Los Angeles will be the focus of RugYourCity's Second Design Challenge

Fine Oriental rugs have depicted local life and culture in a handful of cities for centuries: Floorplan's RugYourCity platform aims to bring meaning and culture to contemporary rug designs by collaborating with architects and designers to create modern rugs inspired by modern cities.
RugYourCity's first set of NYC-inspired designs was successfully funded on Kickstarter in September and is currently available for pre-order on floorplanrugs.com
RugYourCity Kickstarter backers had the opportunity to choose the city that will be the subject of its second Design Challenge: Los Angeles beat out Akron, Ohio by one vote. More than 38 cities in 13 countries (and one Middle Earth city!) were nominated, including Los Angeles, Istanbul, Paris, Nashville and more.
Because of its intense support and the closeness of the race, Floorplan is offering Akron supporters the chance to secure Akron as an additional Design Challenge later in 2016, by earning more than 200 votes on a Yes to Akron post on Floorplan's Facebook Page by November 6.
The next RugYourCity Design Challenge will be open to designers around the world. Details to participate will be released in the coming weeks.

October 30, 2015 — Los Angeles: Floorplan, a designer-founded company intent on creating a better rug buying experience, announced today that Los Angeles will be the focus of its second Design Challenge for its RugYourCity platform.

As the name suggests, RugYourCity is a project to create handmade rugs inspired by modern cities, refreshing the centuries-old tradition of depicting local life and culture in classic Persian and Turkish rugs. Floorplan launched RugYourCity on Kickstarter in August, and in September, reached its funding goal of $12,000 to prototype and produce a New York-inspired pilot collection. Floorplan collaborated with designers, artists and architects to develop its NYC-inspired pilot collection, and this kind of open collaboration is a key ingredient to the RugYourCity idea.

NYC was the first RugYourCity Design Challenge

“The classics are classics for a reason: the Nains from Persia, Herekes from Turkey are beautiful rugs that tell epic stories. It’s the significance of their iconic motifs that gives them enduring style,” said Erin Eisinger, co-founder and CEO of Floorplan. “We think it’s time modern rugs tell stories of place as well. Our vision for RugYourCity is to create heirlooms that capture the spirit of modern cities and to include the people who cherish those cities in the process.”

While the production of its NYC-inspired rugs is underway, Floorplan is preparing to launch RugYourCity's second Design Challenge, this time focusing on a city chosen by its Kickstarter backers.

More than 38 cities in 14 countries — and one in Middle Earth! — were nominated by backers, and there was a tight race between Istanbul, Los Angeles, and Akron, Ohio, which happens to be Eisinger's hometown.

It came down to two: Los Angeles and Akron

"When we saw that Los Angeles beat out Akron by one single vote, I knew how disappointed our supporters would be...and I just couldn't leave it at that!" said Eisinger. "That's why we're offering a Hail Mary play to try to secure an additional Design Challenge spot for Akron later in 2016."

Floorplan will be posting a YES TO AKRON image on its Facebook page; If the post garners more than 200 likes by November 6, Akron will be the subject of another Design Challenge later in 2016.

Akron has a hail mary play secure a design challenge in 2016

Floorplan's co-founder, Mehmet Bozatli, said that they were thrilled to see the number and diversity of cities nominated, which he said confirms their belief that there's a lot of room to explore the RugYourCity concept.

"There were iconic cities nominated like Istanbul, Paris, Tokyo, San Francisco that we expected.....but then there were also places like Portland (Maine and Oregon), El Paso, Minneapolis, and others. It reinforced that there is a unique opportunity to collaborate with creative communities around the world — in cities big and small — not only to make rugs, but to communicate and commemorate what these places mean to us."

38 cities were nominated for the second RugYourCity design challenge

Design challenges for both Los Angeles and Akron will be open to the public. Details on participation will be released in the coming weeks; those interested can sign up to receive information as it is available.

About The NYC-Inspired Rug Your City Designers

See Rug Your City Bios Page

About The Founders

Erin + Mehmet crossed paths in New York City in the aughts. Erin was climbing the corporate ladder convincing financial institutions to implement user-centered design. Mehmet was running a wholesale rug business and finishing his master’s in architecture at Columbia. When the urge for adventure struck in 2008, they moved to Istanbul and started FourByNorth Studios, a user-experience design and architectural consulting firm to serve both blue chip and the burgeoning startup companies in Turkey and Europe. After years of helping other businesses launch and refine brands, they applied their team’s expertise to a product that they know well but is elusive to the average consumer: good quality rugs at reasonable prices. Floorplan aims to cut through the noise of misleading markdowns and rugs that look good at first but shabby in short order.

About Floorplan

Floorplan is an agile rug company dedicated to improving the experience of finding and buying great rugs. It specializes in hand-made and vintage goods meant to last: hand-knotted, hand-loomed and hand-woven rugs in natural fibers like wool, cotton, silk and jute. Based in Los Angeles, CA, Floorplan has a retail space at Urban Americana in the Zaferia Design District of Long Beach and is online at FloorplanRugs.com.

Erin Eisinger

Author

Floorplan CEO and Co-Founder. Designer. Storyteller. Entrepreneur.

Products

About Floorplan

Floorplan is an agile rug company dedicated to improving the experience of finding and buying great rugs — online, pop-up, at select local shops, and direct to designers and retailers.

We’re based in Los Angeles