Michelle Lamb, Editorial Director for The Trend Curve, was in Frankfurt for Ambiente, the annual consumer-goods fair. Her top trends are below. Read more about Ambiente in the next issue of The Trend Curve. And don’t forget that Michelle Lamb’s color-and-design notes from the fair (most including images) can still be seen by following @trendcurve on Twitter.
Notable at Ambiente:
COLOR
– Porcelain blue had top-trend status for dinnerware
– Watery blues also enjoyed more visibility
– Cool greens continued to grow, in spite of basic lime’s strength
– Yellow wanted to do more than it did
– Sugary pastels were still emerging
– Gradient color meant a lot
MATERIALS AND MORE
– It was all about mixing materials
– Smoke glass kept popping up
– Exploration of shape returned to the trend landscape
– Mixing shapes on the table looked especially great
– Oversized place-setting options emerged
– Exaggerated texture resulted in fascinating dimension
MOTIFS AND THEMES
– Toiles showed up too often to ignore
– Tiles influenced multiple designs
– Asian themes strengthened
– Mid-century looks got modernized
– Whimsy had much more play
– Songbirds finally succumbed—to owls