Inalco Wins Grand Prize for Coverings Display

Orlando, FL, May 14, 2008--Coverings tile show recognized outstanding booth design and product display with its annual highly coveted Best in Show Booth Awards.

This year, seven industry mavericks scored top honors: Inalco took Grand Prize; and, Atlas Concorde, Etruria Design, Firenza Tecnoarte (a Lamosa company), Laminam, Levantina, and Mackenzie Childs earned recognition, as well.

(Editor's Note: See today's interview on FloorDaily, which was conducted in the Inalco booth.)

Inalco constructed an elegant, sophisticated, restrained and modern booth featuring totally tiled and inspirational interior environments: bedroom, lounge, foyer, hall, library/living room. Everything was tiled, from the wainscot to the wood panels, wallpaper, quilted headboard, upholstered walls, and, of course, the floors.

Atlas Concorde featured a bold new white booth framed by wood veneer walls and plexi panels and entered via ramp. Its minimal aesthetic featured a central circular conference/lounge pit defined by a white string curtain and two tiled walls; a freeform ceiling opened overhead. A living room vignette at the booth’s entry showed the product in situ. Two storage walls contained wings for product display.

Etruria Design reveled in its open tower of bevel power. Four tile-faced stanchions at the booth’s corners framed a compact central display area. Every aspect of the design was conceived to telegraph the beveled edge design of the company’s tiles.

Firenza Tecnoarte used the architecture as both showplace and reference. Designed by Diego Hernandez of Local + 10 Arquitectura, the open pavilion contained three tall, black, torqued enveloping display walls that invited the curious to look and touch. The curves of Mexico’s giant conch shells and the monumentality of Mayan pyramids inspired the spiral formations.

Levantina made the most of classic Euclidian geometry. Designed by Trazos y Pendencias, the pavilion was carpeted in the company’s flooring products; Techlan, the company’s new porcelain floor tile, colorfully paved roughly 30 percent of the booth. Display walls divided the space into three, and all contained graphics and corporate signage in black and white.

Mackenzie Childs was all about layering pattern atop pattern, with a whole lot of color. For the company’s Coverings debut, creative director Rebecca Proctor and her team of seasoned designers and visual display professionals created a traditional-with-a-twist millwork background to set off each distinctive decorative motif.