Meet the FLOOR_STORY team

Meet the FLOOR_STORY team

The people

behind

the rugs

Simon Goff is the Founder and Director of FLOOR_STORY, an independent and design-led flooring brand, with a focus solely on rugs. FLOOR_STORY has been housed in the current Shoreditch showroom since 2016 and is run by Simon and his team.

After leaving school and following various jobs within the interior design and travel sectors, Simon began working alongside his father to run a flooring concession on the King Roads. In 2007, Simon and his father set up and ran a flooring department in Heals, Tottenham Court Road. With a focus and desire to develop his own brand, the business at Heals was closed and Simon then set up FLOOR_STORY.

Simon’s creative inspiration derives from his ongoing love of travel, Mid-Century style, art, music and from bold colours and shape - all of which very much inform the overall direction at FLOOR_STORY.

Working with new and established creative talent, Simon is always aiming to produce innovative and aesthetically unique rugs which stand-alone in the industry, offering customers a fresh and exciting edit from which to choose. It has become a personal quest of Simon to travel the world, seeking out rare rugs which each bring a unique narrative and cultural breadth, to the wider collection.

Simon Goff

Simon Goff

Gill Thorpe’s role as Head Designer at FLOOR_STORY, ranges from working alongside residential and commercial interior designers on bespoke projects to designing her own collections with FLOOR_STORY. Gill also works with designers and artists helping to develop their ideas into the collaboration collections that FLOOR_STORY produces, applying her technical experience with rug making and colour combinations to transform their designs into rugs.

Gill is an Irish textile and surface designer and has been working in the rug industry since 2017. After studying Visual Communications in Dublin and by then with a strong interest in the tactile qualities of design, Gill interned at the National Print Museum in from 2012-2014, before beginning a Textile and Surface Design BA at Dublin’s National College of Art and Design. Gill then moved to London in 2016 to pursue print and embroidery internships with womenswear brands Danielle Romeril and Steven Tai, joining the team at FLOOR_STORY in 2019.

Gill Thorpe continues to develop personal work focused predominantly on colour exploration, texture and geometrics. Gill’s influences come from photography, history, fashion, textures and pattern; Her first collection for FLOOR_STORY which launched in 2021, is inspired by the natural patterns, line formations, textures and earth-tones found in agricultural settings.

Gill Thorpe

Gill Thorpe

Diane Bresson is a Creative Assistant at FLOOR_STORY. Diane’s role is to support Director Simon Goff and the team, with customer orders and overall management of the Shoreditch showroom.

Diane Bresson moved to London from France in 2015, to study Textile Design at Central Saint Martins, where she specialised in print. It was at CSM where Diane first became interested in large scale screen-printing. Work inspired by puzzles and technology led Diane to receive the ‘Colour in Design Award’ in 2018 and after graduating, she went on to work as a production assistant for a wallpaper studio before Joining FLOOR_STORY in 2019.

Diane Bresson continues to develop her own printmaking work and has designed her first stand-alone collection of rugs in 2021 for FLOOR_STORY.

Diane Bresson

Diane Bresson

Rebekah has recently joined the Floor_Story team as a Creative Assistant and is supporting the coordination of the Showroom. Rebekah, originally from Cardiff, moved to London to pursue a career in textiles and studied a BA in Fashion Textiles in the London Collage of Fashion. She specialised in Embroidery and gained experience in various placements including Amanda Kelly and Julien Macdonald.

During Rebekah’s final year in University, she was selected to collaborate with industry figures to develop an exhibition space which celebrated and showcased textiles in various forms and mediums including set design, sound and performance. The exhibition was noted by Time Out magazine as ‘One of the Best Exhibitions to see this Summer’ in 2019. After graduating University and working as a Production Assistant for The London Embroidery Studio, Rebekah joined the Floor_Story team.

Rebekah shares her time between various freelance roles and continues to develop her ambitions in textiles and production.

Rebekah Smith

Rebekah Smith

Featured

Rugs

Paul Wells is the founder of Brandkits, a branding and digital agency that has been helping us with our branding, website and campaigns since 2010.

Having trained as a photographer, and after a career in advertising, Paul came to the world of start-ups where he learnt what it takes to actually run a business. He then extended the same skills he had honed to provide branding and digital services to other companies. Brandkits was born.

Since 2009 Paul has helped businesses grow by asking the right questions (often challenging), making them look good, and giving them the tools for their teams to deliver.

He moved from London down to the creative hub that is St Leonards-on-Sea (Hastings) four years ago, where he loves the vibrancy of the bars and restaurants (hopefully soon restored post-Covid), the beautiful beaches and the stunning countryside (indulging his new passion for electric mountain bikes).

Paul Wells

Paul Wells

Katie Richardson works with FLOOR_STORY on PR and Marketing, developing press relationships, securing coverage and looking at wider industry collaborations.

Katie has worked in the design industry for 25 years, as a PR and Brand Consultant. She began her journey managing the product library for retail design consultancy Fitch during her gap year, followed by a stint at Virgin before beginning a PR career at Camron PR, where she trained from Press Officer to Associate Director.

With a passion for interiors and design, Katie’s experience spans launching unknown designers, to hosting events and steering campaigns for global brands. Katie also curates talks and installation programmes, runs a DJ agency and a love of vintage, music, the coastline, travel and photography feeds into and fuels her work. Connecting the dots between brands and the wider creative community is always the end game.

Katie Richardson

Katie Richardson