Designwire Daily: from the editors of Interior Design magazine

Voting for Mannington’s Annual Tx:Style Competition Opens

by Sheila Kim | Friday, May 6, 2011 | 3 Comments

Suzanne Froedge "Oxidize"; Ashley Fuller "Between"

Product design meets social networking yet again in Mannington Commercial’s third annual tx:style design challenge. And, as in the previous competitions, voting for the grand-prize winner is open to the public online. The program invites designers and architects to create flooring concepts, upload them to the contest website, and comment on other entries, resulting in a dialogue and ultimately a new product based on the winning designs as voted by the public.

Visitors to the tx:style website can vote on one of this year’s six finalists: “A La Mode” by Sara Meier abstractly alludes to glitz and glam by way of organic shapes and textures. “Between” by Ashlie Fuller outlines the space or void between trees, while still recalling the forest. “Coastal Rocks” by Paul Lewandowski was inspired by the striations found in the basaltic rock of the Maine coast. “Crosswalk” by Sergio Mondragon presents a streetscape of varied crosswalk paths. “Manhattan” by Ryan Cook sports lines and shapes based on the patterns that city streets and built environments produce. “Oxidize” by Suzanne Froedge plays on the beauty of rusting or oxidation of a weathered surface.

Sara Meier "A La Mode"; Ryan Cook "Manhattan"

While all six finalists will be flown out to NeoCon in Chicago next month and are given a monetary prize, the top two popular-vote winners will be declared the grand-prize winners, who’ll receive $6,000 and a trip to Maison et Objet in Paris. More importantly, the grand-prize winners will see his or her design realized as a full product collection.

“Ideas of connection and collaboration have always existed between designers and manufacturers, but too often these ideas are not given the freedom to grow,” commented Natalie Jones, vice president of Commercial Brand Development and Creative Product divisions at Mannington. “Only by truly engaging people and taking time to create together can we build on each other’s ideas and expertise. Tx:style is all about such collaboration. And as a result, something new and beautiful is taking shape on the floor.”

Sergio Mondragon "Crosswalk"; Paul Lewandowski "Coastal Rocks"

Grand-prize winners will be announced during NeoCon, and all six finalists’ designs will be presented. The showroom will also be unveiling the carpets Matrix, Off the Grid, and Mainframe by Athena Abrol, and LVT tile Rainfall by Laurel Harrison, the winners of last year’s competition. The 2009 winning design, Squareberry, continues to sell successfully in health-care, corporate, educational, and retail markets.

Images courtesy of Mannington Commercial.