Zak Reilly, a final year BA (Hons) Textile Design student won a brief to work with flooring company Milliken to see his designs brought to life.
For the last two years, Milliken Flooring have worked closely with the University, setting live briefs which give the students the opportunity to gain real world experience in the industry. This year’s winner, Zak Reilly, worked with the design team at Milliken to develop his designs and visited their manufacturing facility to see his designs produced onto carpet tiles.
Speaking of his experience Zak told us:
"Working towards a live brief competition with a company such as Milliken allows young designers like myself an invaluable insight into the industry in which I am working towards. As students, it is also rare to witness the production of a product you have designed from start to finish, and seeing this process is a thoroughly inspiring and informative experience."
"This project is also important to me as it represents the range of approaches I take in my multidisciplinary practice. In creating these designs, I worked with ceramics, metal patination, and printmaking to produce a variety of textures and lettering. However, the early designs were created using blocks of abandoned wood and a pile of old maps which just shows how much you can make with very little.”
Milliken is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of floor coverings for corporate, public space, retail, hospitality and leisure environments with a network of sales, design and customer service teams in over 50 countries and over 100 year’s experience in the industry.
