Contract furnishings provider, Hightower received multiple awards at NeoCon 2021, including IIDA's 'Best Small Showroom' (under 4,000 sf) and 'Best of Competition' for its newly designed Chicago showroom.
Humanscale welcomes Elizabeth Margles to its Marketing Division in the role of Chief Marketing Officer. Margles comes to Humanscale with twenty years of experience in design, fashion and retail and a background in public relations and advertising.
The exclusive relationship with Kontrol's BioCloud® Technology will provide real-time detection of airborne pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 to help make workplaces safer as organizations return to the office.
Irvine, California–based contract textiles manufacturer Momentum Group has received the 2016 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA). Momentum was honored for its commitment to sustainable excellence through innovation, improvement, and leadership.
North West fit-out firm Spatial Office Environments is on track for a record seven-figure turnover just two years since its launch.
The Manchester-based company pulled in £1.2m in its first 12 months, £1.7m in its second and has now forecast its 2016 revenue to hit £4m.
This week, Spatial has announced the completion of textile firm Camira Fabric’s new 1,300 sq ft showroom in Clerkenwell, London.
Filling the entire ground floor of the Poppy Building in the pedestrianised Brewhouse Yard, Spatial’s fit-out created a user-focused textile resource for fabric specifiers and designers.
The textile geniuses at Maharam will debut their first collection of leather upholstery next month. Focusing on leather that has been minimally treated and processed, the eight styles in the collection are sourced from boutique tanneries in Italy, with the exception of the suede, which will be sourced from Spain. Maharam has developed 100 individual shades using the texture and other material qualities of leather to determine the color direction. In addition, two new accessories will launch with the line, the first of which is a Market Tote designed in collaboration with Various Projects’ Elizabeth Beer and Brian Janusiak. Diecut from leather, the bag transforms from a flat rectangle into a roomy net bag that is available in four colors. A Folded Pouch, designed by Maharam Media (the brand’s in-house design studio) comes in two sizes to store everyday essentials (and non-essentials like iPads). Both feature a stitchless construction in a vacuum-dried leather with a flat, pressed texture that comes in a range of neutral and flourescent colors. Here we share some photos of the leather process in Italy, shot by London-based photographer Nick Ballon.
Open-plan workplaces continue to get a lot of flak for excessive noise and lack of privacy, but often go unchanged because, well, they’re already designed and built. Fortunately, acoustical-product specialists are helping to improve audio privacy and control noise in such spaces without requiring a gut renovation — and their solutions are attractive, to boot. One brand from this market segment that’s caught our eye is Kirei, who offers everything from peel-and-stick modular tiles and ceiling baffles to hanging screens and custom panels for furniture application.
The company’s EchoPanel Tiles come in three different style groups depending on aesthetic and ease-of-installation needs. What we like best from this family is the Geometry collection, a peel-and-stick series comprising hexagons, squares, triangles, rectangles and pentagrams. The tiles can be arranged in any kind of configuration, and since they come in a total of 20 colors, they can even be used to create an artistic mural. Geometry tiles offer an NRC rating of approximately .36 and have a Class C fire rating.
Panelists at Wednesday’s CoreNet Global Carolinas mega event in uptown Charlotte largely agreed on one theme: evolving workspace trends have become a big deal in commercial real estate.
“We’re creating a workplace environment that allows workers to be at their most productive,” said Calvin Saboorian, managing director of real estate at Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), speaking at one panel that examined workplace strategies in commercial real estate. “We’re starting at the bottom and going up.”
The fall 2016 Cityscape collection captures the urban landscape within a two dimensional textile form. Design Director Iris Wang and the Brentano design studio were inspired by all senses represented within the metropolitan environment – such as the towering skyscrapers, perpetual movement and energetic sounds that pulse throughout any city. The 18 new patterns symbolize society’s kinetic energy while offering a unified balance of residential, hospitality and contract textiles.
What makes a fabric something that is made for you to sit on instead of something to wrap a panel with? Or hang in a hospitable? Are the fabrics really all that different? The answer is yes and no, as we will explain in this post.
These high-performing upholstery fabrics feature colorful, dynamic prints and the durability required for use in commercial applications indoors and outdoors.
Irvine, California–based textile supplier Momentum Group has announced it has acquired Sina Pearson Textiles. Sina Pearson, known for her globally influenced textile design, will join Momentum Group as the company’s fourth distinct brand. Designers such as Carl and Emanuela Magnusson, Sheila Hicks, and Hazel Siegel have also contributed to Momentum Group’s collection in recent years.
Polyester is the most common and versatile fiber type that we weave fabric with in our mills and most of our upholstery, panel/acoustic and cubicle fabrics are woven out of polyester. In this article we will cover what polyester is, where it comes from, and its advantages and disadvantages.
Polyester is a man-made material that is essentially plastic, however it mimics natural materials like wool, cotton and silk but with increased performance. Polyester is used in lots of different products such as clothing, bedding, blankets and industrial applications. In fact, plastic water bottles also fall in the polyester family and are the main source of recycled polyester. If you understand chemistry, and want a more in-depth look at what polyester is at a molecular level, click over to the Wikipedia article here. I frankly start to get lost pretty quickly when I start to read about chemical structure of thermoplastics and polyethylene terephthalates... And I am guessing most of you do too.
A Brooklyn-based startup called Modern Meadow has raised $40 million to become a top source of leather for the world’s makers of fashion and accessories, luggage, sporting goods, upholstery and furniture. Rather than raising animals to slaughter them and take the skin off their backs in a physically and chemically intensive process, Modern Meadow “biofabricates” its leather in labs and foundries.
Fabric composition may not be the first thing you consider when selecting a new textile, however, with a wide range of options available you may be interested in finding out more about what a fabric is made of. We break down the options on our online sample ordering service as: wool, synthetic, coated polyester, Trevira CS, vinyl, other (e.g. leather), and environmental (to include bast fibre fabrics and EU Ecolabel certified products). Here we cover some basic facts on wool, polyester, bast fibres and closed loop yarns.
ESSENTIALS™ Curated by Pallas Textiles
A white gloved hand taking your ticket… the plush velvet seat…the buttery smell of freshly popped popcorn…all are essential to a classic theater experience.
Well-designed interiors also rely on a few essentials, including textiles. At Pallas, we understand the understated impact of a unifying color palette…a pattern to draw you in…a texture that beckons to be touched. Essentials™ is designed to do just that. So you can confidently layer a pop of color with a statement piece, knowing you have a foundation of upholsteries that will stand the test of time.
Harnessing humor and transformation through life changing experiences like death, divorce and son going to college is a gift of life. Suzanne Tick, weaver, artist, NYC based textile designer explores the narrative of using the power of weaving and the craft of alchemy to transform discarded objects into beauty and art, along with the therapeutic effect of transforming a negative psyche to a positive one. Through its process of meditative repetition, the weaving of each art piece is a contemplation of personal growth and significance.
Since it kicked off back in 2006, the annual Tour of California has become the Golden State’s greatest cycling race as it spans the majority of the coast over the course of about a week. Now a decade old, this year’s Tour is being celebrated by Rapha and Herman Miller as the two have teamed up to offer a collection of cycling caps for the race. Featuring deigns for each of the eight stages and a special make-up for the women’s race, the range takes cues from the Design Director of Herman Miller’s textile division, Alexander Girard, as it delves into just a few of his more than 300 specially-created prints.
Textile designer, Elizabeth Whelan, talks about the process and creation of the specialized fabrics that were created for Humanscale's unique ergonomic seating designs.
At Camira, we try to integrate sustainability and environmental considerations into all aspects of our supply chain, from sourcing fully traceable wool in New Zealand to collaborating with our polyester supplier to develop closed loop recycled yarns manufactured using our own waste material. It’s not just about the raw materials and processes we use to manufacture our textiles, these considerations form part of our wider business philosophy.
The U.S. Department of Defense has tapped a broad coalition of manufacturers, universities, and nonprofits to spearhead an ambitious new project to accelerate textiles innovation in the United States. Led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Advanced Functional Fibers of America Institute will draw upon more than $250 million in public-private investments, plus $75 million in federal resources, over an initial five-year period. As the eighth Manufacturing Innovation Institute established to date, the hub will be headquartered in Cambridge, in close vicinity to the MIT campus and its U.S. Army-funded Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology, as well as the Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center.
Read the rest of MIT’s New Manufacturing Hub to Lead U.S. in Textile Innovation
Talk: "Weaving trash into treasure"
"Transformation has been a big theme in my life…dualities unfold in my understanding of what broken/disharmony and humor looks like thru the creation of my woven art pieces. Three major woven art projects allowed me to delve more clearly onto the path to love and forgiveness. Gratitude in understanding.. the differences of strength and weakness. Transforming my life thru found treasures."
Ted Navesink is being held April 9, 2016 at Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ
Aaron Betsky looks at implicit gender biases in interior design through a reading of Textile Technology and Design: From Interior Space to Outer Space, a new book from Bloomsbury Academic.
