John Crews confidently tells me next year will be full of rich and nostalgic color, handmade touches, and simplicity derived from nature. As the director of creative product design for upscale flooring brand Anderson Tuftex, he’s responsible for accurately predicting trends before they’ve even begun and designing flooring to meet them on their trajectory.
This year’s collection of hard and soft flooring, unified under the design theme Reawaken, embodies the idea of making home a sanctuary away from everyday chaos. The natural grain and inlays of Joinery hardwood reimagines traditional woodworking. The plush texture of Kaleidoscope carpet feels luxurious but also rises to the challenge of daily life with pets. They are united by the hope to revive the home as a personal haven. “The Reawaken collection celebrates moving forward,” says Michael Ferguson, director of creative product design – hard surfaces. “It’s about embracing the new with a sense of purpose and optimism.”
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- Grand Estate in the color Langon Court. Grand Estate hardwood brings nature into the home with broad planks that celebrate the innate beauty of oak.
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- “The beauty of Grand Estate is nature-born, exhibiting the raw authenticity of the most organic creations and only the slightest human touch,” John says.
To identify these design themes the designers observe and map the present, large-scale industry and culture trends, paying particular attention to how people are living. “We see trends at a larger view, fashion, design, how homes evolve. How ways of living and how comfort and time become more attributes that are more aspirational,” John says. The Anderson Tuftex team then finds ways to interpret these using visual trends, color, and texture—like implementing the visual pattern of rock formations in the Caboodle carpet to reflect a cultural trend of finding comfort in nature.
During extensive prototyping and field-testing, what-ifs and wild concepts abound until commonalities emerge, and the designers pay close attention. “We make sense out of all of these prototypes we’re making and these trends we’re seeing that might have nothing to do with flooring,” John says. “Maybe 10% of the prototypes move forward in the next 18 months.”
Kaleidoscope in color Amber Crystal, part of 2022’s Reawaken collection. “The Reawaken collection celebrates moving forward,” says Michael Ferguson. “It’s about embracing the new with a sense of purpose and optimism.”
Every decision is considered to incorporate elements that reflect the humans behind the design. John seeks to answer: “How do you leave a human fingerprint in large-scale manufacturing?” In details like the soft yet texturally complex all-loop construction of the Lyric carpet, Anderson Tuftex can create warmth and familiarity using tactility and organic references. John says Lyric’s precise, small-scale pattern has an innate organicism to it. The carpet was inspired by the stacked stones of pyramids. Another new design, Kit, has a herringbone pattern inspired by a fern leaf.
With the human touch, Anderson Tuftex aims to deliver the feeling of being home from the moment you see the surfaces. “If we delight the consumer, we’re hopefully hitting on something that is timeless,” John says. “Timeless design doesn’t necessarily have to be traditional.” Because at Anderson Tuftex, enduring design is often just as focused on what lies ahead.
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- Travertine Too (shown at right in the color Twister) is an interpretation of a chameleonic reactive glaze on pottery.
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- “A unique technique in the finishing process produces shifting variations in color that blend to create depth and richness in this textured cut pile carpet,” John says.
Joinery hardwood in color Anchor. “Highlighting transparent intersection points is a traditional woodworking technique used by artisans throughout the years,” John says. “Joinery pulls from this longstanding tradition and creates extraordinary, unique floor that intentionally brings your home together with elements of nature.”
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- Grand Estate in color Bryant House
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- When designing new products, the design team at Anderson Tuftex seek to answer: “How do you leave a human fingerprint in large-scale manufacturing?”
Park Hill carpet in Desert Light. Park Hill is available in 18 colors with flecks of rich hues throughout. Photos courtesy of Anderson Tuftex
This story originally appeared in Sixtysix Issue 09 with the title “Hand on the Future.” Subscribe today.
