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Article Number: 8741
Armstrong Receives Prestigious GOOD DESIGN Award for Raffia Tile
Lancaster, Pa., January 24 – Armstrong Commercial Flooring is pleased to announce Raffia™ Vinyl Composition Tile (VCT) is taking home top honors in the 2013 GOOD DESIGN Awards. Raffia was the only resilient flooring product to receive an award in the 2013 international competition. The 2013 competition also marked the third year in a row that Armstrong was honored by the international awards program.

GOOD DESIGN is the world’s most recognized, prestigious, and oldest Design Awards program. It is organized annually by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design in cooperation with the European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies. GOOD DESIGN covers new consumer products designed and manufactured in Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America.

“We are excited that Raffia, one of our premium VCT flooring tiles, has been chosen to receive this honor from GOOD DESIGN,” said Tricia Fanty, commercial marketing manager, Armstrong Commercial Flooring. “This product combines environmentally-friendly qualities with beautiful linear visuals in a size popular in many markets. This achievement confirms that the design community, as well as building owners, have a desire for a sustainable product that performs great in multiple venues.”

Raffia’s unique design and 12”x24” shape stretches the imagination by instantly softening a room with its gorgeous, subtle and silky color ways.

Armstrong’s continued commitment to sustainable offerings inspired the development of Raffia, manufactured at Armstrong’s Jackson, Mississippi plant, which plays a dual role as a manufacturing and recycling facility. The Armstrong® Reclamation Program for VCT, reclaims VCT from the market during renovations, enabling the material to be diverted from landfills.

Raffia contributes to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) credits including recycled materials; construction waste management; low-emitting materials; and regional materials. In addition, Raffia VCT is FloorScore® certified for low VOC emissions and is certified Gold per the NSF/ANSI 332 Sustainability Assessment Standard for Resilient Floor Coverings. Raffia contributes to a sustainable portfolio of products by Armstrong.

In 2013, the Museum received submissions from several thousand leading manufacturers, industrial design offices, architects, graphic and packaging designers from around the world. A total of 700 product designs and graphics from more than 38 nations were named as GOOD DESIGN winners.

Entries for design and innovation, sustainability, creativity, branding, ecologically responsible design, human factors, materials, technology, graphic arts, packaging, and universal design are submitted annually by various industrial design and graphic design firms working with Fortune 500 companies.

For more information on Raffia VCT, visit Armstrong.com.

About GOOD DESIGN
Founded in Chicago in 1950 by the former MoMA curator Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., together with such pioneers in modern design as Charles and Ray Eames, Russel Wright, George Nelson, and Eero Saarinen, GOOD DESIGN honors the yearly achievements of the best industrial and graphic designers and world manufactures for their pursuit of extraordinary design excellence. The Chicago Athenaeum continues the organization of the program to create a revived awareness about contemporary design and to honor both products and industry leaders in design and manufacturing that have chartered new directions and pushed the envelope for competitive products in the world marketplace. Annually, designers and manufactures in over 30 nations have been honored for their singular achievements in producing hallmarks of contemporary design. All winning entries become property of the Permanent Design Collection at The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design. Projects selected for exhibition will require the physical use of the product or model for exhibition purposes. http://www.chi-athenaeum.org/gdesign/

About Armstrong World Industries
Armstrong World Industries, Inc. is a global leader in the design and manufacture of floors and ceilings. Based in Lancaster, Pa., Armstrong operates 34 plants in eight countries and has approximately 8,700 employees worldwide. For more information, visit www.armstrong.com.