Textiles and Innovation: A Room in a Box

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Gilson Textiles 1

Applied Textiles, a Gilson customer based in Byron Center, Michigan, recently introduced Alta, an award-winning textile technology for the commercial interiors market. To catch the attention of a leader in the hotel industry, you need a pretty unique product—and an innovative way to promote it. Alta is the first (and only) textile technology to deliver certified performance and fire code compliance to virtually every textile application, making it ideal for hospitality applications such as hotels and restaurants.

Gilson Textiles

Alta and Applied Textiles

Alta’s unique properties, coupled with Applied Textiles’ commitment to education and textile testing, prompted an invitation from Marriott Corporation to create a technology and testing display at Marriott’s International Design Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Marriott features outstanding products in its Design Center, which includes a showroom dedicated to supplier product displays. The corporation’s only requirement is that the walls in the room remain untouched—no mounted fixtures or wall displays are permitted.

Applied Textiles wasn’t sure how to meet this requirement without the benefit of large signs and wall-mounted displays. Then the team remembered seeing Gilson’s GlobalShop booth—a custom-made structure that primarily used a honeycomb-core board as the substrate of choice. They asked their Gilson salesperson, Wally Walcott, if Gilson could construct a similar booth for them at the Marriott Design Center.

Gilson’s Results

“The Gilson team made things happen in short order and the installation was seamless,” said Cheryl Bell, Senior Designer & Principle at Fairly Painless Advertising in Holland, Michigan. “I think the room looks wonderful!”

Engineered by Gilson’s Allison Ferguson and produced in our Large Format Department, the Applied Textiles installation is a freestanding, three-sided structure that functions as a room within a room. The walls were direct-printed, router cut, shipped flat and installed onsite by Gilson’s installation specialist, Dan Amidon.

Gilson Textiles

In addition to large, printed walls with photos and descriptive text, Gilson worked with Fairly Painless to bring their idea for an innovative, interactive display of nine cut-out circles that spin 360 degrees to life. The circles feature images and information about Alta and its applications on both sides.

When the project was completed, customers complimented both the booth and the enthusiasm of the Gilson team. Jean Park, General Counsel for Applied Textiles, sent a follow-up note, saying, “It’s hard to impress me but impress me you have.  You are consummate professionals: fun and easy to work with and willing to tackle any problem.  And you’ve produced a spectacular space.”

The space also captured attention from Marriott International Design Resource Manager, Nadyne Linton, who said, “The display is a stunner! The positive comments are already rolling in.”

 The Marriott Design Center will feature Applied Textiles’ installation through the end of January 2016.