Mannington Commercial recently announced the finalists of its second annual Tx:Style Design Challenge: Athena Abrol of WWCOT in Los Angeles; Bethany Burton of Ellerbe Becket in Minneapolis; Laurel Harrison of AECOM in Los Angeles; Heather Miller of Heather Miller Design in Charlotte, N.C.; Joanne Titcomb of Spillman Farmer Architects in Bethlehem, Penn.; and Samantha Gotta and Jenny Song of ZGF architects in Los Angeles.

"Designers' engagement with Tx:Style simply keeps growing," said Natalie Jones, vp commercial brand development and creative product. "The number of registrants grew from 5,700 to nearly 10,000 this year, and the finalists' designs are every bit as inspiring as those we saw last year. We are excited to see how the designers will translate their concepts, with help from our product development team, into fully realized flooring products."

Each of the finalist teams wins $3,000 and will join Mannington's design development group for a three-day creative session at the end of March. The grand prize winner will be chosen by open voting online and at NeoCon 2010, and will be awarded $7,500 in total prize money and a full product collection.

Tx:Style Design Challenge 2010 was opened to registered interior designers with less than seven years of work experience. The winning designers have been asked asked to interpret their concepts into both carpet and hard surface. At the end of the voting, Mannington will produce one hard surface collection and one carpet collection.

"At a time when economic opportunities are limited for many young designers, we are delighted to be part of opening up possibilities for their portfolios, as well as for Mannington's product portfolio," said Jones. "Young designers are so full of energy, excitement and new ways of thinking about product, we love connecting with them in new ways and, ultimately, giving the design community what it wants."

Mannington's Tx:Style Design Challenge 2009 garnered half a million votes and named Squareberry as its winner. In the months since, Squareberry has been developed into a three-pattern, full product line of commercial carpet that is being launched into the market this spring. By the closing date of this year's contest, more than 100 designers were registering on the site every day, according to Mannington. Ninety percent of registrants are from the United States, with the remaining ten percent coming from 97 other countries around the world. To view the finalists' entries, visit Mannington Commercial on Facebook or at http://txstyle-mannington.com.