Kari Pei Joins Interface as Product Designer

Kari Pei, recognized as a design leader in the textile industry, has joined modular carpet giant Interface as product designer, a new position created under chief innovation officer Nigel Stansfield. As part of the Atlanta, Georgia-based company’s evolving global product strategy, Pei will work alongside internal product design and development teams and sustainability leader David Oakey Designs from her office at the company’s Awarehouse in LaGrange, Georgia.

“For the past 25 years, Kari has created printed and woven textiles for some of the world’s most recognized brands, including our friends at Knoll and Starwood hotels,” said Stansfield, in a statement released by the company. “She’s equally at home in the design studio and on the factory floor, and we are drawn to her unique perspectives on texture, depth and color, as well as her collaborative nature.”

Prior to joining Interface, New-York based Pei worked with globally celebrated fashion houses, manufacturers and hospitality brands, including Starwood Hotels, MGM Resorts International, Knoll, Wolf Gordon, Maharm and Jhane Barnes. Recently, Pei worked with KnollTextiles to design the The Nexus Collection of commercial wallcoverings alongside Dorothy Cosonas.

Says Pei of her new role, “Because sustainability is so foundational at Interface, designers are free to explore how we can use carpet—which is the thing that people relate to the most in a room—to enhance the quality of our experience underfoot through color, texture, pattern and depth.”

Coincidentally, Pei is also the daughter-in-law of the iconic architect I.M. Pei, most known for completing the Grand Louvre in Paris, the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, and the Four Seasons Hotel in New York.