IIDA/Contract Magazine
NeoCon® Showroom and Booth Design Competition

Two showrooms and two booths earned awards in the 16th annual IIDA/Contract Magazine Showroom and Booth Design Competition at NeoCon® 2011 in Chicago. The competition honors designs for their originality, visual impact, effective use of materials, and the outstanding use of space, color, texture, and graphics.

Competition judges were Bill Clegg, FIIDA; Ashley Handley, IIDA; Scott Hierlinger, Associate IIDA; Steven McCollom, IIDA, AIA; and Kay Wulf, IIDA, ASID. “This year, the designs displayed were more focused on color and bold features,” says Peter Conant, IIDA, AIA, IIDA president. “We saw strong and creative presentations from all entries.”

The Award for Showrooms Greater than or Equal to 4,000 Square Feet was presented to KI, designed by Sheila LaCount and Design Collaboratives. “We have been working over the past five years with Mary Beth Rampolla of Design Collaboratives (who’s now principal of Viro Design Lab),” says KI interior designer Sheila LaCount. “We’ve worked year by year to get to a point of an increasingly clear, impactful space.” Varied materials and volumes, a sense of lightness created with white epoxy floors and crisp backdrops, and the use of projection mapping near the main entrance created a space that “seamlessly blends furniture, architecture, and technology so we can tell our market stories, showcase our products, and express what KI is all about,” says LaCount. “An amazing transformation,” says juror Steven McCollom.

The Award for Showrooms Less than 4,000 Square Feet was presented to Antron Carpet Fiber, designed by Perkins+Will. The Antron Carpet Fiber showroom also won the 2011 Best of Competition Award. Technology was the key to animating the Antron showroom and bringing its product to life. “Fiber is intangible, so in order to make the product more tangible, we let strands of fiber shape spaces within the showroom and used technology to infuse the space with four key design components—color, reflectance, pattern, and texture,” says Eileen Jones, principal and global discipline leader, branded environments, of Perkins+Will. The energy that the imaginative design brought to the space was palpable. “We arrived in the showroom to employees dancing and interacting with their product,” says juror Ashley Handley. “The energy of not only the employees but also the space made me immediately smile.”

The winner in the Booths Greater than or Equal to 400 Square Feet category was Sparkeology, designed by Square One Design. “I loved the playfulness of the booth—the chalk board and beautiful pink floor pulled me into the space and made me want to stay a while,” says McCollom.

The winner in the Booths Less than 400 Square Feet category was Savannah College of Art and Design, designed by the SCAD Design Group. “An engaging and clean display—the booth allowed a perfect backdrop for showcasing the various student product designs,” says juror Scott Hierlinger. “It was obvious that the SCAD team envisioned the flow and experience of the visitor.”

>> View the winners of the 2010 IIDA/Contract Showroom and Booth Design Competition