Pattern of Place

June 30, 2015

Pattern of Place

Mannington Showroom 2015

Widgets & Stone directed the full scale redesign of the Mannington Commercial Showroom in the Merchandise Mart in Chicago for the fourth year in a row. The designs showcase new products in a visually exciting and memorable way, both on the floor and in wall displays.

This year’s showroom design theme was “The Pattern of Place,” derived from the great cities and sites that influenced 2015’s new product introductions. There was a heavy emphasis on highly graphic patterns inspired by everything from tire tracks in LA to the cacti of Tucson and the city grids of DC.

Each display reinterpreted the pattern of each product, utilizing a grey veneer that cohesively brought a sophisticated hospitality feel to the space. Highly patterned pendant lights from Finland complemented the theme, and Built-ins provided functional storage for presentations while doubling as seating. Custom furniture added to the loungy feel and encouraged clients to linger longer.

Design Direction/Art Direction: Mandy Meredith; Designers: Amy Trumbull, Kerry O’Connor, Travis Hitchcock, Matt Greenwell, Bradley Dicharry; Fabrication/Design-Build: Range Projects.

The Next Big Thing: A Million Little Things

June 24, 2014

The Next Big Thing: A Million Little Things

Mannington Showroom Neocon 2014

Widgets & Stone directed the full scale redesign of the Mannington Commercial Showroom in the Merchandise Mart in Chicago for the third year in a row. The designs showcase new products in a visually exciting and memorable way, both on the floor and in wall displays.

This year’s showroom design was based on the theme of the “Next Big Thing” being “A Million Little Things” – so displays took the form of thousands of 2-inch squares (covered with Mannington’s products and colors), each making up a single big image. The STYLIST collection drew inspiration from fashion, so a large image of Debbie Harry (photographed by Steven Meisel) was used. The Connected collection drew inspiration from the Brooklyn Bridge; Design Local used an image of one of the three cities participating, Philadelphia; other displays were simple images or even symbols.

The pixel effect proved quite a delight as viewers in person could not always get far enough away to make out the full image. However, as soon as they took out a phone or a camera to photograph it, the image became immediately visible on the digital display screen.

Design Direction/Art Direction: Mandy Meredith; Designers: Amy Trumbull, Ben Dicks, Kerry O’Connor, Paul Rustand; Fabrication/Design-Build: Range Projects.

Redefined Showroom

January 10, 2014

Redefined

Mannington Commercial Showroom

Widgets & Stone directed the full scale redesign of the Mannington Commercial Showroom in the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. The designs showcase new products in a visually exciting and memorable way, both on the floor and in wall displays.

This year’s showroom design drew heavily on inspiration of Mannington’s manufacturing heritage and on the new Redefined Collection. The Redefined Collection features fashion classics reimagined as modular carpet. Made up of six products inspired by houndstooth, tweed, hexagons, and other classic patterns, Redefined is texturally rich and visually stunning.

The showroom displays featured many elements from the manufacturing facilities: giant spools for yarn, hanging racks for color standards and a wall display featuring an assembly of parts from the tufting machines. Other visually striking elements were the hexagonal LVT floor patterns and the honeycomb wall display.

Creative Direction: Mandy Meredith; Design: Mandy Meredith, Paul Rustand, Matt Greenwell, Amy Trumbull; Display Fabrication: Jason Meyer & Ray Padron.