Hip Hop architect Mike Ford designed the Gold Award winning eponymous collection by Shaw in the area rug category.
CHICAGO -- NeoCon announce the winners of the 33rd annual Best of NeoCon Awards, and Mohawk, Patcraft and Shaw Contract won awards in the flooring categories of Area Rugs, Carpet and Modular at the 2023 event.
The NeoCon program recognizes products from industry-leading companies that demonstrate unparalleled innovation and design-forward thinking. Selected by a distinguished jury of architects, designers, specifiers, enterprise clients, facility managers, and top business media, each of the entries was evaluated on-site in the days leading up to the show. A total of 114 awards were bestowed upon products in more than 50 categories for Gold, Silver, Sustainability, Innovation, Business Impact, and the coveted Best of Competition honors. This year, the Flote Lounge Collection from Hightower (Showroom 1110) received the distinction of Best of Competition.
“The solutions unveiled during this year’s Best of NeoCon reflect the expanded and increasingly diverse range of needs of today’s offices, schools, hotels, restaurants, retail, public space, and healthcare facilities,” remarks Eileen McMorrow, Best of NeoCon Competition Director. “From products designed to promote relaxation and well-being, to solo work pods and acoustic solutions well-suited for concentration and focused work, to collaboration collections for intentional team tasks, this year’s winning products enhance the built environment and contribute to a more balanced user experience.”
Taking this year’s Best of Competition, Hightower’s Flote Lounge collection was inspired by the support, comfort, and ease of relaxing on a pool float. With its inviting, curve-hugging seat and modern-yet-timeless aesthetic, Flote brings a sensation of buoyancy and cloud-like comfort to the user.
“After a few years of tumult and uncertainty, the optimism and comfort of this collection is just what we need to see,” the jury notes. They also praise the collection for “offering a fresh perspective while paying homage to the past and looking toward the future. The inspiring design story and features like a surprising zipper detail, stitching options, and ‘hotdog’ welting exemplify the boldness and creativity behind its design. Situated on this piece, one can't help but feel a unique and immersive experience that beckons them to stay. Committed to a better tomorrow, Hightower also recently received its B-Corp certification for social and environmental governance.”
The Best of NeoCon jury also recognized six products for its new Business Impact Awards, which honor design excellence through a business-oriented lens. A jury of discerning journalists from media outlets including Fast Company, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Human Resources Executive, Crain’s Chicago Business, and 99% Invisible evaluated the curated selection of products based on each solution’s ability to positively impact both the organization and its people. Winners include: OFS’ Tate; Okamura’s Lives Post + Beam; Andreu World’s Bolete Lounge BIO; Schiavello’s Krossi Workstations; Via Seating’s 4-UP; and Makr Furniture’s Moment Collection. From a new workstation system powered by wifi-enabled technology to optimize use and employee wellness to a cushion family designed for meditative spaces, the winning products address the current and emerging trends across verticals.
FLOORING: CARPET: AREA RUGS
GOLD AWARD
The new Mike Ford + Shaw Contract collection won a gold award at the 2023 contract furnishing event.
Shaw Contract partnered with renowned Hip Hop Architect Mike Ford to create a rug collection celebrating Hip Hop's 50th anniversary. Ford aims to position Hip Hop as design inspiration, exploring tactile experiences and spotlighting its genius. The collaboration highlights Hip Hop's textures, patterns, and rhythms, showcasing its energy, optimism, and rich history. This collaboration delves into the intersection of design and Hip Hop culture.
The collection showcases five patterns, each embodying a unique attribute of Hip Hop culture. The DJing pattern is inspired by the worn stack of records DJs would carry with them; the Breakin pattern pays homage to makeshift cardboard dancefloors from the '70s and '80s; the Emcee pattern reflects the artistry of rap lyrics through mathematical analysis; the Graffiti pattern celebrates the collective art and fluid lettering styles; and the Knowledge pattern, represents the latest element of Hip Hop and translates the complexities of lyrical analysis into tangible design.
Adhering to Shaw Contract's 'People Together, Planet Forever' initiative, a portion of the collection’s proceeds will help fund future Hip Hop Architecture camps, which empowers underrepresented youth and further broadens Ford's work of using design as a tool to advance equity, justice, and inclusion within communities.
SILVER AWARD
Shaw also earned a Silver Award in the area rug category for its Cultura lineup, which is inspired by Oaxaca, Mexico.
Cultura is a rug collection inspired by the rich culture and artistic heritage of Oaxaca, Mexico. It represents a fusion of traditional Oaxacan techniques with innovative design principles, creating a diverse blend of constructions, textures and patterns. Cultura's design draws inspiration from the geometry of Sierra Norte mountains and the ruins of Monte Alban, while embodying the warmth of Oaxacan craft.
The Shaw Contract design team traveled to Oaxaca and while there, spent time with the community, learning about Oaxacan dying, weaving and even pottery techniques that have been handed down for generations.
FLOORING: CARPET: BROADLOOM
GOLD AWARD
Durkan/Mohawk Group Hospitality's new Mycotopia took home the top award in the broadloom category at NeoCon 2023.
Mohawk earned a NeoCon 2023 Gold Award in the broadloom flooring category for its new Mycotopia collection, which it debuted earlier this year and earned two awards at HD Expo. The collection is inspired by the hidden structures of mushrooms and their ecological importance and includes 16 patterns crafted of sustainable materials. It is a multi-category carpet collection from Durkan/Mohawk Group Hospitality that explores the sense of well-being and connection that nature provides to humankind.
The collection was created to be easy to integrate into a variety of different contract and hospitality spaces, offering multiple pattern scales, constructions and platform types. These include sculpted high-end Definity broadloom, Pattern Perfect, tufted guestroom broadloom, Precision Dye Injection (PDI) print tile and hand-tufted area rugs.
As part of Durkan’s commitment to sustainability and community, an original artwork inspired by Mycotopia was commissioned from Connie Avery. Avery is an artist that the manufacturer initially connected with through its ArtLifting product design collaboration to uplift and empower artists with disabilities. Avery's lives with retinitis pigmentosa and Usher’s syndrome, diseases which progressively reduce her ability to see and hear. Despite these challenges, Avery successfully pursued her dream of graduating from college and becoming an artist.
SILVER AWARD
Shaw Contract's Cultura collection also earned a Silver Award in the broadloom category.
FLOORING: CARPET: MODULAR
GOLD AWARD
Again, Shaw Contract's Cultura lineup took home a Gold Award but this time in the modular flooring category.
Shaw Contract's Cultura collection includes six 18x36 carpet tile styles, offered in up to 13 colorways.
SILVER AWARD
Patcraft's Material Edit modular carpet tiles earned a Silver Award at the 2023 NeoCon.
Patcraft's Material Edit includes both a carpet tile collection and hard surface offering of geometric inspired patterns. Material Edit offers a multi-priced solution with a tiered approach. The carpet tiles featuring eight colorways ranging from saturated hues to warm and cool neutrals, the five styles are available in 18” x 36” carpet tiles.
Material Edit tiles are constructed with EcoSolution Q100(TM) yarn, which offers 100 percent post-industrial recycled content allocated from waste minimization and collection efforts. Using this yarn in conjunction with EcoWorx backing creates a lower, overall embodied carbon footprint for the product, which is reflected in the EC3 tool. Products are manufactured with EcoWorx backing and are Cradle to Cradle Certified Silver, and can be recycled at the end of their useful life to then be remade into EcoWorx flooring through the re[TURN] Reclamation Program.