Morning in Forest by GUSHKA; Photograph by Yurii Nastya Kondratiuk
GRAY Media announces the breakout category, textiles, wallpaper, & rugs finalists for the 7th Annual GRAY Awards.
SEATTLE, Febraury 28, 2024 — Now in its 7th year, GRAY Awards — the international cross-disciplinary design awards program — continues to recognize the outstanding work happening around the world. Finalists have been selected in the fields of ARCHITECTURE, INTERIORS, LANDSCAPE, and PRODUCT DESIGN.
JUDGES CATEGORIES
Designers and manufacturers were invited to submit their projects in nine judges categories plus an editors’ pick Design for Good category. An esteemed panel of international design luminaries will select a winner in each of the initial nine categories. The winning designers will receive print and digital recognition as well as a custom designed trophy by acclaimed glass artist John Hogan.
GRAY CATEGORIES
GRAY encourages designers and manufacturers to create "Design for Good" projects —projects that have made a positive impact through design on a humanitarian, community, or environmental issue — and offers an award dedicated to these works each year.
In 2020, when the GRAY Awards expanded from a regional to international program, GRAY added a Legacy Award dedicated exclusively to a Pacific Northwest-based designer's lifetime achievement, honoring the region where GRAY began and the home to the GRAY Awards Parties. GRAY will name the next Legacy at the Party.
BREAKOUT CATEGORIES
Newly introduced at the 6th annual GRAY Awards last year, GRAY added several Breakout Categories, opening up opportunities to win GRAY Awards in micro-categories from Kitchens to Collaborations.
All winners will be announced at the GRAY Awards Party in Seattle in March, 2024 at Block 41, Seattle. The party is one of the most highly anticipated design bashes of the year, where all guests are treated like winners.
JUDGES
It is our privilege each year to welcome an international group of distinguished creatives to the GRAY Awards judging panel. Each working at the top of their game, these professionals now focus a discerning eye on determining the winners of the coveted GRAY Awards trophies.
7th annual GRAY Awards judging panel: Lee Broom, Brigitte Shim, Alessandro Munge, Silvia Tcherassi, Stephen Burks
FINALISTS - BREAKOUT CATEGORY, TEXTILES, WALLPAPER, & RUGS
Photograph by Yurii Nastya Kondratiuk
The Morning in Forest carpet was made by the Ukrainian brand GUSHKA, located in the pastures of Hutsulshchyna in the Carpathians in Ukraine. Inspired by the simple things of everyday life and nature, GUSHKA conveys these textures through carpets. The "LIS" collection - meaning "Forest" in Ukrainian - is full of images of the forest, its paths, the moss that covers the stones among the pines, and the dry grass that is blown in different directions by the gusts of wind. The Morning in Forest rug is one of the collection's highlights.
By combining different techniques and textures, GUSHKA was able to convey the changes in nature, its colors and the feeling one gets when entering a forest clearing in the morning. They aim to reconnect city dwellers with the land.
To convey the textures of the forest in this carpet, artisans used several weaving techniques including Loops, an intricate technique for weaving carpets, rugs and bedspreads, and Gunia, a technique that uses elongated threads creating a "hairy" or "wooly" look. As a result, the rug has two textures: smooth and fluffy on one side, and voluminous on the other.
The rug is made of natural wool from sheep on local farms. To obtain environmentally friendly wool, the sheep graze on the Carpathian meadows and are sheared once a year. After shearing, the wool is washed, dyed, dried and combed using special machines. The combed, fluffy wool is wound into a fleece and then spun into thread, which is rolled into balls called "gushka." In the weaving process, the same looms that existed and were used a hundred years ago are stilled used today. To complete the process, a teqnique called Valylo, a kind of natural washing machine where the product is felted and becomes dense, is used. All stages of production are done by hand, without automation.
Image courtesy TEMPLE rugs
Passages stretches out in a long form with tabs reaching to the left and right. The extra thick piles of densely hand-knotted pure baby alpaca – among the softest, most sumptuous fibers in the world – will transport you. There is nothing standard about the shape. It will energize every space in which it lives. And is perfect for the bedroom, expansive hallway or adventurous living space.
The colorways of the Passages rug are named for the various routes of exploration and passage humans have traveled across the globe and between worlds. Pictured here is Queen Mary. The mid-twentieth century ocean liner named for Mary of Teck, the consort of King George V. Perhaps the most iconic of leisure cruises, there is no doubt that the Queen Mary hosted more than a few secret lovers enjoying the short-lived freedoms from their more mundane lives on land.
Photographs by Kamil Swidereck; Ash Kappel
Curran, a devoted specialist and curator of flat woven and natural-look carpets, has a deep passion for natural fibers like sisal, jute, and seagrass, and also understand that not every lifestyle or project placement can tolerate the intrinsic limitations of a natural fiber carpeting. Beginning over a decade ago, founder Jeff Curran made it the company's mission to develop a new range of products that could be used anywhere: from residential homes to busy commercial spaces. Designed with sustainability in mind, we captured the look, textural elements and tones of sisal and created a collection that cleans easily, is softer underfoot, and is durable enough to go anywhere. The result? SynSisal® - Sisal Without Limits.
The SynSisal® Standard Collection is woven with 100% ECONYL® nylon. Consciously created from reclaimed fishing nets and other post-consumer waste, this recyclable and regenerable yarn satisfies Curran's ambition for a sustainable alternative to traditional synthetics and meets all contract-grade specifications. European viewpoints on sustainable carpet manufacturing currently surpasses the movement currently happening in the US. Curran works with prolific engineers and material designers across Europe that are working steadfastly to evolve away from the use of virgin fibers and materials, reduce carbon footprints and develop components used in carpet production that improve the potential for circularity at the end of use. As they take on new projects around the globe, the SynSisal® brand embraces a promise towards increasingly sustainable developments to be a global leader that meets the highest standards of specifiers in every country. Curran is committed to improving their methods and use of materials working towards fully cradle to cradle offerings with each new release.
7th Annual GRAY Awards finalists' announcements began December 18, 2023 and will continue to publish daily until all categories have been announced. For more information, visit our GRAY Awards Party page.
Thank you to our 7th annual GRAY Awards sponsors and industry partners:
