For many members of the furniture industry, 2008 will

start in Germany at imm Cologne. Scheduled to take place

Jan. 14-20 at Koelnmesse, the market is widely regarded

as the global business hub for furniture and interior design
sector. That's because Imm Cologne offers international

buyers three features that other markets don’t.

First, Imm Cologne is more international in scope than

any other furnishings trade show in the world,

explained Koelnmesse Press Officer Markus Majerus.

“We think of it as a global marketplace. Second, we
structure the show into nine segments by furniture type,

as well as price point. Buyers find every type of product

from bedroom, kitchen, living room, dining room,

mattressesand upholstered furniture to solid wood

and ready-to-assemble furniture. All together, we

will host 1,300 exhibitors from five continents. Lastly,

we hear fromexhibitors that imm Cologne is a place

where businessis done andexhibitors walk away

with a good idea of what to expect in the coming

months.”

Still, Koelnmesse is always striving to make imm Cologne

a better experience for perennial attendees, as well as

attract new visitors. According to Majerus, Koelnmesse

is promoting its 2008 show to U.S. designers and
architects, as well as organizing many concurrent events

and exhibits designed to influence and stimulate

international furniture designs and styles in the coming

months. On the agenda are Dutch Design, an exhibition
focusing on the development of residential neighborhoods

in harbor cities; Compasso d¹oro, a look at 50 years

of Italian furniture design; and Design Germany,

a selection of classic and current designs.

In addition, Imm Cologne will again produce its

annual Trend Book, developed by a trend board

consisting of international designers, architects
and journalists. The last edition was unveiled

during a September press conference in

St. Petersburg, Russia.

Furthermore, in response to growing demand for

green products, imm Cologne will, for the first time

ever, dedicate a separate floor to solid wood
furniture. Located in hall 4.2, imm solid will feature

suppliers of natural, wood-based furniture. Most pieces

in this segment are designed and built to high eco

standards, since manufacturers are very attuned to using
natural materials that enable them to market these p

products to the new Eco Chic audience.

Design Miami/

DESIGNMEETSARTMEETSCRAFT

Inspired by Art Basel Miami Beach, Design Miami/ began life as Design.05. Founders Ambra Medda and Amy Lau envisioned a commercial and cultural forum that would capture the thriving interest in design and elevate appreciation for limited-edition, experimental and historically significant design work. Design.05 premiered in the Miami Design District in December 2005. Immediately following the first show, the founders were urged to take the show to Switzerland for the next Art Basel. Changing the company’s name to suit the new plan , Medda successfully launched Design Miami/ Basel in June 2006. From its inception, Design Miami/ has always been more than just a marketplace for high-end design. Design Miami/ balances professional business activity with progressive cultural programming. Each Design Miami/ show includes four components:

1. The Design Galleries must exhibit and sell valuable work and present their pieces in highly curated, beautiful installations
2. The Satellite Exhibitions consists of curated installations that communicate key themes in contemporary design practice and are organized by individual designers and museums.
3. The Design Performances demonstrate emerging and established designers’ creative processes live on-site.
4. The Design Talks bring together international luminaries to tackle current issues in design today, offering extraordinary opportunities to hear designers explain their work in their own words.

Design Miami/ ’07
Recently, designers seem obsessed with instilling their furnishings with the capacity to create the type of strong aesthetic experience usually associated with artwork. This trend has led to skyrocketing furnishing prices; greatly increased design’s profile on the cultural landscape, and captured a whole new audience of aficionados. Recognizing this, Design Miami/ wanted the 2007 edition to appeal to a broader range of visitors.

For collectors and connoisseurs, the Design Galleries presented museum-quality historical and contemporary design. The pieces this year represent significant examples of Modernism as well as cutting-edge new pieces created exclusively for our venue.

WOK media presented a new shelving system called Between the Lines. The one- off is the first in a production line that will be launched in Milan 2008. The work consists of seven mirrored, polished stainless steel letter strings. The letter strings can be coiled, unfolded and reshaped to a wide range of configurations

For those interested in the processes shaping contemporary design, it’s the Design Performances.

Studio Libertiny, a Dutch design collective founded by Tomas Gabzdil Libertiny, believes that contemporary product manufacturing needs to be challenged. For Design Miami/ 07, they applied this design thinking to discarded printed pieces of paper. The collective glued and pressed thick stacks of paper until they become like solid blocks of wood. Through this process, the paper is returned to its natural state, but retains its printed imagery. The resurrected wood is then turned on a lathe and carved into bowls and urns.

Chair felting transforms an industrially made, institutional chair into a unique work of handcraft. Celebrating the inherent delicate and organic quality of the wool as well as the rigid, functional form of standard metal folding chairs, this process yields a domestic object with a cheerful split personality.

At Design Miami/ 2007, show visitors helped Tanya Aguiniga create felt skins over the surface of preexisting chairs by hand rubbing natural fleece with ecologically friendly soap and water.

NeoCon 2007
Amid the sea of seating that threatens to overwhelm visitors to NeoCon-the granddaddy of contract trade shows-there are always gems to be discovered. Each session I am freshly amazed by how ahead of the curve contract firms seem to be, working with hip young designers to push the limits of technology and R&D transforming vision into product. Green was a major theme but in addition there was a strong emphasis on innovative materials and processes this year.

Residential designers take note. Why wouldn’t you want to specify sleek, sophisticated designs that are excellently crafted, durable, and versatile? If so, you can find them in the contract market.

Green
The topic on the tip of everyone’s tongue in the design community at the top of consumer’s conscience was Green. Eco-themed products were abundant on all floors and in the booths; some were truly green while some just claimed to be.

Generational shifts are one of the major factors in the growth of green: Aging baby-boomers are placing pressure on the healthcare industry to offer “greener” options, while Gen X and Gen Y consumers have been pushing the hospitality industry for some time to healthier, more organic choices in everything from pillow menus to room-service menus.

Designers looking for products to specify in this category really need to develop the skill set to distinguish all the nuances of this rapidly-growing, not-so-underground niche. Everyone’s talking about it, now we, as professionals, have to learn it. Fortunately for designers eager to gain more insight into the whole “green thing”, eco-awareness was all around with Green organizations had a high profile. I4Design, a Chicago-based design magazine, sponsored an exhibit highlighting local green efforts.

TODL, a comprehensive design specification website,
launched TODL Green, a sister site where
designers can one-stop-shop for green products.

The U.S. Green Building Council, developers of the LEED rating system (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) sponsored the Polar Ice Café. The LEED system is the de facto standard for green building certification and provided a starting point for visitors to learn more about green product and construction materials.

Designtex’s Materials Matter collection.
Material Matters is the third collection from the collaboration between Designtex and the Guggenheim Museum. Inspiration for this collection came from art and technology blended together to capture the provocative spirit of the museum's visionary architecture. Each style pushes the limits on material innovation, in the same way Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture did more than 50 years ago. For me, the two standouts are an audible upholstery, and a die-cut, dimensional style with sustainable attributes, both of which require further explanation!

Sonic, a 100% polyester fabric, literally integrates technology with art: It used recycled audio cassette table as its fill yarn. Alyce Santoro,the designer of Sonic, developed the audible textile as part of her aim to find new uses for post-industrial waste. She wove a multilayered audio track into the fabric, which can be heard by drawing a tape head from a reconfigured Walkman over its surface. In corporate settings, Sonic can be used as an eye-catcher and conversation piece but it’s completely appropriate for residential upholstery and drapery specifications.

Die Cut Ingeo is a lightweight drapery fabric with a three-dimensional quality created by fusing, embossing and die-cutting the fabric in a swirling cut-outs, inspired by Wright’s famous rotunda. The fabric is 100% Ingeo™, a man-made polylactic acid (PLA) fiber derived from corn starch. This biodegradable non-woven material is a closed-loop sustainable product, meaning that is can be safely and fully composted at the end of the product’s lifecycle.

Silent Gliss introduced Vertical Waves, specialty cut vertical vanes that redefines interior spaces thru play of light and shadow.

Momentum Textiles and designer Sara Balderi looked to the city for inspiration- L.A. to be exact. With her camera and a tank of gas she set off on an afternoon drive to see if one could create interiors with as vibrant a personality as a city. The result is the L.A. on a Tank of Gas textile collection. From the photographs taken she devised shapes and textures for the designs and the overall coloring and feel. The four designs, Romey’s, Dimys, Pann’s, and Rae’s are a guidebook to Southern CA Googie architecture- bold scale, antigravity illusions, tilting shapes.

Chilewich adapted the concept of faux bois furnishings to a woven vinyl that mimics natural materials and looks like the wood grain of plain sawn wood. Offered in tiles, mats, rolled goods and by the yard, I’m already envisioning it as fabulouswindow coverings.

Babette Holland has ventured into the lighting market with six new products made from homespun recycled aluminum. The lamps feature tints and overlaid bands with color fades.

72 Hours in Milan

Milan Design Week is not a trade show but an event. This gargantuan show takes place each April in Milan and is an endless round of shows, parties, exhibitions and events that spreads out all over the city. Designers young and old come to Milan from all over the globe with their sights set on making a name for themselves or with hopes of their prototypes being put into production. Established designers push the design envelope with the innovative processes and materials.
Upon first looking at the map provided, I had a panic attack- How will I see it all; more important where do I start? This is a daunting task, even for a seasoned trade show attendee. After a deep breath, I forged ahead. After all, this is the most important week all year for design. Here’s how I spent my 72 hours in Milan.

I Saloni Internationale del Mobile is promoted as the main event and held at the Rho fairgrounds in the outskirts of Milan, 45 minutes from city center. It is an architectural gem made up of 8 buildings flanking the Corso Italia. (One thing you learn very quickly is the intense national pride Italians have.) I didn’t waste a lot of time in the halls but headed to the contemporary design pavilions; Euroluce, the biennial lighting fair and Salone Satellite, showcasing young talent.

Surreal Sizing Walking around the Fair, object after object was blown up out of proportion. Marcel Wanders's lamps, Philippe Starck's vases and Studio Job's giant tea service were all primly traditional in style, but wildly exaggerated in size. Even booths showing traditional Italian Baroque looks punched up their sizing.

Mantellassi called on Studio Memo to develop a collection of sofas and accessories surrounding a central theme of reinterpreting old structures with of innovative techniques on leather, fabric, metal and crystal.

Curate/Edit Though Italian design borders on minialmism and god knows you have to wade through a sea of black or white leather sofas; It was back to basics at the Fair. Paring down seems to be a reaction to the proliferation of product and innovations.

It's a move to what some forecasters are calling the Nu Austerity. New introductions had a overriding sense of the elemental.

Driade- The cream of the crop introduced new products for Driade at the fair and at their store in central Milan. Philppe Starck introduced Frame, a mahogany framed mirror /bookcase with swivel shelves and Moore, an armchair on a swivel base of laquered nylon. (It's actually very comfortable)

Euroluce
Milan plays host to this lighting fair every other year, manufacturers present their latest and best.

Aqua Creations- The beauty of the moon through clouds light fixture is made of thin glass pieces wrapped in a polymer skin. The glass veins build up an organic shape inspired by mountainous landscape and the skin gives the effect of moonlight through the clouds.

Salone Satellite

Over 500 emerging talents in 187 stands were shown in Salone. This really affirms what Milan is all about- bringing young creative talent to the attention of manufacturers to ultimately get their work into production. The exhibition, “A Dream Come True” marked the 10th anniversary of the satellite. A where- are- they- now exhibit of products and designers who participated in the past satellites and have had their prototypes produced by the world’s most prestigious manufacturers

Front mounted the Normal but Strange exhibition off- site with a chest of drawers that defies gravity. It was a recurring theme among both young and established designers. This version by a young Japanese designer at Salone Satellite drew crowds

" dining is and always was a great artistic opportunity..." Frank Lloyd Wright

Food, dining and ritual brought all kinds of inspiration. Antipasti was student exhibit mounted at Salone. While in/d design, a UK design cooperative,presented *much depends on dinner, a collection of everyday objects that we take for granted, reintrepreted to create a modern day communual experience.

Sweet and Heady named after a line in the song Lilac Wine was commissioned for a client - an obvious connection between the ritual of eating and the design's composition.

Teashot Family's Lace Leg and Laced Tables

ULRIKA ELOVSSON's Wing- a hoistable curtain made of

buckram and shirring tape.

Teobo Unit- Felt shapes that link together for curtains, dividers and lampshades.

The events around the rest of the city are really where the action is.
Zona Tortuna located in a warehouse district and centered on Superstudio is where the more intriguing and adventurous designers and companies exhibit. Loads of collaboration is seen with joint events, designs, parties and shared spaces. You can walk up and down the street ducking into exhibit spaces noted by large red round signs.

Unconventional Point of View
Milan Design is not for the faint of heart and you have to put preconceived ideas to the background and view the products with an open mind.

Jaime Hayon, new Creative Director for Lladro, presented this larger- than- life Pinochiccio for Bizassa Mosaics

Philippe Starck's Miss Lacy Chair for Driade

Clover by Rod Arad for Driade

I came away from Milan with two final thoughts. First, I was amazed at how deeply ingrained design is in the Italian way of life. Crowds at Zona Tortuna weren’t there for the parties, but to view and review the new offerings with thoughtful and insightful critiques . Sidewalks were crowded not with design aficionados or students but with families and their kids and seniors couples.
Second, was the incredible amount of access and availability of the world’s most prestigious designers. I was up close and personal with the likes of Philipe Starck and Jaime Hayon who were mingling with the attendees; answering questions and discussing design.

Heimtextil

The granddaddy of textile fairs- Heimtextil- kicks off a month of non-stop trade shows in Europe. Featuring a trend forum with concept by world renowned Gunnar Frank and 10 halls showing everything from bed, bath to carpets and wallcovering- it’s a smorgasbord of textiles for design professionals.

This year’s trend theme was Show your Colors where whimsy and baroque looks are exchanged for clarity and function translating into dynamic and intelligent fabrics. Color is used as the bridge between traditional and contemporary; East and West. Here color pays its respects to a variety of artistic directions seen its it four themes- Constructive Power, Cubism Monochrome, Surreal Sunny and Futurism Dawn. Frank says, "Stamp your personality and character on your products."

Key Trends
Ingenious weaves and structures
Shimmer and shine replacing the crystallized looks of 2006
Silver, brass and copper are important against discrete colors of gray, mauve, grey-green and chocolate
Black and white is almost peaking on the trend curve with the color scheme exploding . A new accent emerges with citron yellow replacing red/ hot pink.
New technologies create an emphasis on the aesthetic
Innovative color schemes
Innovative materials
Transparent weaves
Flocking
Florals

Playing with scale on both side of spectrum with mini prints and Lilliputian motifs to over- the- top blown -up pattern particularly on panels.

In the Bath Halls there was an emphasis on wellness with amazing color ranges in solids, and luxe looks in brands. There is a further move to lifestyle/hotel living with introductions of matching robes, slippers and loungewear by most bath manufacturers.

The wallpaper hall was exciting. Grass, bamboo and silk were important fibers. Organic looks moved toward luxury. Over scaled repeats, pearls, beading and embroidery were in the forefront

Forte Air Factory
Check out these laser cut panels seen in Heimtextil’s trend forum -part of the Onon Interactive Surface collection- from Forte Air Factory. When creating the machine-cut, polyester vellum panels, designer Nir Simhon drew inspiration from natural and meditative rhythms. All panels are custom made, up to half-an-inch thick and 9 ¾ feet high. The fronds have crystals at the end that make them move with the slightest external movement. These are meant to be used primarily as a divider or window/wall surface.