At Milan Design Week, Carpet Tile Manufacturer Interface Celebrates New Global Look, A New Collection Plus Sustainability and Service Heritage

MILAN, April 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- As the prestigious Milan Design Week opens, Interface, Inc. (NASDAQ: IFSIA) has announced the launch of a new evolved global brand and an edgy, innovative new collection. Both underscore the carpet tile manufacturer's design and sustainability leadership. Interface is the only carpet company present at the exclusive and leading design venue La Triennale di Milano.

In conjunction with the brand launch, Interface has also announced a commitment to the global Green Apple Day of Service, where the company will encourage its employees, customers and suppliers to volunteer towards school sustainability projects in the communities where it operates around the world. As one of the first companies to join the effort, Interface is highlighting its strong culture of purpose-driven design.

The brand's progressive new look reflects the company's growing global presence and future ambition. By referring to the brand simply as Interface®, the name under which the company was founded, rather than InterfaceFLOR, the company is honoring the legacy and vision of the late Ray Anderson, the company's founder and sustainability pioneer. The new look, which will be unveiled at Milan, is a modern take on the company's historical design.

"The Interface brand embodies our commitment to delivering products and experiences that exemplify design with purpose. By this, we mean products that combine beauty, innovation, function and sustainability that inspire our customers to realize their own design visions, from a company that feels a sense of responsibility beyond the products that we sell," said Maria Davlantes, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Interface, Inc. "The new brand is a reinforcement of who we are as a company."

The new Interface global brand debuts along with an innovative new design collection and installation hosted at La Triennale di Milano during Milan Design Week, from April 17 to 22, 2012. The new Metropolis™ collection contains striking products developed with sustainability in mind and inspired by the themes that should resonate with all designers: ideological rebirth, based on 2012 global and cultural trends reflecting the end and regeneration of cities and cultures.

"As we embark on the new brand that energizes our purpose, the Metropolis collection reflects our hopeful vision of a new and more sustainable future, where people live in harmony with eco-systems, without depleting the raw materials our planet offers. The new collection is Interface at its edgiest and most striking, with atmospheric designs reflecting the mood and mystery of a brave new world. The products are everything customers have come to expect from us – eye catching and innovative yet functional.  We hope they will inspire the most dramatic and evocative interiors," remarked Nigel Stansfield, vice president and chief innovations officer of Interface, Inc.

According to Interface's commitment to sustainability, one-third of the Metropolis collection contains 100-percent recycled yarn made from industrial waste sources, such as used fishing nets and yarn from used carpet tiles, recycled through Interface's Re-Entry™ 2.0 take-back program. Many of the products have the additional environmental benefits of Interface's carbon offset program, as standard, and a non-directional design for less waste and faster installation.

In further celebration of Interface's brand and its commitment to the Green Apple Day of Service, the company will identify schools and school districts globally for service projects that can have a meaningful impact on the environments in which children and young adults learn. Interface's support is an example of how the company lives out its sustainability mission and values. In 2011, Interface, Inc. employees volunteered more than 10,000 hours in communities.

"At Interface, design drives and defines everything we do. For us, design should be thoughtful and meaningful—it's what we are and how we operate as a company," said Davlantes. "Now and through the rest of the year, we are commemorating the Interface brand both inside and outside the organization through a celebration of what the company stands for and aspires to deliver."      

A commemorative book entitled "Design with Purpose," has been developed to help celebrate Interface's brand heritage, meaning and aspirations with customers.

About Interface, Inc.
Established in 1973, Interface, Inc. (NASDAQ: IFSIA) is the worldwide leader in design, production and sales of environmentally responsible modular carpet, manufactured for the commercial and institutional markets under the Interface® brand, and for consumer markets as FLOR™. The company is also a leading designer and manufacturer of commercial broadloom and modular carpet under the Bentley Prince Street™ brand.

Interface was one of the first companies to publicly commit to sustainability in the mid-nineties, and the company has been widely recognized for its achievements in this area since then.  Its products have also achieved numerous awards specifically for design and innovation, the most recent being The Athenaeum Good Design Award for World Textiles.  In 2011, Interface presented another interactive experience at Milan's La Triennale, entitled "The Positive Floor" to critical acclaim. Interface will bring its brand and the celebration of its values to additional design and industry events around the world throughout this year, including: both NeoCon and Greenbuild in the United States; Saturday in Design in Australia and Singapore; IIDEX/NeoCon in Canada; and Orgatec in Germany.

SOURCE Interface, Inc.