DMTV Milkshake: Bringing the World Home With Talk Carpet
The following post is brought to you by Talk Carpet. Our partners are hand-picked by the Design Milk team because they represent the best in design.
Few things stoke wanderlust like a global shutdown. For Talk Carpet creative director Christophe Rammant, the desire to reconnect with the world at large held outsize ramifications for his day job: As soon as he was able, Rammant dove back into travel, taking with him a bottomless curiosity and passion for connecting with the world’s best designers and artisans. Talk Carpet’s new path was forged.
In this week’s Milkshake, Rammant talks to us about how travel and design come together in not only the brand’s carpets, but in vibrant mood boards, blog posts, and videos created from remote destinations around the world. Rammant showcased the results of his trips to Peru, Egypt, Guatemala, Armenia, and South Africa at November’s NYCxDesign expo; here, he shares the fruits of those adventures and more. For example, he recommends the generally less-visited city of Johannesburg as an underrated jewel: “Many places I’ve been to were really inspiring, but the one that jumps out most is Johannesburg,” he says. “It’s a very undervalued city, especially tourist-wise. It’s often advised not to go there out of safety precautions, but I met amazing people there and really got inspired by the hustle and bustle of the city [and] how there are specific areas that are full of creativity.”
Also in this episode of Milkshake, Rammant shares the incredible work being done by weavers working with metallic materials in Colombia. “They combine it in a very unique product that has an incredible sheen and luster to it,” he says. “If you see it in a home setting, it’s truly incredible. It’s extremely labor-intensive work, with machines that are operated with just human power, and the finishing [is] done by hand.” It’s a reminder to Rammant of why this sort of work feels so vital: “Oftentimes I’ve noticed that textiles, or rugs, is really something that brings communities together and brings creativity outwards.”
For more from Christophe Rammant – including why he considers carpet “the fifth wall” of a space – tune in!
Diana Ostrom, who has written for Wallpaper, Interior Design, ID, The Wall Street Journal, and other outlets, is also the author of Faraway Places, a newsletter about travel.
Milkshake, DMTV (Design Milk TV)’s first regular series, shakes up the traditional interview format by asking designers, creatives, educators and industry professionals to select interview questions at random from their favorite bowl or vessel. During their candid discussions, you’ll not only gain a peek into their personal homeware collections, but also valuable insights into their work, life and passions.