Conrad Kullmann recently visited EurosShop 2014, held in Dusseldorf Germany. This is his report back on what’s new and what’s happening in the exhibition/shop fitting/lighting and retail world.
Besides the inevitable boozy evenings of far too much German beer, pool, darts and the ever present eisbein or two, EuroShop 2014 delivered on all its promises as soon as you recovered from your hang over!. Stand design and innovation was ever present no matter where you looked. If you are in the exhibition or shop fitting industry, as I am, Euro shop is to me what petrol is to cars its information overload. There is so much to see and no matter how you try and strategize your visit, you are bound to miss something.
We stayed on the Rembrant Van Rijn boat moored on the Rhine River. As nice as the boat is there were a few comments made regarding a “Floating caravan” The boat was close to the Aldtstad, were it all happens at night and very close to the station were you can catch a train straight into Messe Dusseldorf.
The biggest thing at the show this year is printed tension fabric. Everything is printed fabric. Very little wood is used even just for solid one color walls. Portable systems have now evolved into demountable tension structures that are “Wrapped” in printed fabric made up in a “Sock” with a zip for easy installation. An interesting new product was a blow up outdoor/indoor display system by Octanorm.
When it comes too materials being used for construction it’s all about natural raw unfinished wood. Most of it cnc’d to form shapes for seating and wall structures. There was also a lot of clever use of recycled products.
A very interesting product from a construction point of view was fluted concertina paper that could be used for walls, was strong enough to use for seating and elegant enough to be used for lighting. You could also cut into this product to form shelves and internally light it. The problem 1 700 Euros for a wall 2.4 m long and 1.8 m high.
Finishes were huge with many different companies offering textured laminate like finishes incl concrete, stone, tiled and wood like finishes with texture to add to the reality of the product.
All the big names in system stand design were there Octanorm, Module and Syma, all showing off their latest innovations, most of them showed off there fabric tension systems and new aluminum profiles.
DESIGN DESIGN DESIGN
EuroShop is where it’s all at – the stand builders shop fitters and lighting companies go all out to impress. I saw many impressive stands mostly from the shop fitters. My favorite stand was the one below. Their pay-off line was “It’s all in our hands” A very high quality finished stand with excellent touches and well thought out.
This stand was also a real eye catcher. Great use of tension fabric mixed in with a clever use if led lighting.
A very clever use of plastic storage boxes to create an internally lit transparent wall. One wonders what they will do with all these boxes after the show?
This stand and product would definitely win the innovation stand award. The walls are made from concertina paper that easily magnetizes itself to exhibition walling. Everything on this stand, chairs, lights, reception counter and product displays are made from the same product. Is made from the same product.
This stand was really creative. The whole stand was constructed out of cardboard.
Raw wood cnc’d into shapes to create an effect.
