A Carpet Collection Commemorates Hip-Hop

Shaw Contract collaborates with hip-hop architect Michael Ford on a new carpet collection that channels the music genre.

By: Anna Zappia

Hip-hop music was born in 1973, fittingly, at a birthday party in the Bronx. DJ Kool Herc played the same vinyl record on twin turntables, toggling between them to extend the song’s percussion breaks—the most danceable sections. That technique heralded a new era of creativity and forever changed America’s cultural landscape. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of this beginning, Shaw Contract has partnered with self-proclaimed “hip-hop architect” Michael Ford on a new rug collection that captures the vital rhythms of the genre.

Five patterns highlight elements of hip-hop culture, from Breakin, which pays homage to makeshift cardboard floors used by B-boy dancers, to Graffiti, which showcases the frenetic style of spray-painted tags and murals. The patterns largely evoke a mood rather than replicate iconography. “We sought to infuse the energy and vibrancy of hip-hop into these designs,” Ford says of  the collection, his first foray into product design after his recent reimagining of Herman Miller’s Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman.