Messe Frankfurt’s press center has been closed for remodeling for about a year. I saw the revised facilities for the first time this week when I arrived to attend Heimtextil, the world’s largest trade fair for home textiles. The rooms are nicely done. The press kits are easy to get to (even though the many of the lockers are so high up that they are not) and they have more computers for journalists to use than they have had before. Thank you! A very nice feature is a living wall Continue reading...

Another day, another blister. I walked for 8 more hours at Heimtextil, the world’s largest trade fair for home textiles, taking place at the Messe Frankfurt fairgrounds in Germany. I began my day at 8:30 by attending a lecture about the trends shown in the Trend Forum. These are trends meant to inspire future product development and innovation into 2010. I have been coming to Heimtextil for more than 10 years, and this was the best, most trend-forward collection of themes I have seen Continue reading...

It seemed like there were fewer wall covering companies exhibiting at this year’s Heimtextil, the huge trade fair in Frankfurt, Germany where I have been trend-spotting for the past two days. If that is the case, there seems to be a bit of a lag between trade-show attendance and the return to wallpaper that The Trend Curve™ has been forecasting for the second half of this decade. So I set out this morning to ask a few prominent people whether they thought I had been dead wrong. The Continue reading...

I have a system for walking markets and trade fairs that keeps me from loosing my place and forgetting where I have already been and what I have left to do. I developed this system years ago and have stuck with it because it works. I needed it because of the number of events I attend each year—some of them in the same venue where I also attend other shows—and the number of times I repeat the same event over the years. This system is highly linear and chimpanzee simple. One element Continue reading...

Visual display from individual companies at the Heimtextil trade fair has been a lot better in the past than it was at this year's fair. Fewer companies made a splash of any kind at all. And those that did onted things down. There were really no show-stopping visual displays. That said, I still saw a few vignettes that were interesting and well done. Texdekor overlaid a selection from their youthful Fluid collection of wallpapers (wallpapers are on-trend again) with a printed setting Continue reading...

I don't really appreciate rooster motifs yet I understand that many people do. They like them in folkloric country themes that translate into whimsical kitchen towels and table linens that have been around for years. I think it is a different customer that is attracted to roosters for their role in Country French vignettes. These roosters are typically colored with a little less intensity, and even feel comfortable dressed in Black and White. If you happen to be one of the rooster Continue reading...

I think I have ceased being a human and have instead become a pack animal. At least that's how I felt by the end of my first day at the Heimtextil trade fair in Frankfurt, Germany. I had four bags of catalogs, color cards and CD-ROM's over my shoulder as I walked the six blocks back to the hotel at 6pm -- and that was from just three buildings. I will be back at the fair tomorrow, trend-spotting, taking lots of pictures and blogging again in the evening. As usual, we will create a Continue reading...

Some companies are thrilled to have a member of the international press visit their stand at Heimtextil. Others are suspicious. That’s because there are some people who manage to secure press credentials but are not really writing about or reporting on the fair. They are the ones that make it hard for the legitimate press to do their jobs. At the January event, there were only a couple of companies who did not want me to take pictures or notes. Two of them said they would contact me Continue reading...