MillerKnoll : Maharam Introduces Pop and Groove by Bertjan Pot

This June, Maharam introduces Pop and Groove by Bertjan Pot-a pair of rugs that extends the Dutch designer's interests in structure, pattern, color, and technique to our first rugs designed for indoor and outdoor application.

Heralded by a series of rugs and upholsteries in fall 2022, Maharam's collaboration with Bertjan Pot has been guided by Pot's iterative material experimentation and interest in deriving pattern from construction. Pop and Groove presented the opportunity to bring Pot's perspective to Maharam's diverse offering of rug constructions-including handwoven, felted, and knotted solids and textures-and create the design studio's first rugs for indoor and outdoor application.

Composed of a continuous coil of stitched rope, Pop is a rounded rug whose randomized moire offers inherent pattern with vivid color mixing. Pop's stitched construction recalls Pot's rope forms like playful masks and oversized gloves, which evolved from Pot's initial experiments with the technique of machine-sewing technical rope to make a rug. Maharam's design studio worked closely with Pot and the resource to create a custom multicolored rope that references marine line Pot prefers for his forms. In Pop's coiled construction, the braided rope's small-scale houndstooth pattern merges into an optical effect that both mutes and enlivens graphic brights like cerulean, citron, and orange. High-energy dyeing allows for the ropes' provocative but thoughtful color contrast designed to last in indoor and outdoor applications.

Embodying Pot's approach of applying traditional techniques in unexpected ways, Groove enlists macrame knotting in a bold indoor/outdoor rug with substantial texture. Ropes in high-contrast, duotone combinations are tied with one another and inverted at regular intervals to create a checkerboard pattern with exaggerated visual and tactile interest. The resource's artisans specially learned the macrame technique to achieve the rug's unusual structure. Like Pop, Groove's rope is high-energy dyed to create bright hues that are lightfast for over 700 hours.

About Bertjan Pot
Bertjan Pot (b. 1975, Netherlands) graduated from the Man and Identity department at Design Academy Eindhoven in 1998. His designs first gained an international audience with his Random Light (1999), a strand of epoxy-dipped fiberglass coiled around a large balloon to form a globe shaped pendant lamp diffuser. Pot's Carbon Chair (2004), made from epoxy-drained carbon fibers, paid homage to Charles and Ray Eames's Eiffel chair base while experimenting with new materials. In addition to collaborations with Cassina, Established & Sons, HAY, Moooi, and Nike, among others, Pot has exhibited his woven masks, seats, tables, lights, and textiles internationally in both group exhibitions and solo presentations. His work can be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; Rotterdam's Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen; MoMA in New York; Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum; and the Textielmuseum Tillburg.

About Maharam
Founded in 1902 in New York, Maharam is a leading creator of textiles for commercial and residential interiors. Recognized for its rigorous and holistic commitment to design, Maharam embraces a range of disciplines from product, graphic, and digital design to art and architecture. Maharam textiles are included in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Stedelijk Museum, among others. Maharam is the recipient of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Design Patron Award for its longstanding support of art and design.

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