Named the Self-Expression Project, the year-long experiment aimed to reveal that self-expression is not lost in the commercial flooring world.
“It started out as just a small experiment with a few designers from the Atlanta studio,” said Lydia Day, marketing executive for Brintons Americas who helped initiate the Self-Expression project. “We wanted to see how they would respond without a brief. So, I found a photo online that was nicely composed—good color and clever texture—and asked them if they were interested in participating in the experiment.”
The experiment quickly grew from one to five focus groups, each with three to five designers. Since the Brintons Americas designers are spread across the country working in multiple time zones, the marketing team split them up by their respective zones. “Time became this glaring theme directing our process,” said Day. “That’s how we chose the last four pieces.”
Team members were given various pieces of inspiration—a photograph, playlist, video, ant farm, and sundial—with the task to simply respond to it with their own self-expression. Each piece is an instrument in telling time, just in different ways.
“We wanted the inspirations to be obscure enough to where the designers could objectively respond to them, not respond how we or the industry thinks they should,” said Day of their selections. “Really concentrating on self-expression in the commercial flooring world.”
Self-Expression Timeline
Once members reviewed the individual item given to their team, they then worked independently for two weeks on their designs to allow for self-expression to develop. Afterwards, the designers would convene for university-styled critiques, and then fine-tune their work through the lens of studio culture and peer review.
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Collection Release Date: March - Photograph
“It is interesting to see how differently everyone digests the same piece of inspiration,” said Amy LaGuire, a designer in the group one. “Paul [Andino] completely reduces it [the Gordon Williams image] to simple shapes focusing on the small details of layered textures while Nona [Thorton] is drawn to how the fabric shapes come together, whereas my process is extremely literal. Because of my background in interior design, I tend to look at the inspiration and work backwards with the understanding of what the end manufactured product will be.”
Collection Release Date: April - Playlist
Collection Release Date: June - Video
Collection Release Date: July - Ant Farm
Collection Release Date: August - Sundial
Last but not least, group five was given a sundial to respond to—a more obvious relation to time. The result, to be released in August, includes a handful of authentic and artful designs, born directly from the designers and highlighting skillful self-expression.
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