Focus on Leadership - October 2010

Interview by Kemp Harr

One of the market’s most influential flooring designers, David Oakey, sat down with Floor Focus to talk about his role as Interface’s chief product designer and how he blends fashion trends with marketing discipline to create products that not only sell but are also sustainably designed. 

Q: Please tell us a little about your background and your start with InterfaceFlor. 
A: I was educated in carpet design at Kidderminster College in the U.K. and I’ve worked for many broadloom and tile manufacturers, including 12 years as design director for Milliken, which brought me to the U.S. in 1973 to design carpet and fabrics for the contract and hospitality segments as well as for the residential carpet and rug markets. In 1985, I established David Oakey Designs. Since then I have consulted for over 30 clients globally including DuPont, Universal Fibers, Aquafil Italia, Mohawk, J&J, C&A, Atlas, Monterey, Crossley Carpets, Heuga Holland, Ega Denmark and Cobble Tufting. In 1994, Charlie Eitel recruited me to design exclusively for InterfaceFlor.  

Q: Who are your mentors, and what have you learned from them?
A: I am fortunate to have had many mentors during my life. Charlie Eitel taught me about business and how to focus on profit and the bottom line. Most product designers’ primary concern is aesthetics, which I truly consider systems thinking. Financial success is a key element to a sustainable company. From Janine Benyus, and through biomimicry, I learned how to understand sustainability. Ray Anderson is a mentor too because without his vision for carpet tile and a sustainable company by the year 2020, I would not have learned about biomimicry, nor met Janine. Last but not least, my wife Cindi introduced me to how trends and fashion affect interior design. For the past 13 years, we have walked the streets of big cities, watching how street culture integrates into design. Our latest award-winning designs were based on the fashion trends of the 80s and the Memphis design movement that evolved during that era.  

Q: I know that you have a design studio in LaGrange, Georgia called Pond Studios, which is very close to InterfaceFlor’s headquarters. Do you do work with other companies or focus all your efforts on InterfaceFlor’s products?
A: My studio only designs product for InterfaceFlor. I do work with other businesses, consulting and lecturing on sustainability for organizations like Nike and BP. I also enjoy being involved with higher education and speaking at educational institutions such as Parson’s School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, University of California Santa Barbara, Georgia Tech and Kansas State University. Additionally, I have often been a keynote speaker at leading design conferences.

Q: With 95% of Interface’s business in the commercial sector, do you also get involved in the design of its residential products?
A: Although I proposed the initial business plan for Flor in the late 1990s, I do not currently design product for the residential business.

Q: Talk about the design process. Where do you get your inspiration from in regard to what the actual product looks like?
A: Design inspiration comes from everywhere: from a walk in the woods to a stroll in SoHo. We watch cultural trends. Other times, inspiration comes from playing with tufting machines, especially a new one, where the challenge becomes what can be achieved.

Q: What is your favorite product?
A: Entropy, which was inspired by our first biomimicry workshop. Our design team ventured outside to experience first-hand what natural, organic design actually means.  Before they set out, they expected to come back with designs of flowers and leaves. Instead, they returned with a new respect for the ways in which nature’s diversity and apparent imperfections create tremendous design potential—potential for beautiful things and for practical, functional applications. 

In nature, when you look at a pile of leaves or rocks in the river bed, no two components are exactly alike. In the Entropy design, no two modules are alike, and the tiles themselves can be installed in a random or non-directional layout. The outcome allows for the maximum benefit in tile replacement enabling a longer lifecycle on the floor. If you damage some tiles, you can virtually replace them without concern of layout, direction or merging dye-lots. Even in the manufacturing process, we can merge yarn dye-lots, therefore minimizing waste. In nature, there is no waste.

Q: How has your carpet tile design evolved over the years, and what has driven that evolution?
A: The first carpet tiles in the early 70s were fusion bonded, which offered limited design, until the print process expanded design capabilities. At the time, products were expensive and appealed to a small niche in the commercial interiors market. The game changed when tufted carpet offered a more elegant look compared to print, and, most importantly, cost less to manufacture because of increases in manufacturing efficiency and the use of less raw materials. During the 80s, we tried to create tiles to look like the broadloom aesthetic, which was difficult and sometimes impossible. In 1992, we designed the first products to be installed quarter turned, or parquet, and the dynamics of the carpet tile market changed drastically. Today, new tufting advancements and the acceptance of the carpet square as a part of the design keeps increasing the marketshare for tiles.

Q: How has the recession affected the design of carpet tile? 
A: This is the third influential recession I have experienced. I believe it fosters some of the best creative times for the designer. Products must be designed with smarter use of raw materials; yesterday’s 40 and 50 ounce face weights are, hopefully, a thing of the past.  Return on investment is more meaningful to decision makers. Products cannot fail. Manufacturers cannot afford any false claims. There is more competition on every project, which pushes the bar for the designers to be more creative, and designers and manufacturers alike to find new customers in new segments.

Q: Do you see any shifting in market dynamics when it comes to who influences the purchase of contract carpet? Do the A&D firms play as much of a role as the facility manager? What role does the flooring contractor play?
A: A&D firms still play a major role of influencing the specs. We have seen a shift where the end user, facility manager or an in-house team makes the selection of standard product, cutting out the design firm to cut cost, hence fewer customs—reducing product cost and minimizing quality problems.

Q: At Neocon 2010, InterfaceFlor wore two faces. One was very edgy and bold, and the other was more conservative and corporate. When you study the actual orders, which does InterfaceFlor sell the most of?
A: No question the conservative styles and colors sell the most. In fact, InterfaceFlor’s top volume producing products are never shown at Neocon. The edgy and bold styles get people’s attention. All style elements are equally important to our diversified customers. 

Q: What role does generational profiling play in the look of the interiors of commercial space? When the Baby Boomers retire and the Gen Xers or Millenniums take over, how will the look of interior spaces change?
A: We have been watching this trend for quite a few years. Gen Xers or Millenniums, as you say, have created a major shift in the dynamic of our culture. New social, communication, fashion and management style trends affect every segment we design for, be it residential, hospitality, healthcare, education or the corporate marketplace. The days of the “IBM look,” which we would use as a design term, are disappearing. The high tech, Fortune 500 companies are creating interior spaces for this new generation of creative minds to work in. For modular carpet and pattern by tile, it is no longer just the ad agencies creating fun, colorful environments—it is banks, transportation companies, hip hotels. Schools are competitive, from K-12 to the universities. Young parents aren’t going to send their children to a bland, uncreative school. Even healthcare is going more modern, albeit serene. Have you thought about what the nursing home designed for Mick Jagger and Keith Richards might look like? 

Q: Briefly explain InterfaceFlor’s unique selling proposition. What sets them apart in each of the sectors they do business?
A: InterfaceFlor’s unique advantage is that carpet tile is the only solution it sells. It does not believe a floor should be covered with any other carpet. With the right marketing tools and images, it is easy to convey that message to designers, owners and managers. Not only can we show how beautiful carpet tile can look in a given sector, but also how carpet tile can save money in the long run.  

Q: How do you blend InterfaceFlor’s Mission Zero goals into your product designs?
A: We have our own set of principles to reach Mission Zero. We believe sustainability starts with design, and we push InterfaceFlor along with their suppliers to change and improve technology each year. It is beyond product or recycled content, the whole process is to reduce embodied energy. To ease the process of installation, we initiated the TacTiles installation method, to eliminate the use of installation adhesive and make it easier to recycle the tiles at the end of use. Mission Zero is not one product; it is every product and process we design, closing the loop.

Q: Most people know you are originally from England and that InterfaceFlor is a global company. Talk about how styling differs in different regions of the world.
A: InterfaceFlor offers some of the same styles in other countries that it offers in the U.S., and also offers styles that are very different from those in the U.S. market. Regarding carpet, the U.S. uses more material or yarn than the rest of the world, but we see as much design diversity in the U.S. as we see around the world. Plush wall-to-wall carpet, which came into vogue after World War II, has been the staple of U.S. style. Of all materials to be used in the interior, plush carpet, particularly nylon, has the most embodied energy. However, other things seem to be at the tipping point in this county as well: meal portions, large automobiles, big houses with fewer residents. 

Q: Let’s talk a little about the personal side of David Oakey. How do you balance your professional life with your personal life? What are your other passions?
A: My personal and professional lives constantly blend together. I mentioned my wife, Cindi, earlier. As a trend analyst, she has a keen eye for following fashion and cultural trends. Working for InterfaceFlor for 16 years, she also has the carpet tile bug. We travel, primarily to big cities, to see what is happening in the streets, in the stores, and in all business sectors. And we walk. People think we are crazy walkaholics. We covered 18 miles in Los Angeles one day; now that’s unheard of! Our other motto is to eat, drink and be merry, and we manage to do that wherever we are. Wonder how that translates to professional design? In 1997, during our first trip to SoHo, we were walking in and out of boutiques, and Cindi turned to me to ask if I needed a beer. I said, “No, I need a pencil and a notebook.” The resulting Pop Art Collection was just the beginning of many new design inspirations.  

Q; What was your favorite band growing up, and what type of music do you listen to now?
A: My hometown is famous for Led Zeppelin members, John Bonham and Robert Plant who went to the same college as I did in Kidderminster. Growing up, I followed the Rolling Stones and David Bowie. Back then, I was not a Beatles fan—they were pop.  Today I listen to Green Day and The Killers. We go to a lot of concerts. Music is definitely a part of our culture. By the way, be on the lookout for Civil Twilight, three young rockers from South Africa. 

Copyright 2010 Floor Focus