PORTLAND, OR—Understanding that design-savvy consumers and industry professionals can quickly become inundated with information about designing the hub of the modern home—the kitchen—Dwell and Monogram are bringing the experience to life through the Monogram Modern Home. Set in a completely custom Method Homes prefab, the Monogram Modern Home is an unprecedented 360-degree campaign—with digital, video, print, and event touch points—that will allow influencers, trade professionals, and consumers in markets across the country the opportunity to test-drive the latest Monogram home appliances.

One of the leaders in prefab construction, Method Homes, partnered with Dwell and Monogram to build a custom 1,100-square-foot home to showcase the craftsmanship and innovative features of Monogram's newest and most popular high-end appliances. Behind-the-scenes video of the build will go live on dwell.com/monogram in April and feature details of the home, the partnership, and the design and construction process. Over the course of six months, the Monogram Modern Home will travel to key markets where Dwell and Monogram will host influencer events, consumer tours with product demos, and continuing education opportunities for the trade audience. The event series kicks off in Portland this month, and will travel to a new city each month—including Los Angeles at Dwell on Design on May 29, 2015, and then on to Phoenix, Dallas, and Austin—before concluding the cross-country tour in Boston in September. Known for superior design, Monogram appliances are manufactured with high-quality materials and are innovative and intuitive—always with the consumer's myriad needs in mind.

“As arbiters of modern design and leaders in the industry, Dwell follows the behaviors of design enthusiasts and the success of the stickiest and most beloved brands worldwide,” says Dwell president and CEO Michela O'Connor Abrams. “We've found that the most successful brands don't just deliver superb products, they excel at providing outstanding experiences at every interaction with the consumer, whether through clever packaging, intuitive websites or thoughtful store design—360-degrees of excellence. With the Monogram Modern Home, we're bringing new life to the way consumers evaluate home appliances and creating an unmatched 360-degree experience that we know design enthusiasts are seeking and will enjoy.”  

Monogram Design and Innovation—The Monogram Modern Home truly brings today's ideal home to life, and its components are as interactive and intuitive as the designs that inspired it. “We could think of no better way than a comprehensive experience such as this to demonstrate how Monogram appliances can complement the modern home and reflect its owner's design sensibilities,” says Monogram industrial design director Lou Lenzi. This thoughtful, consumer-centric approach is exemplified in the years-long development of the line; “The product innovations we're delivering today are the result of Monogram's increased investment in Industrial Design and Consumer Insights over the past five years. Our design process starts not with a sketch, but with consumer understanding—observing how people interact with and use our products in their everyday lives. We get out a lot of the design studio—conducting over 100 consumer studies each year—gathering insights that translate into real-world innovations like the bottle wash feature in the Monogram dishwasher, the ergonomic extension racks found in our Monogram wall oven, or the beautifully lit interior of the new Monogram French Door Refrigerator featuring LED lighting.”      

While Los Angeles is one of the most important arenas for American modern design, Portland, with Oregon's strong midcentury modern roots, provide an attractive backdrop to some of the best design professionals in the industry. The city's unofficial slogan—Keep Portland Weird—embodies the community's embrace of innovation, a mindset that has attracted a number of change-makers in recent years. Portland's inventive population and affinity for modern design makes it the ideal place to kick-off the Monogram Modern Home series of events, which celebrate big ideas and innovation through design.