Keep on Tryk-in'

I am a huge fan of Tricycle and have been since I first discovered them long ago at NeoCon.

Since 2003, the company that was founded to attack the design sample waste problem has conserved more than 69,000 gallons of oil and kept 418,000 pounds of carpet from the landfill. Designers and architects have requested more than 279,000 recyclable paper Tryk prints in place of carpet samples. That’s a lot of carpet that was never manufactured.

Last week two press releases came across my inbox. The first announces that the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum has selected Tricycle’s Tryk Sustainable Samples for display in their National Design Triennial exhibit.

The exhibition title asks the question “Why Design Now?” to examine why design thinking is an essential tool for solving some of today’s most urgent problems. Ellen Lupton, curator of contemporary design at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and co-organizer of the Triennial says, "Tricycle is rethinking the way an industry does its business. This is a new approach to eco-conscious design. It’s not about creating cool-looking products. It’s about creating new systems and new ways of working."

Speaking of innovation, Tricycle also announced the launch of two online presentation tools that bring rapid prototyping to interior design and product sampling. Both are available to manufacturers.

Tryk Configure allows designers to work in a virtual 2D space and to experiment with modular flooring configurations before ordering samples. Tryk Workroom enables mixing and combining of carpet and hard surface tiles in a virtual 3D space.

“Designers want to design more in less time, with less waste,” said Jonathan Bragdon, Tricycle president. Using these tools, designers can visualize carpet or hard surface tiles in custom installations and room scenes and then order Tryk Sustainable Samples for the first rounds of their specification process.”

Cooper-Hewitt’s Lupton is right. Tricycle IS creating a whole new system that goes well beyond products. It’s worthy of your attention. Give a Tryk a try.