MKDA was honored to take first place at this year’s In Bloom event, presented by Muuto in collaboration with MillerKnoll and Creative Office Resources. The evening brought together 13 leading New York design firms to create original installations using Muuto’s iconic vase as a shared starting point—each exploring materiality, form, and identity through a distinct lens.

Judged by representatives from Interior Design, along with Jon Otis and Ghislaine Viñas, the event celebrated a wide range of creative interpretations. MKDA’s installation stood out for its conceptual clarity and duality, earning top recognition among an exceptional group of peers.

At the core of MKDA’s winning concept, Executive Creative Director Edin Rudic describes a familiar design tension:

“Color, or Not. The Eternal Dilemma.

On one side: restraint. A quiet, shadowed ecosystem where texture does the talking and time feels slower. It’s edited, disciplined, and a little mysterious—proof that less can still say a lot.

On the other: an explosion. Color refuses to behave. It climbs, blooms, and interrupts. It’s playful, slightly chaotic, and fully alive—because sometimes more is exactly the point.

Same vessel. Same rules. Two completely different attitudes.

But look closer—these aren’t just compositions. They’re micro-environments. Self-contained worlds. Controlled, intentional, almost cinematic. As designers, this is what we do: we build atmospheres you can step into, even when they’re only inches wide. Small, precise universes with their own mood, gravity, and logic.

This is MKDA in a nutshell. We don’t pick a side. We design the tension between them. Because great spaces, like great stories, live in contrast: control vs. freedom, calm vs. energy, black tie vs. barefoot.

So… color, or not?
We’ll take both.”