community among the workers who would often be rewarded with summer outings and Christmas parties.

Today Graham and Brown, based in Wembley, Middlesex, is striving to buck-the-trend of trendy twenty and thirty-somethings who are shunning wallpaper.

The Hemingways and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen have been up to the company's design suite in Harwood Street, Green Bank Industrial Estate, Blackburn, every month for the past year to work with the company's designers.

Gerardine Hemingway co-founded the successful Red or Dead fashion label with husband Wayne, a former QEGS pupil, Blackburn, which they later sold.

She said: "Its great to get home it gives us more reason to visit family and for Wayne to watch Rovers. Graham and Brown are a nice lot, a true family business with a great attitude to dealing with people.

"They have been a joy to work with and we can't say that about everyone, so it must be that Blackburn air."

Andrew Graham, the new chief executive of the company, said: "Ten years ago we did jolly good wallpaper to add decor to a room. But the world has changed. You have got to be innovative in order to survive.

"Lawrence and Wayne and Gerardine have been phenomenal."

The progressive step coincides with the two men who have overseen the huge growth of the firm over the last four decades stepping back from the forefront of leading the company.

Roger Graham and David Brown who have worked together for the last 43 years are changing their roles from joint managing directors to joint chairmen.