02.02.2012 Trends at Ambiente 2012 come alive!

Interview with Claudia Herke from style and design consultants bora.herke.palmisano

Style and design consultants bora.herke.palmisano are constantly analyzing the worldwide currents in fashion, architecture and design, where they bring to bear a keen intuition and extensive experience. Claudia Herke, Cem Bora and Annetta Palmisano have identified four main directions for their trend show at Ambiente 2012, and have presented these in an impressive display in Galleria 1. The trends are staged with the help of several hundred products from the latest collections of the 4,500 or so Ambiente exhibitors. The lectures on these trends by the team of designers are a perfect complement to the Trend Show at Ambiente and take place daily at noon and 3:00 p.m. in the Symmetrie 2 room in Hall 8.1.

Interview with Claudia Herke:

What do you take into account when looking at the development of new trends and what are the things that influence you?
The world is changing at an unbelievably rapid rate. We look at emo-tions, general currents, people's feelings, we put global changes into context, analyze, see patterns; we are influenced by huge numbers of new products and ideas. We look at the design market to see what is around, new products, new surfaces, materials, the styles and forms designers are choosing. Then we trace four key currents in all these influences. It is important to us to distinguish between longer-term issues and ephemera, so that we develop an eye and a feeling for the trends that stand a good chance of establishing themselves more permanently in the market and those that are subject to rapidly changing fashions.

Consumer behaviour has also changed radically. There too, we are seeing that consumers have become extremely independent. In making decisions, they are self-confident, sure of their own tastes and well-informed. Consumers of the future will turn more and more to those products that have real value behind them, that tell a story, that have undergone thorough-going development – a far cry from the fickle whims of modern life. This is a major current in the market place, which is not new; we have already observed it over recent years, but we see it as very important and it will certainly be still with us in the future.
 
What themes will be presented at the trade fair?
Our research suggests four predominant styles. The first, called "Light Innocence", consists of a series of pastel colours, displaying lightness and transparency. It embodies a new, very tactile approach to surfaces. Daylight is a key factor: bright, well-lit colours with a bright background-atmosphere flooded with light.

Our second theme is a contrast to this: "Dark Attitude" uses a dark colourway with night-time lighting a key factor. There is a shine to everything – materials and surfaces. Mystical elegance combines with cool modernity. Style and form are understated, whilst materials and surfaces create an extremely decorative effect.

Our third theme, "Electric Romance", is redolent of a traditional style with a flavour of folklore. Recycled elements, a very 'natural' feel and wooden surfaces are mixed with folkloric designs. Traditional patterns join forces to create multi-cultural and unfamiliar styles.

"Radiant Modernity", our fourth theme, uses vibrant and luminous colours. Extremely brilliant tones create an ultra-modern effect. There is a new combination here, with a reductionist purism of form matched to a vibrancy of colour.
 
What are you aiming to convey in your trend statements in particular?
At Ambiente's Trend Show for next season, we are seeking to stage our four styles in a way that embodies lots of life and emotionality. We think it important to create clarity. Trade visitors need to be able to understand the themes quickly and get a feel for them. We want to provide information but, above all, inspire people - through the manufacturers' products, through our understanding of the styles, through the colours, shapes and patterning, which we shall be displaying in these trends.

What is new about next season's trends?
It is the approach to colour that is new for the 2012 season. A very unusual approach to colour. In times of great uncertainty, when consumers are extremely unsettled by economic and natural disasters, we observe a sense of paradigmatic shift in the market, the courage to face change – as well as a certain lack of seriousness, which does not over-analyse things nor make too much of them. We have seen this in design too; in the way that designers draw their inspiration from the general mood and deal with it in creative ways. At the moment, we are putting a lot of emphasis on colour; in both design and fashion, we very clearly observe a heavy commitment to colour and we see this as a huge opportunity for the interior design market.

Ambiente
Ambiente is the leading international trade fair for products for the table, kitchen, household, giving and decorating, as well as for home and furnishing accessories. For five days at the beginning of the business year, around 4,500 exhibitors on 330,000 square metres of exhibition space will show what consumers will be able to see in shops around the world in 2012. However, Ambiente is a must not only for the range of products, which is unrivalled in terms of both depth and breadth. The world’s leading consumer-goods fair is also distinguished by a wide variety of events, trend presentations and awards ceremonies.

Note for journalists:
You will find further information and high-resolution photographs of Ambiente on the internet at: www.ambiente.messefrankfurt.com/journalisten


Background information on Messe Frankfurt
Messe Frankfurt is Germany’s leading trade fair organiser with € 457* million in sales and 1,769* employees worldwide. The Messe Frankfurt Group has a global network of 28 subsidiaries, five branch offices and 52 international Sales Partners, giving it a presence for its customers in more than 150 countries. Events ‘made by Messe Frankfurt’ take place at more than 30 locations around the globe. In 2011, Messe Frankfurt organised 101 trade fairs, of which more than half took place outside Germany.
Messe Frankfurt’s exhibition grounds, featuring 578,000 square metres, are currently home to ten exhibition halls and an adjacent Congress Centre. The company is publicly owned, with the City of Frankfurt holding 60 percent and the State of Hesse 40 percent.
For more information, please visit our website at: www.messefrankfurt.com
*Provisional figures (2011)