Zingg Design Inc. was founded on the philosophy of excellence in distinct design and in superior service. By utilizing the latest in industry innovations and technology the firm provides prompt and timely release of high quality drawings and services. Zingg Design’s dynamic twenty-year resume is as diverse as the talent the firm employs. Exceptional staff has experience in various lines of work, ranging from retail showrooms and luxury homes to commercial showrooms and corporate offices. Zingg Design’s full service approach means that project teams attend directly to client’s objectives while providing innovative solutions inline with budgetary requirements. Their mission is to collaboratively create interactive spaces of interest – synthesizing form and function to support, motivate and inspire; and it is reflected in each and every endeavor, with great attention given to the unique needs of projects and clients alike. Mark Zingg AIA is the President and CEO of Zingg Design Inc. He spoke with Surface & Panel about what composite panels and decorative surfaces mean to his company.

S&P: How do you specify materials?

Zingg: Well it depends on the job of course, and the budget. We are a pretty creative architecture and interior design firm, so we are always pushing our designers to look for new products out there. We see materials in magazines and going to conventions and seminars. Companies come to our office to show us new products. I think there is a lot of cool new stuff in your industry. There are many very nice-looking new surfaces, new panels. And of course everyone is very interested in the green design right now. So that has been a big focus for us.

S&P: Do you use low emitting panels?

Zingg: Yes. Our work takes us all over. Especially on the west coast, California has some pretty stringent requirements.Actually a product that we have been looking at is Kirei, they have a wheatboard product that is pretty interesting, it is made of wheat as a backer. But any of that NAUF stuff, that is a big buzz word right now for people.

S&P: Do the CARB regulations influence your work?

Zingg: Not that I have specifically come up against. I would have to say no. It seems like everything is green now. That is one great thing about this whole green movement, it seems like every manufacturer has jumped on board, there is such a wide array of products out there. I had a lot of clients who at first were concerned with the cost of going green, and now with all the manufacturers responding, that doesn’t really come into the picture anymore. There is some neat cost-effective stuff out there. 

S&P: Do you find that it is important to your clients to have environmentally friendly materials and designs?

Zingg: I don’t have a lot of clients that want the LEED design, or they want the LEED design without the actual certification. They want green design but they are not willing to go the whole nine yards to be certified. The concept is important, but the documentation does not seem to be important to people.

S&P: What do you like about working with composite materials and decorative surfaces?

Zingg: The look of them. We’re designers, so the wide variety of designs you can achieve with composites and decorative surfaces is exciting. We do a lot of different types of projects, so each one has different budgetary and performance parameters. I am a big fan of a product called Art Diffusion from Interlam. I wish I invented that, in fact. It is a real interesting product that just has different surface textures to it, lots of different finishes. We’re doing more with pre-finished wall panels. We do a lot of millwork design, but even in our interior architecture we are doing more pre-finishes wall panels versus vinyl wall covering or other wall textures, surfaces, paint or plaster. It seems like you can get a lot of bang for your buck in terms of design with some of these products.

Art Diffusion is just MDF board that has been routed by a CNC machine, you can give it all kinds of finishes, you can get it unfinished and you can get big wall surfaces of it. It has a real 3-dimensional texture to it. It is a little tricky seaming it and putting together panels but you can get around that by just the sizes that you use, how you frame it. Other things that we are interested in here are the laminate wood and metal weaves for surfaces. There is a company that we use, Ventura Enterprises, they have some real interesting sort of the 3D texture. I like that 3D texture type of effect; it is especially interesting in terms of lighting. We’re using that more in our corporate office work. Then we get into retail stuff and price point and durability becomes a lot more important, plus it is a pretty harsh environment. There we use a lot of high-pressure laminate.

S&P: Are there any other materials or surfaces that you really get a kick out of?

Zingg: Tree Frog veneers, I have been looking at them, they have a nice pre-finished veneer in wild colors. We like using different stuff, a lot of times you can use natural materials in a creative way that can really pop your design, and that’s important. Especially in retail, you want to have an environment that sets you apart from other people. The Chemetals, we’re big on the metal stuff, we like using metal within our millwork. We are always interested in new things. There is a trend toward more furniture type wood finish or veneers, particularly for reception desks for corporations, and we do a lot of those. That trend is also true in residential kitchen design. I’ll build whatever it is a client wants. There are limitless opportunities for design. Our firm is known for innovation, new advances in materials help to meet that expectation.