At NeoCon 2006, sustainable design company Tricycle, Inc received IIDA honors for best booth design for the third year in a row. This year, Tricycle's designers won twice, for their own booth as well as for the exhibit the company designed for one of its customers, Nood Floorcovering. The awards mark the fifth consecutive year that Tricycle has won a NeoCon award - every year since the company's founding.
The IIDA Showroom & Booth Design Competition, co-sponsored with Contract Magazine, is in its 11th year. Judging criteria included originality of design, visual impact, effective use of materials, use of pace, color and textures, lighting and graphics. This year's judges included practicing design professionals from Atlas Architects, Carrier Johnson, HLW International, Gensler, TPG Architecture, and TVS Interiors.
The 2006 Creative Excellence Award for Best Booth of less than 400 square feet was awarded to Tricycle's own booth. A stripped-down booth consisting of wall graphics and second hand crates, the exhibit promoted design's potential for industry change and featured REVERB, an "anthology of sustainability in 2006" written by leading eco-consultants, commercial designers and industry editors to benefit the nonprofit Architecture for Humanity. The wall graphics consisting of hand-painted silhouette of grass, dandelions, microphones and guitar amplifiers, behind a seemingly haphazard veil of yarn strung between pegs.
"Since Tricycle's mission is to dematerialize the creative process we thought it only appropriate to design a booth with as little "stuff" as possible," said Tricycle Chief Brand Officer Michael Hendrix. "For less than $400 in materials cost and using primarily items from a junk salvage store, we were able to create an engaging, conceptual design and are pleased the judges felt the same."
The 2006 Creative Excellence Award for Best Booth of more than 400 square feet was awarded to Nood Floorcovering, a new floorcovering brand that uses Tricycle's simulation services to reduce unnecessary waste in product development and sampling, as well as Tricycle's marketing services. The colors and design of the space underscored Nood's commitment to dematerialized design and environmental best practices while spotlighting Urban Optimist, its piece dye modular broadloom collection on the floor as well as Spork, its tufted nylon flooring that resembles flokati.
"Designing a space for such an unique, timely young brand like Nood at NeCon this year was quite the enjoyable task," said Tricycle Design Director Ben Horner. "Their simple, direct message of hate- waste design is exactly what Tricycle is all about, so we were delighted to design their space. We wanted to create a booth that designers couldn't just pass by; it only helped that Nood founder Bo Barber was in it."
The permanent showroom winners of this year's Creative Excellence Awards were Haworth Architectural Interiors and Office Furniture, and Keilhauer, manufacturer of designer office furniture.
Tricycle also contributed to Lees Carpets' Best of NeoCon Innovation Award for their upcoming Design Studio program, for which Tricycle created a web site utilizing SIM from Tricycle® simulation and redesigned architectural folders. Designed to simplify the customization process, Lees Design Studio enables designers to configure and color more than 100 carpet tile designs and then order SIM samples online for quick delivery; the program helps designers get one-of-a-kind contract carpet with complete color, style and application flexibility.