Can Your Workplace Make You Happy?

Can a textile create joy in the workplace?

We will take a stab at answering that question later in this story. But we can confidently say the industry is certainly trying.

Designtex recently launched Joy, a collection of high-performance textiles featuring the organic shapes, vivid colors, and textural details that were scientifically designed to make us feel better in the office. The company says its collection promotes “uplifting and harmonious interiors” and the designs are rooted in evidence-based research on the connection between aesthetics and our emotions.

The Designtex Joy collection is part of a larger trend in the textile industry, which seems to be leading the office into a brighter, happier future. Bright colors, vibrant patterns and rich textures are showing up everywhere.

Whether these bold, happy patterns are adopted by designers and their customers remains to be seen, but it is a welcome shift for an industry that has in recent years seemed stuck in a drab gray and white rut. Even if designers are anxious to bring joy to our offices through textile choices, customers may not be ready to make the move.

But Designtex has science on its side, said Sara Balderi, executive director. The collection was created when the Designtex team began wondering if they could use textiles to bring joy into a space. By researching multi-sensory experiences that stimulate the brain’s pleasure centers, Designtex created the Joy collection. Balderi worked with Deidre Hoguet, senior director, sustainability + applied research at Designtex on creating the Joy collection.

“We had been working for years together on researching biophilic design and Sara had created several biophilic inspired collections of the products,” said Hoguet. “It was really out of that work that we were doing research on how interior surfaces, colors, shapes, informed positive experiences and could lead to wellbeing. So we had been deeply researching biophilia and especially the visual aspects of biophilia, but also textures and materials. And that led us to this work that we’ve then been doing for a number of years since then. We have been looking at how these things affect the occupant of interior and how these products could contribute to the space.”

The textiles are intended to be applied more widely and are suited for workplaces as a way to promote collaboration and employee satisfaction; hospitality settings, including wellness centers and spas; educational environments to spark creativity and improve cognitive function; healthcare, to combat stress and anxiety for patients, caregivers, and providers; and residential, including senior care and communal care facilities in order to promote a convivial atmosphere.

Balderi said the collection grew from the company’s experience in healthcare design and its biophilic designs. Designtex found that materials can play a critical role in creating feelings inside a space.

Neuroaesthetics is a new and growing field that explores how environmental elements like color, sound, and art subconsciously impact individuals. While not a novel concept, neuroaesthetics takes this understanding a step further, harnessing these elements to enhance the user experience. Multiple studies have found that beautiful and functional design is at the root of people’s happiness in the workplace. Unexpected pops of color can also subconsciously stimulate positive distractions, serving as mental respites in stressful moments.

“Materials can play a really critical role and affects how you experience the space,” said Balderi. “So what can we do through material design to help people’s wellbeing, to help people’s interaction? Then we got really excited. This started about five or six years ago before COVID, and then it became really relevant when we were all secluded in our houses thinking about what a joyful space looks like. We built off that. And now I feel like it’s so much a part of what we’re hearing.”

Designtex isn’t alone in studying neuroaesthetics. The trend was everywhere at this year’s NeoCon. BuzziSpace, Fomcore, Ghent, Momentum, Scandinavian Spaces, SixInch, Ultrafabrics and SLALOM all explored the concept in Chicago.

There is a growing body of research showing that space matters when it comes to how people feel. Designtex has had a longstanding belief that the design of a space affects how you experience the space, said Balderi. “In turn, materials can play a really critical role. So what can we do through material design to help people’s wellbeing, to help people’s interaction?”

Hoguet said Designtex researchers broke the idea of creating joy in the office through a new textile collection into a couple areas: pattern, form and color. The company used its insights around colors that have positive connotations in its Joy collection.

Designtex’s neuroscience research found that more saturated colors have an energizing impact on people. People working in offices with brighter, more saturated colors, had more energy and a more energizing and uplifting feeling, whereas cooler and lighter colors have a more calming effect.

Yellow, in particular, is connected with feelings of joy and positivity across all cultures, she said. Yellow’s association with sunshine and light has a positive impact in nearly every culture. Yellow plays a major role in the Designtex Joy collection (but not everything is yellow).

The textiles in Joy are designed to bring a sense of clarity, connectedness, and delight to the spaces in which they appear. The collection includes eight high-performance woven textiles, five wovens, two digitally printed non-porous silicone textiles, and one digitally printed textile with a built-in moisture barrier.

Designtex’s research went well beyond color, Hoguet said. Pattern design was critical. For example, Designtex looked at how organic, curving patterns affect the feeling of an office or healthcare space. Balance and order in textile patterns was discussed extensively. The company also was thoughtful about the feel of its fabrics in the collection as well.

Though the collection is called Joy, it really is about overall wellbeing.

“For example, in an education environment, it can help with cognition,” Baldari said. “It’s not just about energy. Sometimes you don’t want high energy, especially in healthcare. Sometimes you want a place that you can feel calm and peaceful.”