There are lots of color and pattern shifts at the Ambiente trade fair in Frankfurt, Germany. I will write about them in next issue of The Trend Curve™, as well as in our Trend Album™: Ambiente 2006 (you can pre-order your copy by contacting Cathy DeBono; I estimate a release date of February 28). But I will not write about key items in either of those publications. That’s why I am going to write about a couple of items I want everyone … [Read more...]

I love to see the creativity that is always present in the forms, colors and surface designs in the décor items at the Ambiente trade fair.  Yet I am equally captivated by the idea of making some silly little everyday item look or work just a bit better. Here are a few examples of functional innovations from my first day at the fair: WMF introduced the Utensilo knife block. It not only holds knives but also does more. There is room … [Read more...]

I found my Frankfurt Hotel quite by accident in about 1994. I had reserved accommodations at another hotel in the city not knowing that a renovation was going on. After one night, I left—without another place to stay. I had no idea what a dumb move that was during one of the fairs at the Messe. There are rarely rooms to be had close by during those events. I was lucky to find a hotel located just a few blocks from the fair grounds. Its … [Read more...]