At the intersection of creativity and research lies the design process required for future flooring product launches. For the third year, the Mohawk Design Summit invited retailers and designers to Calhoun, Georgia, to curate products for the 2025 and 2026 Mohawk, Karastan and Godfrey Hirst brand launches. 

The in-depth design process requires a range of perspectives and experience levels. Participants are invited for their keen design sense and their ability to forecast what consumers will want in the future. 

“Our challenge as designers is to appeal to a broad market audience,” said Audra Keiber, director of design and development, Mohawk Industries.

Participants at this year's Design Summit included: Brittni Couturier, sales representative, and Ashley Passarello, sales representative, with Carpet Den Interiors in Franklin, Tennessee; Erin Godden, buyer, Nebraska Furniture Mart in Omaha, Nebraska; Molly Craig Cordell, director of sales and marketing, USA Flooring in Raleigh, North Carolina; Carla Porter, vice president of marketing and design, America’s Flooring Source in Columbus, Ohio; and Cheryl Baker, founder, CDB Interiors in Houston, Texas. 

This year, Carla De Meir, a design student at The College for Creative Studies and the winner of the Design Competition, also attended the summit. De Meir began studying graphic design in high school where she learned how to use the 3D modeling program Adobe Dimension to create product mockups. This experience led her to major in game design in college where she creates the environments within the games. 

“I was working with a lot of interior spaces—I would look at games that I was inspired by, and a lot of them [use] vintage interior spaces," she said. "I thought they were so beautiful, and I wanted to learn how to build that."

The retail and design pros broke into three groups and were tasked with pulling together the trends they see in their regions. A range of materials were provided to create design boards and color palettes. 

“You have these bins of fabrics and wallpapers and textures and hardware—door knobs, just random things that you could be inspired by,” Couturier said. 

The Mohawk brand design theme, "Harmonic Terrain", incorporated botanical elements in muted patterns, cork, travertine looks, and carpet in various textures and colors reminiscent of a nature trail. 

The group for Godfrey Hirst developed the theme "Authentic Legacy", which draws from nostalgic and timeless elements that provide a sense of comfort: lots of texture combined with rich, earthy hues and square patterns in carpet. 

For Karastan, the group coined the theme "Newstalgia." Punctuated by biophilic patterns and orange, brown and green colorations, Newstalgia centered around the design concept known as maximalism which combines layers upon layers of colors, textures and patterns and other décor.

De Meir created a bonus design theme, "Ultra." Combining her game design background with what she learned during her time at the Design Summit, De Meir conceptualized where she sees design headed in terms of the next generation—blacks and greys accented by vibrant colors with an emphasis on geometric patterning and shading.

Participants expressed surprise at the design process and emphasized the importance of the collaboration between retailers and designers.

“You sell all these [flooring products] and you see these colors, but you don't really think about what's driving the trends and where it all began and how they arrived there,” Couturier said. “It was neat to see the meetings that go on, people forecasting these trends and the creation of the mood boards, and then they take that and put it into a carpet.”

“It’s good to hear other people’s design experience and background and how we are all gravitating towards the same looks and styles,” Porter said. “With the Internet today, I feel like we all have the same opportunities [to see what’s trending], so there is a correlation there. We’re all seeing the same thing all at once.”

Passarello said the event helped her to connect more storytelling to her sales strategy. She said she would encourage her customers in Tennessee to step out of the resale value mindset and “make it what you want it to be and a stay a while; the next person can make it neutral.” 

Couturier agreed and said she would recommend bolder colors to her clients in North Carolina. “I tend to go the safe route and gravitate people towards the greiges and the beiges, so maybe just have a little bit more fun with color,” she said. “Also, opening people’s minds up to making carpet more about design than just comfort.” 

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