Contract Magazine - July 2020 - 31

Reesie Duncan
Vice President of Global
Design
Shaw Contract

What was the inspiration for your latest collections-Shifting Fields,
Tailored, and Dialogue?
As landscapes shift throughout our natural world, a variety of environments that
support different types of life are formed. Like these diverse environments in nature,
the spaces we occupy need to support a range of functions in our daily routine.
Shifting Fields is a carpet tile collection that captures the importance of these
different environments while providing a biophilic flooring solution that helps
define space through zoning, transitions, and wayfinding. The patterns draw
inspiration from the natural transitions between earth, sky, and water to help create
a safer, more balanced work environment-one that is as connected as it is defined.
Tradition meets technology in Tailored woven LVT, a combination of
sophistication and practicality. Inspired by the craftsmanship and rich tradition
of classic tweed and made-to-measure clothing, Tailored weaves together hard
surface durability with soft surface aesthetics. Just as tweed has maintained its
status over centuries as both hard-wearing yet stylish, Tailored blends
performance and aesthetics for the places we work, live, and learn. Tailored is
manufactured on a jacquard loom as a tightly woven flooring solution. The
material composition is layered for strength and fused into a single solid surface
and engineered to resist stains, scuffing, and wear from demanding conditions,
making Tailored easy to clean and preventing fraying and edge wear.
Dialogue explores the power of communication through design and seeks
to create spaces where people can engage in more meaningful ways with one
another. The collection recognizes the importance of building environments
that celebrate individual expression, creativity through design, and face-to-face
dialogue. As the ways we communicate change, dialogue is becoming more
important than ever. Design is the language of a culture, a community, a building,
and meaningful design fosters dialogue. It can catalyze new ideas, collaboration,
and innovation, and perhaps most importantly, good design builds relationships.
The patterns of Dialogue were inspired by exploring the different types of spoken
and unspoken communication, like writing, text, Morse code, and sheet music,
and abstracting these to create personal and meaningful connections.
The Dialogue collection showcases Shaw Contract's newest constructions
that push innovative design forward. Can you explain that?
Dialogue patterns were developed with our Tailor Tuft technology, allowing
us to create sculpted and defined designs unique to this innovative machine.
The designs range from four-color to one-color constructions, for interjections
of color or tonal dimension. The collections portfolio of patterns also highlights
our high-definition, dye-injection Canvas technology that produces gradient
tonal hues of color that are unmatched in detail and quality of design. In addition
to Tailor Tuft and Canvas, the collection is also available in MLCL and Colorpoint
Tiles. Dialogue is a custom, high-end flooring solution, that we will be adding
running line hard surface and soft surface products in fourth-quarter 2020
to continue the design conversation.

the warmth and comfort of home, a much-needed space to retreat, or spaces
for human interaction and vibrant interjections. Our goal for designing the
new program was to create a variety of aesthetics and creative moments that
capture personal experiences, from our inspirations exploring textiles in Morocco,
the beauty of the American Southwest desert, or a childhood memory of roller
coasters. By working with multiple designers, both external and in-house,
we curated different creative visions and perspectives to reflect the unique
identities of our varying clients.
We were attracted to working with several designers that we had always
admired to bring some fresh perspectives. Originally from Venezuela, Adriana
Jaroslavky, takes inspiration from architectural spaces resulting in bold
interactions of form and color. Trish Anderson, a Georgia native and fine artist
who "paints" with yarn, lent her signature style of embracing color and texture
in bold strokes to the collection. Rockwell Group was a natural choice and
we had just collaborated on our seventh collection, Desert Lights, that elevates
the natural processes in nature that are much larger than us.
Over the past few years, we have seen market shifts and the commercial
and residential lines blurred. In the commercial sector, public spaces are the
focus of creating impactful and engaging environments where people can
thrive-and we see rugs becoming an important part of the layering of materials
in these spaces. As hard surfaces are used more and more, clients are realizing
there is a need for acoustic solutions and a desire to create more warmth and
comfort. The goal of the running line rugs platform is to introduce a clear and
simple program for selling competitively priced, ready-to-ship rugs. By making
commercially durable rugs more readily available and easier to specify, we
can continue to round out Shaw Contract as a single point of contact flooring
provider. Specification will be simplified with 30 patterns that will come
in standard sizes, and installation will be as easy as rolling out the rug.
Sadly, we aren't experiencing NeoCon in person this year, but I heard
you wanted to support the Chicago community.
This year, we are not physically with each other at NeoCon but we are still
together with the city of Chicago. A portion of the proceeds from our Shifting
Fields collection will be donated to the Greater Chicago Food Depository. The
impact of COVID-19 has created unprecedented need, and this is an opportunity
for us to help with an organization that is doing impactful work.
While you've been working from home, what inspiration have you found
for your future collections?
I've spent time learning and listening to so many great webinars with dialogue
on where the future is going. I'm really interested in how we can use our flooring
to impact the myriad evolving needs our commercial spaces demand-
from sanctuaries we need to think and reflect to moments for creativity
and optimism-and how flexible spaces can influence human interaction
and connect us with nature.

Can you talk about your new rugs program? What attracted you
to collaborating with talented designers such as Adriana Jaroslavky,
Trish Andersen, and the Rockwell Group?
Rugs are a foundational piece that layer into the built environment, adding
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Contract Magazine - July 2020

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