Reading Time: 6 minutes

Milliken is a company passionate about design. We love what we do and are inspired by the power and beauty that meaningful design can deliver. Our floor coverings bring together the spirit of innovation and engineering excellence with the creativity and inspiration of our local design teams.

As the V&A prepares to close its doors and the last of its visitors hold their golden tickets to catch the final dates, the Christian Dior – Design of Dreams exhibition must have been its most successful exhibition to date. Standing alongside the Alexander McQueen – Savage Beauty exhibition of 2015, it marks the public’s obsession with fashion, history, brands and the snowball effect of our must-see culture.

Reading Time: 3 mins 

The surge of interest in well-being and wellness shows no sign of abating. The modern approach adopted by enlightened employers is no longer focused on creating cultures and environments that do no harm, but rather on creating those that foster engagement, improve people’s health, address their stresses and pressures and helps them be more productive.

Reading Time: 4 mins 

Are we just scratching the surface of the co-working movement? We’ve always had the idea that co-working spaces are synonymous with start-up businesses, sharing the costs and infrastructure of a communal work space, but with the rapid increase of co-working spaces in major cities, it is also interesting to learn that the format is being successfully adopted by large corporate organisations.

Reading Time: 4 mins 

The b-word ‘biophilia’ has become the latest buzzword to enter the vocabulary of architects and designers alike as we’re slowly seeing the transformation of workspaces changing from grey to green with the introduction of plants, foliage and living walls.

What better place to seek out and support new design talent than at New Designers 2019. Milliken’s Senior Designers, Claire Kimble and Helen Lloyd spent an inspiring day perusing the work of some of the most talented graduate design students from across the country.

The word festival conjures images of happy smiley faces, dancing in music filled fields to the latest headline acts. The harsh reality though can often be something much less Instagram worthy; litter across the landscape for as far as the eye can see, abandoned tents and camping equipment and a general disrespect for the countryside.

Reading Time: 3.5 minutes

How did you get to work today? If it involved an over-crowded train or standing on a crammed bus, this could be having a detrimental effect on your health.

Reading Time: 3.5 minutes

Figures published to mark Mental Health Awareness Week show that mental health is the leading cause of sickness absence in the UK, with over half of employees suffering from stress, a third from anxiety and a quarter from depression. It’s no surprise then that it has become a huge priority for employers. A study by Bupa revealed that mental health is a major concern at board level for almost two-thirds (65%) of businesses, rising to 72% among large corporates. Mental health was a bigger issue than physical illness among employees for nearly a third (29 %) of businesses.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

​October 2018 saw the Manchester launch of a new report from the British Council for Offices (BCO) called Wellness Matters: Health and Well-being in offices and what to do about it. It is one of the most recent indications that the focus of property designers, owners, managers and occupiers is no longer solely on the environment and performance characteristics of the building, but also on its impact on the mental and physical well-being of the people that inhabit it.