Second chances abound in the work of emerging artist Juli Bolaños-Durman.

More than 60 trans-disciplinary projects including two large-scale, site-specific installations. Five curators. A six-person advisory board. A 240-page book. And countless hours of investigation, meditation, experimentation and scholarship. Those are just a few ingredients in the heady stew of “Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial,” the sixth instalment of the museum’s signature exhibition.

Today, the design industry is complex. Key ingredients used to be attention to detail, market analysis and strong technical knowledge. However, ethics and building consensus increasingly surface as more important design skills.

You could call this a marriage of the minds. John Stephens is the Vice President of Marketing for Shaw Contract. Shannan Billings is the Senior Director of Global Sourcing for Shaw Industries, the parent company to Shaw Contract. He’s a former history major. She can’t get through a meeting without using the word “molecule” more than a dozen times. They share a belief system, an employer and their home. Is this a house united? Here’s what happens when they sit down to talk.

In the world of design, sustainability can take many forms. It can involve a renewable material. It can mandate buildings that respect the geography of a place. It can come from architecture that favours local materials and building types. Or it can encompass all of the above, as the work of the three design professionals profiled here illustrates so eloquently.

Today, the design industry is complex. Key ingredients used to be attention to detail, market analysis and strong technical knowledge. However, ethics and building consensus increasingly surface as more important design skills.

Living in a time of increasing choices and possibilities made answering this question even more important. Our brand refresh was born out of a need to have an answer to this question. We know that purpose-driven companies have 4X the CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of companies in the S&P 500 Consumer Sector. Generating a vision that connects us all enables us to better connect with our clients, and it empowers them to choose Shaw Contract.

On the front of the Association for Learning Environments (A4LE) international conference, a group of Disney fans and the curious gathered at Disneyland. After all, when your conference is held near one of the most magical places on earth, you must take the opportunity to connect to your childlike self and get inspired by a brand you grew up with. A few of us may have walked in as sceptics to the magic, but we all left as believers.

Dating back to the eighth century, dyeing technique consisted of taking fabrics that are bound, stitched, folded, twisted, compressed or clamped then dipping them into a colour bath. The results were not just distinctive in pattern but in depth of colour, too. The Shaw Contract design team took inspiration from this ancient textile dyeing method when conceptualising new colours to update our best-selling Dye Lab collection.

For this year’s Design Awards, we pulled together an elite group of judges from all around the globe. For us, the Design Awards are a celebration of the creative vision architects and designers bring to the world. They highlight the truly innovative and inspiring work being done by the design community.

Experimenting with colour is what the Dye Lab carpet tile collection is all about. For years, Dye Lab has brought a lush intimacy into the spaces we work, rest and converge. Now, we’re expanding its reach with exciting new colours.

Shaw Contract is pleased to announce that it has opened a new showroom and office in Dubai, UAE. Located in the Dubai Design District (d3), the new space offers an opportunity to showcase the company’s product portfolio and meet with clients and aligned dealers to discuss their flooring project needs.

On this day and all days, we’re making an effort to consume less and produce less waste. One of the best ways we can do that is to use less plastic - a cause that we’re actively tackling through product development.

Around this time last year, we were preparing to introduce our collaboration with Stockholm-based design studio Form Us With Love at NeoCon. This year, we’re thrilled to share the Inside Shapes Design Tool with you. It’s a digital toolkit that empowers designers to create a floorscape using the Inside Shapes collection.

The impact of colour in our inhabited spaces has a profound, subliminal effect on how we process and interact with the world, others and ourselves. As students of design, we understand that the colours we choose for a designed space are emblematic of a mood, a culture or an intended outcome. How does this shade of grey make our patients feel when they’re in a healing environment? Which shade of blue brings luxurious calm to a hospitality environment?

Anyone who follows us on social media or who had the chance to visit our booth at NeoCon this year will have been as excited as we are by the launch of Inside Shapes, the new creative toolkit designed to take carpet tile from being a surface covering to an interactive design tool.

Rapid Select, from Shaw Contract, has launched. The ideal flooring choice for quick turnaround projects without compromising on quality, performance or design, Rapid Select has been developed specifically by Shaw Contract for the UK and European commercial interiors markets and is made in the UK.