Motawi Tileworks Introduces Second Studio: A New Line of Employee-Designed Tiles

Something new is coming out of Ann Arbor. For the first time in our 30-plus-year history, Motawi Tileworks is launching a line of tiles that doesn’t begin at the drawing table of our founder and artistic director, Nawal Motawi.

Instead, it begins across the studio—at glazing tables, in sketchbooks tucked into lockers, and in the creative minds of the artists who make Motawi tiles every day.

We’re calling it Second Studio.

Each quarter, we’ll release a new, employee-designed tile—work created by the very people who press the clay, trim the edges, fill the glaze basins, and load the kilns. It’s a new rhythm for us. A new current running alongside the one Nawal has guided for decades.

And yes—she’s giving up a little bit of control here. The rest of us think that’s pretty cool.

Why Second Studio? Opening the Design Table

The idea didn’t arrive in a boardroom. It came from within.

In an anonymous employee survey, someone asked a simple question: why not invite more of the artists at Motawi to take part in the design process?

It was the kind of question that lingers. We have more than 40 people across Motawi Tileworks and our sister company, Rovin Ceramics—many of them trained ceramicists, illustrators, sculptors, and designers. The talent has always been here. The competition was a way to bring it forward.

For Nawal, the idea is also about the future of the company:

“I’m not going anywhere, but I’m not going to be around forever. The company needs to be able to move forward with different aesthetic stewardship someday. Second Studio is a way of including more people in that process so that the eventual hand-off becomes a natural progression. Most of the tilemaking staff has artistic backgrounds, so it’s natural for them to have design ideas. I hope our public loves them even more than mine.” —Nawal Motawi

It’s a candid perspective—and an exciting one. Second Studio isn’t just about new designs. It’s about expanding authorship, inviting new voices into Motawi’s visual language, and letting that evolution happen in the open.

Our General Manager, Karen Kromrei, helped bring structure to the idea—organizing the competition, assembling a panel of judges, and opening final voting to everyone at both companies. More than 60 entries came in, each one a glimpse into the creative lives humming just beyond the production floor. As Karen put it, “We talk a lot about ownership here—not just of tasks, but of the work itself. This competition let people see their creative fingerprints on the future of the line. And when the voting opened up, you could feel the energy. Everyone had a favorite.”

Second Studio isn’t a one-off. It’s a commitment. Every quarter, you can expect something from us that doesn’t originate with Nawal. That doesn’t make it less Motawi—it makes it more. It widens the circle.

The First Release: Ronan Sampson’s Jellyfish

The design that floated to the top of our inaugural competition? A jellyfish.

Ronan Sampson’s Jellyfish tile rose above more than 60 submissions—an image that feels both delicate and charged with motion.

Ronan grew up in Wayne County, Michigan, where childhood meant lakes, turtles, frogs, and long afternoons arranging shells and found objects into ever-changing compositions. Sometimes those compositions stretched across the living room in elaborate taped “installations”—a creative impulse that showed up early and never really left.

When asked to describe artistic style, Ronan chose three words: tedious, contrasting, and color. You can see all three in Jellyfish.

The design is built on tension—soft and dangerous, delicate yet powerful. A spiral center radiates outward in crisp, flowing lines, suggesting motion within the stillness of clay. Ronan described it as a way to make the piece feel alive, even as a “very stationary, heavy object."

There’s a quiet practicality to it, too. The jellyfish has no true “up,” allowing the tile to be installed in any orientation—floating across a backsplash or settling naturally into a bathroom setting. And then there’s the color: soft pinks that feel both unexpected and perfectly at home in the subject.

From Sketchbook to Kiln: Designing with Production in Mind

One of the things that makes Second Studio distinct is this: these designs are created by people who understand exactly how Motawi tiles are made.

Ronan’s process begins in pencil, then moves to Sharpie and gouache before the final lines are traced in white Sakura Gelly Roll pen—the same lines that will become the raised ridges holding glaze in place. Those lines aren’t just visual. If a space is too tight to draw cleanly, it’s too tight to glaze.

It’s a small detail, but it says a lot.

These designs aren’t imagined in isolation. They’re shaped by the knowledge of how glaze flows, how clay shrinks, and what the kiln will ultimately reveal.

What’s Next in Second Studio

Second Studio doesn’t end with one tile. The next design is already taking shape—created by Motawi artist Alexis Ellison, whose work was selected as the second winner of our internal competition.

Like many of the artists at the Tileworks, Alexis brings a deep familiarity with the process itself, and that experience quietly reshapes how she approaches drawing. As she puts it, “Spending so much time glazing changes the way you draw—you start thinking in the language of the tile.” It’s a shift that comes from repetition, from handling the same forms day after day until the logic of the material becomes second nature.

For Alexis, the opportunity to design a tile has been building for a while—she’s been “drawing with this in the back of my mind for so long,” sketching and observing with an eye toward what might one day translate into clay.

Her design is currently in development and will be the next release in the Second Studio line—a new voice, shaped by the same hands and processes that define Motawi.

A New Current at Motawi Tileworks

For more than three decades, Motawi Tileworks has been shaped by Nawal’s vision—historically inspired designs rooted in Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts, and Midcentury Modern traditions .

Second Studio doesn’t replace that foundation. It runs alongside it. It’s an invitation to see what else is possible inside these walls—to experience the ideas that have always been present, now given form.

These tiles are made from the same clay, pressed in the same molds, and glazed using the same centuries-old Cuenca technique that defines all Motawi art tile. But they carry something new as well: the individual voices of the artists behind them.

This is the studio behind the studio. And every quarter, you’ll get to see what surfaces next.