DOMOTEX– the world’s foremost showcase for carpets and floor coverings geared -up another successful edition on January 11-14, 2019 at Hannover, Germany. Over 1,400 exhibitors from more than 60 nations went to Hannover and According to the exhibition after show Report, About 70 percent of all DOMOTEX attendees were from abroad to present their product innovations.
Exhibitors from the skilled trades brought their innovative products to meet up with suppliers and connect with people and customers in rug business from around the world in addition to architects, interior designers, and interior planners. It was a great space to discover the latest trends and fashions, for example, colors and patterns.
CREATE’N’CONNECT
The show’s new keynote theme, “CREATE’N’CONNECT”, was a courageous statement put the spotlight on digitization and creative connectivity across all aspects of floor design. Floors and flooring provide the very foundation elements for unifying and connecting the rooms in which we live and work.
The inspiring “Framing Trends” were the beating heart of the event, featured impressive displays of innovative products by manufacturers, artists, designers, and students.
Figure 1: “connectivity wheel” from the Schmidhuber Company
” A special “connectivity wheel” from the Schmidhuber Company, made up of colored glass facets, invited tradeshow visitors to enter the wheel and set it in motion with their footsteps, thus generating multi-colored light reflections on the surrounding floor coverings provided by Carpet Concept, for unique visitor experience.
Digital tools for sales and marketing in the floor covering industry
Figure 2: Visionme, presented visualization technologies and distribution channels for the floor covering industry.
Another key topic at the event involved solutions for the digital presentation of carpets and floor coverings. The new digital solutions ran the gamut of VR and AR applications, including visualization aids for every aspect of the marketing mix, plus innovative software which makes it easy for customers to discover and choose their favorite designs and collections while providing retailers with new options for digital product presentation and sales. Visionme, a young, Hannover-based company, presented “IUNCO”, a package of innovative visualization technologies and distribution channels for the floor covering industry. The “Virtual Showroom” offered a comprehensive display of virtual reality technology, while the “Product Catalogue” devoted itself to augmented reality and AI.
Digital printing
Figure 3: The idea and concept aspire from the need of creating a brand and connecting it to its clients through the flooring. In cooperation with the client, Fletco Carpets is inspired to create a design flooring with their innovative flat woven product.
Within the context of the lead theme, Fletco Carpets created a special floor of digitally printed carpet tiles and a carpet mat. Most of the floor surface was printed with a precisely defined pattern to form a clear contrast with the pixelated outer zone. This was continued on the walls, illustrating the almost limitless possibilities of digital printing technology for the development of brand identities, exemplified by a creatively coordinated wall and floor products.
Along with an increasing reliance on digital solutions, there is a growing trend towards individualization in numerous product segments, be it in the form of carpeting designed with personally chosen patterns and unusual graphics effects through the use of digital printing, or a series of products expanded through the use of digitally printed loop designs in brilliant color and amazingly high resolution.
Creative interaction and environmentally focused design projects
Figure 4: Rena Detrixhe laid reddish sand taken from the American state of Oklahoma as a temporary carpet
One of the interesting sectors of this year exhibition was in the “Art & Interaction” space, while the artist Rena Detrixhe laid reddish sand taken from the American state of Oklahoma as a temporary carpet. To create this “Red Dirt Rug”, she began by sifting the soil into a fine sludge, which she then smoothed out into an even layer. At the corners, she used parts of old shoe soles to stamp geometric patterns and ornaments onto the surface. The artist’s aim was to draw attention to the massive environmental impact of mineral extraction on the landscapes of her homeland.
Rug Design Awards
Finally, on January 12 at Domotex, the winners of the Area Rug Design Awards for 2019 were announced.
A jury of professionals, chaired by Michael Mandapati, rug expert and founder of Warp & Weft, New York, selected the eight winning rugs on the basis of the design concept and design properties such as color, materials, structure, and quality, as well as product sustainability and branding. A total of 24 finalists, three from each category, were picked out from a total of 233 products submitted from 15 countries.
SOURCE: DOMOTEX
