The Cartoon Archive

Every month I get to draw a cartoon, the half hour creative breather from carpets, adhesives, grouts and laminate!

Here's a small selection of my doodles so far...


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Bev Hisey: Toronto Based Carpet Designer

From her website:

Bev Hisey has had her mitts in the design field for a million years. She started with fashion, and moved into home decor after the birth of her daughter in 1990. In addition, she has proven herself to be a great resource for a number of notable Canadian design talents.

In May of 2002, at New York's International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), Bev launched a new line of handmade carpets, floor runners, cushions and blankets to great applause and media recognition. Since that time, Bev has been creating an ever-expanding line of quality hand-made products for the home, adding new techniques such as hand-tufting, hand-knotting, die-cutting, and silk-screening to her repertoire.

Bev's products are playfully modern with classic finishings, setting her apart as a design original.

Her talent for creating unexpected combinations of colours and textures inspires the eye to gaze and the hand to touch. "They're the kinds of colours you want to fall into" she says.

Forget Meatballs: Embrace Swedish Plastic Rugs!

I have a penchant for all things Swedish, from meatballs and pickled herring to Annas Peparkakors and gruesome, moody crime novels. These funky PAPPELINA rugs by Lina Rickardsson, made from plastics and vinyl are in bold bright primary colours, are minimalist but fun and can be bought online at the Scandinavian design centre.


BUY THEM HERE

BLINDING VINYL! OFF TO THE AMTICO FACTORY!

On Friday 22, I went to visit the training centre and factory of luxury vinyl flooring manufacturer Amtico, to learn about their vast range of products, see how a vinyl tile is made, hear about their waste reduction and recylcing programs and understand the myriad of benefits from training and professional development courses at Amtico. Here are some snapshots I was allowed to take as we were guided around the factory - not featured: rather intense smells, squishy earplugs and super-funky factory health and safety shoes, which look rather like orthopaedic aids for club foot sufferers!

Amtico training centre - Note the "cool wall" at the back, where students proudly display work that they've done, ranging from "not so good" to "excellent" in order to compare and contrast, learn from their mistakes and show off the things they've learnt!



Here's where students get to discover and try out a range of grouts, adhesives, DPMs etc. from the four major brands: Ardex UK, Uzin, Mapei and F.Ball. Amtico are not biased and do not promote one over the other, rather they allow students to experiment and choose which they prefer and explore the properties and benefits of each one.


Trainer Neil Perriman talks me through the training process, explaining how students of different levels are given a vaariety of tasks as they progress through the course to ensure each student gets personalised training, feels challenged and is given plenty of opportunity to put into practice a range of skills.

AND ON TO THE FACTORY...


The funky entrance demonstrates the host of options that vinyl flooring offers. And that's not to mention the Amtico clients who've requested everything from a giant monopoly board created on the floor of their conservatory to the eccentric millionaire who had the basement of his gothic country house turned into a life sized Cluedo board!


First off, alchemy is performed... plasticizers are added to oil in giant vats and shuttled off to a scary looking machine called the Banbury Mixer, where it is mixed and heated until it becomes a squishy lump of plastic. This is then sent through a series of heated rollers to smooth it out into a continuous flat sheet.


WHOOSH! BLEEP! WHIRR!


Yes, those would be the big heated rollers... like an industrial-sized set of hair-straighteners. Except you wouldn't want to get your face stuck in them...


Here you can see clearly the different layers that make up the vinyl tile: the backing ply (black), the face ply (white) which sits on the backing ply, and the protective layers (Amtico tiles have 2 such layers!). The actual design of the tile, anything from wood to grass to stone to metallics, will depend on the printed film, which is made by a printers in Japan. This ultra-thin film is bonded onto the face ply, then coated with the protective layer and embossed with a grainy pattern to mimic real-life materials and textures.



Could it be magic? Nope... just lots of heat, heat, heat! Here the various layers are fed into another set of heated rollers, which bonds the layers together, changing the chemical properties within each to ensure strength and resilience and a solid bond. Note the brown roll coming up from the bottom is the very fine, thin film sheet which contains the design - in today's case an oak wood effect.


Finally the vinyl sheet is cut first into tiles, then the tiles arrive in this cutting room, which contains 30 cutting machines. here the tiles are cut to order to the client's specifications, stringent quality control checks are performed and tiles that pass the controls are boxed and dispatched! This is the end of the line for us journalists, but only the beginning of the life of a vinly floor tile!

Interview with Sarah Ludlam, Designer for Ryalux Carpets

Contract Floors talks to Ryalux designer Sarah Ludlam about William Classics, British design and future trends for carpet.

EJ: William Classics was showcased at NFS last year, as well as a revamped luxurious Ultimate collection. What was the inspiration behind these and where do you generally look for inspiration?
SL: We generally get our inspiration for range development from numerous and diverse sources, for example inspiration for William Classics came in part from the work of our founder William Lomas who was known throughout the industry as a carpet innovator and quintessential English gentleman. For aesthetic and trend inspiration we visit the Milan Furniture Show, Maison et Objets, Decorex and London Design Week, anywhere where new ideas, colours and styles are previewed and fully embraced. In addition to this we spend time at art exhibitions and galleries such at the V&A (a fabulous place for inspiration), and try to take in graduate design shows as this often adds freshness and attitude to our developments. In terms of carpet development we look at new yarns, fibres, construction and manufacturing techniques which have been essential in the development of the new Ultimate range.


William Classics Bedroom Set

EJ: What steps mark the process from the initial idea to a fully realised collection on the stand?

SL: To develop a range is a complex team effort; first we find our colour samples which can be in the form of paper, fabric, yarn or any media really. We then match all the colours and make changes so that the range has a cohesive feel as well as individually lovely. Once we are happy we manufacture the product, create the point of sale and launch the range – easy when you look at it on paper! The reality when you are launching such a complex collection as Ultimate in time for Harrogate is that things get a bit last minute especially as we have completely re-designed our presentation concept and launched this at the show too.

EJ: What do you feel is missing on the carpet market, in terms of design, and how is Ryalux filling that gap?

SL: We are taking a multi level approach to this, we want to put the retailers at the heart of all our developments, we have listened to what they want and designed products and specifically points of sale that they have asked for. We have simplified our message, showing much more product on the point of sale, introducing beautiful photography and the creation of ‘inspiration boards’ to help our retailers talk about carpet as part of the whole interior scheme. We have also researched the preferences of our end consumer and have tried to make our presentation stylish, accessible and full of new, well designed and truly desirable products. We want to lead the way in terms of design and development, creating new and different products in fresh and stylish shades in order to increase the profile of our product and make it a creative force in any interior design scheme.

Part of the Ultimate collection

EJ: Your William Classics collection is a celebration of Britishness. What makes British Design so exciting in your opinion?

SL: I am passionate about British Design; I love the shock of the new combined with intelligence, intrinsic beauty, innovation, heritage and great humour. British design tends to be fresh, directional, quirky and it combines a rich shared design history though fashion, architecture, wallpapers, fabrics, furniture, and product design with free thought, a desire to innovate, a willingness to embrace the future and an unending need to improve our everyday lives, all of which results in iconic design recognized globally.

EJ: Scarlet Opus Trend declared the Ryalux stand to be the best at the show, because of its inclusiveness: portraying flooring in a complete interior design context, not in isolation. What trends do you see for interiors in the next 5 years and how will they be reflected in carpet design?
SL: Yes I met Victoria from Scarlet Opus for the first time at the show and was really pleased to read her blog about our stand. We feel it is so important to place our product in the context of the end consumer - the carpet is an important part of any scheme as a whole and is never viewed in isolation in the home so it felt very natural to us to use furnishing on the stand. For Ryalux, key trends for the next five years will be a move towards colour; this can be as subtle as new mauves, silver greys and cool aquas or for dramatic effect black, reds, oranges, teals and violets as we see our people becoming more confident and self expressive in terms of interior design schemes. Texture has a large part to play as the feeling of a room can be changed purely through the choice of twist pile, velvet or loop pile carpet. Stripes will be an important look as they offer groups of colours to style around and an element of practical pattern in an extremely usable way. We want our product to be as exciting a choice for our end consumer as any other part of an interior scheme.

Amtico Babes! Hot Flooring Wallpaper for your Desktop!

I love this ad campaign by Amtico. It absolutely rocks!
No surprise this flooring was chosen in TopShop stores across the UK!
Save a babe for your desktop, tell the world how cool flooring is...

Interview with Christine B Whittemore, author of Flooring The Consumer blog and Social Media Expert

Christine B. Whittemore is Chief Simplifier at Simple Marketing Now, a marketing consultancy firm which she formed in March 2009, focused on integrating traditional with social marketing. Christine previously worked for the flooring industry, specifically carpets, for 6 years as director of in-store innovation for Wear-Dated carpet fibre by Solutia Inc.
She also blogs extensively about marketing solutions for the flooring industry, at Flooring The Consumer. She focuses strongly on marketing for the woman consumer, since, as research shows, women make or influence over 80% of purchase decisions.


As a marketing consultant advising businessmen, Christine addressed in particular the issues of disconnect between consumers and manufacturers and how to present choices to consumers, first in the upholstery business where she started out, then subsequently in the carpet industry where she felt the same dynamics. What began as industry summit presentations and newsletters became a regular column in Floor Covering Weekly, a major US trade title and an exploration and study of the possibilities offered by the internet as a free, fast, and effective marketing tool to educate and share ideas and insider knowledge.

“I had had great success in apparel and upholstery with paper newsletters, but they were becoming preposterously expensive to print and mail out, so I started learning as much as possible about blogs where the creation of content was practically free.”
She encountered skepticism to begin with, with many peers wary of internet as a marketing tool.
“I remember mentioning blogging and blogs to some of my associates and being poopooed that they weren’t serious tools. The flooring industry is a mature one”, says Christine, echoing my impressions that many see a huge divide or barrier between traditional marketing and online marketing, as though they are somehow incompatible, or separate entities, when in fact, when used together they can be especially powerful tools for reaching out to consumers.


Clyde Flooring, a site set up by Richard McKay of McKay Flooring Ltd.

“The current focus in both hardwood and the soft/carpet coverings market however is on product rather than on what the consumer does with it. Furthermore, so many businesses in the flooring industry seem to hire mostly insiders, which leads to a paucity of thinking and perspective.”
Overall, she concludes, the focus has been physical rather than digital, as if somehow the consumer isn’t shopping differently now to ten, twenty years ago, when there is evidence to hand that this is no longer the case. Digital retail is the inevitable future, or even present.
How does one explain to clients, manufacturers, retailers, the advantages of having and maintaining a blog, or some kind of social media presence?
“I launched Flooring The Consumer under the radar, in June 2006. Once it was set up I mentioned it to associates and got their buy in. I used it in presentations when talking about marketing to women, but the transition from integrating offline to online marketing took a long time. It was about bringing it up in conversations, talking about it at tradeshows. I printed business cards with the address of the blog and gave them to clients at fairs. I now have close to 1500 subscribers.. The blog is the single best way to raise one’s digital awareness, to bring your company to life.
Many ask “why bother with a blog, if you have a website”? The answer is simple, but the putting into practice is the challenge. A website lays out information on the table. A blog is a conversation, an exchange of ideas, a form of discussion between manufacturer and consumer. It bridges the divide and becomes a more personal approach, which plays on the factors of trust and loyalty between customer and retailer, consumer and manufacturer. In a sense, its like reverting back to the age of the local shop and tradesman, using the technology of the 21st century.
Social media marketing, of course, is not simply about opening a Twitter account and tweeting about what sandwich you had for lunch as a means of “bonding” with the consumer. It is a time-consuming process and needs careful study and review in order to be effective and to target the right consumer in the right way. It might not benefit everybody.
“I see two big problems with social media, says Christine. Firstly, for large flooring companies, the medium requires that they become intimately involved in it and that they engage in it for the long run. They cannot delegate their social media to an outside company; it needs to come from them in order to be authentic. This means relinquishing some control over their communications and that social media be integrated into their overall strategy – that they be willing to actually talk, communicate with and respond to customers. That takes a lot of thinking through.
Secondly, there’s a problem for smaller organizations. How do you find the time to do it all? This is a big issue for traditional mom/pop stores, independent traders etc. who have been clobbered psychologically by the
economic environment. The days when the consumer came to them and all they had to do was deliver/install the product are over.
But, in the bigger picture, for small to medium entrepreneurial organizations, these tools allow you to reach more people than you can imagine at far less cost than traditional vehicles and more effectively because you can target specific consumers. A great example is Carpets by Otto, a small family business which with a few changes and more personal additions to their web page have reached out to the customer and presented themselves as a clients’ “friend”, giving a sense of community which is very attractive for a consumer searching for a local retailer.



Carpets by Otto Website

Another problem that many in the industry have raised with regards to emphasizing online presence is that flooring is ultimately a tactile product. They then use this as an excuse not to improve, update, maintain or increase their website/blog/online presence. I put this to Christine:
“What I think is scary for many flooring retailers is that all of this requires some deep thinking about what value they bring, then they have to adjust their organization to deliver it. The reason flooring retailers may be slow at getting round to online marketing is that many flooring retailers got into business because they were installers. They have a strong technical knowledge base. But, they aren’t customer focused. Not that they give bad service, but they aren’t focused on ‘walking in her shoes’ and understanding the process/experience from her perspective. Life was easy for many years, with business literally walking into stores without too much encouragement. Now they have to do what I call ‘retail outward’ and do things they aren’t comfortable or knowledgeable about.”
Consumers are much more picky now, and can find a huge range of information online before they approach a retailer, both when it comes to price and quality. They are aware of choices and can find deals online that they won’t necessarily find in store.
“All these arguments are reasons for getting into social media. Can’t do much with your website? Then start a blog and let your personality shine through. Yes, flooring is tactile, but as an industry we do more to sell it as a commodity than we do to showcase it as a design product for the home. So far, most of the social media efforts from flooring are about shouting “Cheap, Cheap, Cheap Carpet and Floors!” Who wants to engage with that?
Consumers are sceptical. They don’t want to be taken advantage of and too often walking into a flooring store is like walking into a used car lot with the hard sell focus. Not pleasant. Flooring is an investment piece. Even in a recession, consumers are willing to pay a bit more for good value and quality.
At last year’s National Floor Show, great efforts were made by companies such as Ryalux to emphasize flooring as a design element, a long-term investment that fits into the whole context of home and family. People had their company designers on the stand, mingling with clients and buyers. Imagery was strong and there was a lot of attention paid to marketing concepts that looked at flooring as an integral element in the home. Somehow, this still hasn’t translated to many company websites or blogs.
Christine elaborates, “Design should be key, it should be emphasized. I believe that’s what consumers want more of. I don’t think retailers necessarily believe that. Phil Pond at trend forecasting company Scarlet Opus (who spoke at the NFS) says that manufacturers have convinced themselves that consumers only purchase beige carpet. However, the only option that consumers are given is beige carpet.”
How does Christine monitor the success of social media for the flooring industry?
“In 2008 I couldn’t find a single reputable sign - other than myself (!) - of flooring in social media. As I got my business going, I started coming across more signs of flooring activity. Much of it I attributed to the winter convention of a prominent flooring retail cooperative which instructed its members to go forth and be social. They all went off and started Facebook and Twitter accounts. As you can imagine, many of those are languishing because they don’t have much of a clue on how to be social and to sustain the effort. However, I started noticing possibilities and some success stories.
I decided to organize what I found by platform and document it in the Social Flooring Index. As a quick first step to evaluating, I’m paying attention to followers/fans, etc. I’m using some of HubSpot’s tools to get a quick read on ranking. And now, I’m getting more immersed in monitoring the level of truly social behaviour. I also want to segregate the blogs, for example, in terms of the subjects they address. There’s a lot of traditional behaviour taking place... hard selling, shouting, not much interacting, but also, some who get it!
So, who “gets it”? Christine cites several examples of companies that “get it”, many small, family operations, but some bigger companies who are starting to explore the possibilities beyond traditional online retail.
“Carpet One Floor & Home in Panama City does a terrific job on Facebook offering flooring tips. Palmetto stores has an active Facebook fan page with contest and passionate users. The Domotex blog has been very useful for industry people. McKay Flooring in the UK (see interview with Richard McKay) has really used the net to its full potential. The aforementioned Carpets by Otto has made small, but significant in-roads.














Carpet One Floor and Home Panama City: (l-r) the blog and the company website.

Does Christine get the sense that if flooring companies don’t get on board the social media bandwagon in the next 5-10 years they will disappear? Could it be that urgent? This year has been crippling for many in the UK flooring industry, and there’s a sense that those who are surviving are having to radically transform their entire approach to the customer
“I do believe there is urgency. My latest Floor Covering Weekly articles have been about the need to be found online. Online visibility is getting so much more critical, to such a point that if you can’t be found online, despite a physical store, you become irrelevant.”

Find Christine at:

Simple Marketing Now / http://simplemarketingnow.com/
http://flooringtheconsumer.blogspot.com
http://carpetology.blogspot.com/
http://www.socialflooringindex.com/
On Twitter / @CBWhittemore
On Facebook / Christine B. Whittemore

Interview with Richard McKay of McKay Flooring Ltd.

One person who has seen first hand the advantage of a consistent, well-managed online presence is Richard McKay of McKay Flooring Limited, the UK’s largest independent wood flooring company. We spoke to him about his experience of using social media marketing as a powerful tool for improving his business and networking with clients and new contacts.

E-FLOORS: When did you first start using online social media to market your company and what was your initial strategy?

Richard: We first started using social media in early 2008. We were keen to improve both our offline and online marketing and continually noticed references to Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, LinkedIn and blogging. We then opened up accounts on these and other social networks to establish how they worked and how we could perhaps leverage them for business. We also set up our first blog and learned about RSS feeds and feed readers. It was quite confusing at first but we then started to piece how these tools could work for us. It was pretty much a case of just getting stuck in - initially there was no firm strategy on social media. More a case of suck it and see.

EF: Many in the industry whom I have apoken to cite time as a major excuse not to develop a more intensive internet marketing presence. How do you find the time?

R: It was quite a labour intensive task at first. I was happy to work into the small hours building up our presence online as the social media space seemed quite natural. Eventually our web analytics reported increased hits to our website. The fact that you can measure the effectiveness of online campaigns is a huge plus. We use Google Analytics (it’s free) to track our website statistics. Furthermore you can see progress on Twitter and Facebook in terms of the number of people following your company. Currently we don’t try and ‘fit it in’ to our work routine. We have prioritised social media and online advertising due to the healthy returns we’ve had in sales and increased brand awareness. We feel there’s a lot of potential in developing our brand and sales online over the next 3 to 5 years and therefore will be allocating resources to these areas.

EF: Are there any particular challenges posed by the flooring industry when it comes to online marketing, web sales etc.?

R: Yes there are a few challenges.... If you sell branded wood flooring online you are instantly compared on price to your online competitors. Also customers like to touch and see the product before they buy which is why we offer a free sampling service. In a large twist to how things were (are) a website is no longer just a brochure site for your showroom or product. We are increasingly thinking of our showrooms as back up to our website. Having a network of showrooms throughout the UK supporting our online shop looks like a good idea....

EF: Aside from purely selling, why is it so important to make maximum use of the internet to market yourself? How does social media etc... help with branding, brand awareness and customer loyalty?

R: Although social media involves time it is cheap compared to traditional media like newspapers, TV and radio. It is also measurable and is where the customers are. Customers who are researching a product or service will do so online. If they repeatedly come across positive mentions of your brand it will help build trust and they are more likley to make a purchase. When we first signed up to Twitter I thought it was another broadcasting medium for us to shout about our products and services. However we now see the true value of Twitter as a tool for listening into and contributing to the conversation. This helps us build relationships, trust and customer loyalty. Social media isn’t a quick fix approach - it’s gradual.

EF: What apps and tools do you recommend for people who are considering improving their company websites and/or blogs?

R: Simply having a brochure website isn’t enough in this social media age. It should really have a blog and link to your Twitter and Facebook accounts. Blogging is important because it enables non techy people like me to update the site with company news, case studies etc. It is also important for attracting organic search via keywords and links. Other sites I’d recommend are LinkedIn, Scribd (an online repository for articles, product brochures, etc.) and Google Reader. The site that I absolutely couldn’t do without is Google Reader which is an RSS feed reader. For years I wondered what the small orange button on my internet browser was for. Rather than have to individually visit all the important websites you visit every day you can subscribe to them via Reader. Combined with Google Alerts you can use this to extract leads, get updates on your competitors and discover mentions of your own brand. Really very powerful in a format akin to email.

EF: Has your business improved noticeably since you started employing a solid online marketing strategy and general online presence?

R: Yes - sales are up due to a targeted pay per click campaign supported by our website, blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts. Still work to be done but early signs very encouraging.

EF: Why do you think so many flooring companies have yet to take advantage of the world of opportunities offered by the web?

R: I think that it seems daunting due to the initial investment in time and having to learn ‘the internet’. Fortunately since the social media boom these tasks can be outsourced to the many social media and marketing companies. Rather than embracing these new technologies and seeing what works and what doesn’t some companies shy away from this increasingly important space. No time like the present I say!

MCKAY FLOORING CAN BE FOUND...

On Twitter / @mckayflooring
On Facebook / McKay Flooring
On their blog / http://blog.mckayflooring.co.uk/
On their sister blogs:
http://bauclic.co.uk/
http://clydeflooring.co.uk/
http://floorcrunch.co.uk/
Company Site / www.mckayflooring.co.uk