Last Call for Mannington Commercial’s 2013 Design Local

This year’s final team of Mannington Commercial’s Design Local program gathered in Philadelphia earlier this month to scour the city for artifacts, photos, sketches (and in their case some perfectly aged cheeses) that represented their hometown. They'll use them all to create a carpet line--with the help of Mannington of course--that exemplifies the City of Brotherly Love.

Team Philly decided to divide completely and conquer, as they felt what makes the city so special is its uniquely defined neighborhoods. Their diversity—as well as the food establishments that mark them—were the focus for these six designers, as well as how citizens choose to hop from one to the other.

“What’s neat is there’s going to be six different stories, not just three,” said Tasso Karras, who returned with a stack of menus from various eateries he visited. He spoke of the smells and people attached to the photos he came back with, which he hoped the line would somehow be able to illustrate.

Lauren Candelora “wanted to capture the old charm” of Queen Village where she visited Fashion Row on 4^th Street and picked up fabrics and spools of thread.

Nicole Wood paid a visit to the city’s Navy Yard as well as the infamous Italian Market where she bought a mouthwatering cheese rind wrapped in chestnut leaves, as well as beautifully marbled meats. “It’s a sensory experience down there,” she said.

Angela Kent actually retraced her daily commute in her home of West Philadelphia for her Design Local trek. “I think a key element to our city is the parks system,” she said. Cheryl Spigler stuck to the National Liberty Museum area where “you can see all of the history. All of the layers.” She also made a stop at Scout, a vintage shop where she snagged a number of knickknacks, including an amazing set of bull horns: no coincidence for this spunky designer.

Spigler also took pictures of bicycles as did Ariel Ricciuti who zeroed in on transportation as part of her report. “It’s a huge biking city!” Ricciuti said.

So I suppose it’s not ironic that the team began to focus on a theme of circles as I was stepping out. I noticed their editing process was a very systematic one, more so than I’ve seen in other Design Local downloads, weeding out the good from the great photography. No easy task.