Armstrong Commercial Flooring has been honored with a coveted 2011 GOOD DESIGN Award for its newly refreshed Marmorette linoleum flooring line with Continuum.
GOOD DESIGN is referred to as the ‘Oscars’ of industrial design. It dates back to 1950 and is now one of the world’s largest and most distinguished design competitions. The program honors visionary and innovative product concepts, invention and originality, and recognizes designers for stretching the envelope beyond what is considered ordinary product and consumer design. It is presented by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design in conjunction with The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Several thousand leading manufacturers, industrial design offices, architects, graphic and packaging designers from over 50 nations submitted the best of their new product designs in categories ranging from furniture to flooring, appliances to automobiles and from electronics to medical devices – everything from the spoon to the city as the program’s original founders intended in 1950. A total of over 500 awards were given this year. Armstrong was one of only three floor manufacturers to receive the award.
“This is a great honor that pays tribute to the high potential and creative talents of our entire Armstrong design team,” said Julianne Pierce, director, Marketing & Design. “Every day we challenge ourselves to answer the question, ‘What is Good Design?’ While it may seem simple on the surface, at Armstrong we consider this to be every attribute important to our customers – aesthetics, yes, but also performance, durability, usability, sustainability and price. Linoleum, a flooring material that Armstrong helped to pioneer 100 years ago, continues to evolve into that rare, perfect combination of classic and contemporary design.”
Linoleum is the original, timeless resilient flooring made from natural, renewable raw materials. More than a century ago, Armstrong ceased discarding post-industrial cork waste and began recycling it-first into corkboard insulation, and soon afterwards into the green product on which its modern flooring business was built. Today, Armstrong linoleum is made of the same renewable raw ingredients as it was in the early 20th century, including cork powder, linseed oil, limestone, organic pigments and jute backing. The award-winning Marmorette line of commercial linoleum flooring with NATURCote – a high performance coating – represents this timeless standard of design with 67 tonal step options.
All awarded products and graphics are published in the 2011-2012 GOOD DESIGN Yearbook by Metropolitan Arts Press Ltd. and available for purchase on-line. The program is coordinated by Lary L. Sommers, Director of Administration/Marketing of The Chicago Athenaeum and Kieran Conlon, Director/COO, The European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design, and Urban Studies based in Dublin, Ireland.
“The GOOD DESIGN Award is an amazing opportunity to understand the state of global design today,” said jury member, Giorgio Borruso, principal, Giorgio Borruso Design, Marina Del Rey, California. “These innumerable projects come from many different geographical areas, brands, manufacturers and design offices. Through them, you can see how design is shaping our world, now as well as in the near future.”