Final Touches / All in the Details

Over the last two years we have been able to assess the current design of our new office and identify what is working, what isn’t and what’s missing. We’re looking at functionality and how the design shapes a sense of place that defines the PAYETTE culture.

Our marketing team and designers have since been putting the icing on the cake, so-to-speak, from the latest window shade install to the way finding graphics for the conference rooms. These final details add to the safety, comfort and overall happiness of the firm.

In addition to these items, PAYETTE earned first place in the Allsteel ‘Fall in Love’ design competition earlier this year. The resources we received as winner will soon allow for an underutilized space in our office to transform into a collaborative, inviting breakout area — answering the high demand for soft seating. As we anxiously await the furniture installation this summer, a few designers have been brainstorming solutions for custom area rugs that will reinforce our vision for the space.

Here are a few of our favorite designs we have been working on, inspired by materiality and Designtex fabrics, they all achieve large scale, bold, organic characteristics, to play up the scale of the new furniture and visually reflect the culture of our architectural firm.

This is our thought process behind a few of the ideas:

1. The concept ties into landscape, wellbeing and design. The thin line work lends a nice graphic quality to the pattern that simulates sketching.

2. The raw, patina effect is in keeping with PAYETTE’s living lab concept and the organic nature of it complements the carpet’s unusual shape.

3.  This design alludes to the initial brainstorming and sketching of an idea, a nice contrast to some of the more developed, computer graphics that come with project development.

A fun fact about carpet design that is particularly relevant to this topic: World-renowned architects Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Michael Graves, Margaret McCurry, Robert A.M. Stern and Stanley Tigerman have recently lent their talents to the world of carpet design, teaming up with Arzu Studio Hope to create the Masters Collection. The project’s main mission is to help empower and employ Afghan women.

It’s interesting to see how they interpret architectural elements into their own custom rug designs. Zaha Hadid’s ‘ZH’ rug depicts changing perspectives as one moves through time and space, while Frank Gehry’s rug translates three-dimensional objects into two-dimensional graphics. Gehry found it was a challenge to maintain the dynamism of the three dimensional objects and working with the constraints of traditional rug making.