The tip of the architectural iceberg

By Emma Peterson. 

Taking inspiration from nature and sharing it with designers with the three collections in Sherwin-Williams' Emulate™ line. 

In this episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Heidi J. Ellsworth met with Brynn Wildenauer and Kiki Redhead of Sherwin-Williams to talk about the launch of the Emulate™ line. This is a line of architectural metal coatings that are designed to mimic natural materials. Kiki described, “Within the series we showcase three curated collections of popular woods, stones and metals in different colors and schemes.”  

This entire process began with a large amount of research, from speaking to color experts at tradeshows to what Kiki calls “boots on the ground.” She explained, “We visited stone yards, lumber yards, building products stores, cabinet shops, flooring stores all over the country. And we talked to the salespeople, the store managers and the guys out moving the product around.” From this, they gained insight into what is selling, what people were liking and what people were wanting. 

Then, when it came time to narrow it down to the three collections they released, Brynn explained that “they had hundreds and hundreds of samples at the design house.” In order to make their decision, the team made alterations to previous patterns as well as developed new ones. Ultimately, each of the three collections has four patterns.  

These innovative patterns are just the tip of the iceberg for this project, with the entire Emulate™ campaign having 30 products total. The duo acknowledged that they could have done far more if they had more time, but that 30 was a sweet spot. Brynn explained, “It was a sweet spot of products where it wasn't too much for our labs or anybody, any coder or any product manufacturer. Further, we wanted this to be a starting point, a great guide to help start an inspiration that goes beyond Emulate™.” 

Read the transcript or Listen to the full episode to learn more about the Emulate™ line.