DOMOTEX 2012 in Hannover (GER) beginns tomorrrow

Themed "Customized Living" DOMOTEX 2012 is where 1,400 exhibitors from over 60 nations have chosen to exhibit their new collections and design developments. The range is truly comprehensive, encompassing everything from hand-knotted and machine-made carpets, parquet and laminated flooring through to textile and resilient floor coverings. Architects, interior designers, skilled tradespeople and wholesalers and retailers of furniture and interior furnishings can look forward to a multitude of exciting new products, trends and developments for both the domestic and contract furnishing sectors. They will be able to gain a complete overview of the international carpet and floor coverings market because DOMOTEX draws some 83 percent of its exhibitors from outside its host country - a level of international participation that most trade fairs around the globe can only dream of. Trade visitors can compare different manufacturers, products and prices, negotiate directly with suppliers and learn about the latest trends - all under one roof. DOMOTEX is equally advantageous for exhibitors, who benefit from the highly international composition of the fair's trade visitors (with 63 percent coming from beyond the host country). "The international visitors who come to the fair tend to be highly motivated buyers, as they see DOMOTEX as an opportunity to do all their buying for the entire season and eliminate the expense of further business travel during the year," Dr. Gruchow said.

"Customized Living" the keynote theme at DOMOTEX 2012

Personalization is one of the defining trends of our age and has an enormous bearing on interior design. Carpets and floor coverings in particular offer almost unlimited scope for individual design. The customer can choose from a rich palette of off-the-rack materials, colors and formats, not to mention the customized products that a growing number of providers are now offering. Dr. Gruchow: "Increasingly, our human desire for greater individuality and self-realization is finding direct expression in the design of our own four walls." These trends are reflected in the lead theme chosen for DOMOTEX 2012, "Customized Living." The theme symbolizes the leading design trends among the carpets, textile and resilient floor coverings and parquet and laminated flooring products that will be on display at the fair.

"Customized Living" encapsulates the myriad design possibilities opened up by the vast range of carpets and floor coverings available today. The renowned Amsterdam-based textile designer Ulf Moritz agrees: "Today's customers can choose from a rich palette of off-the-rack materials, colors and formats, not to mention the customized products that a growing number of providers are now offering. Customized solutions allow color and design to be tailored to taste, resulting in a one-of-a-kind floor covering that is fully in tune with customers' individual lifestyles."
Moritz has identified three key trends for the 2012/2013 season, "Primal Nature", "Urban Classic" and "Fashionable Rainbow", which he will be exploring at the FLOORFORUM trend presentation at next year's DOMOTEX trade fair. There, visitors will discover the must-have colors, patterns and materials for the coming season.

Primal Nature

This trend is characterized by natural materials, such as undyed Tibetan highland wool, hemp, bast fiber and cactus thread, as well as nature-inspired visual designs. The aesthetic language of nature finds expression in organic forms, patterns and surface finishes. Laminate flooring and resilient floor coverings, too, have the look of natural authenticity about them. Parquet and solid wood flooring products made, in the main, from light-colored woods like oak, maple, and birch tell a rich history written in cracks, unfinished surfaces, natural oil pigments, repair patches and even burn marks. Designs featuring torn, washed-out, patinated and fragmented patterns bear witness to the transient nature of all things. Coarse, artisan-look woven carpets, hand-woven kilim rugs, and fur and fur-patchwork rugs lend rooms a rustic, old-world charm.

Urban Classic

Urban Classic is a celebration of a timeless elegance with homely, sensual overtones. This trend is reflected in exquisite carpets featuring a wide range of stripe and staggered-stripe patterns with a strong emphasis on black-and-white combinations. Then there are a number of classic fashion textile patterns, like Vichy, herringbone and checks, that look stylishly at home on the floor. Urban Classic also embraces carpets, laminate and resilient floor coverings adorned with sublime marble and vintage tile patterns as well as traditional ornamental and floral motifs. Classic blacks, whites, muted grays and gray-blues are combined to stunning effect with vibrant colors like red and neon yellow. Refined dark-brown walnut tones make for the ultimate in elegant parquet and solid wood flooring. Here, traditional laying patterns like herringbone are making a comeback and lend any room a touch of classic elegance.

Fashionable Rainbow

People want a little color and joy in their lives - and they're fetching it into their homes in the form of chic fashion for their floors. Whether as monotones or in fashion-friendly vibrant combinations, bold colors like pink, sulfur-yellow, cobalt-blue, grass-green, turquoise, petrol and rust-red will transform carpets and floor coverings into the eye-catching centerpiece of any room. Kaleidoscope effects, vibrant color gradations, photo prints and ethnic ornamental motifs - Fashionable Rainbow plays with colors and patterns to create exciting new designs for rugs, carpets, laminated flooring and resilient floor coverings. Unconventional patterns, such as stains and paint splatters, and colorful rag-rugs evince a courageously imperfect aesthetic. This season there is also a big range of smaller rugs to play with. Multiple rugs of the same kind can be used as carpet tiles, while the more creatively minded can combine different designs and colors to compose their own magically individual and easily reconfigurable floor décor. Patchwork rugs are also "in". They include patchwork overdyed Oriental rugs, but with new color combinations and patch segmentation. Some even have partially printed areas and high-pile sections that create a playfully shaggy, frayed look. The rainbow theme also works for parquet floors and laminate flooring with wood-effect finishes, extending the color palette beyond natural wood colors and into more lively shades.

DOMOTEX 2012 will also feature highly targeted special displays, speaking events and panel discussion on interior décor and design that will yield new ideas and insights for visitors from the wholesale/retail sector, the skilled trades, architecture and interior design. For instance, the fair is continuing its Souk Deluxe partnership with renowned carpet designer Jan Kath, and will feature the new Wood Flooring Summit with its strong focus on product design.

New online services for DOMOTEX exhibitors and visitors

Deutsche Messe has significantly extended the functionality of its online exhibitor database at www.domotex.de. DOMOTEX exhibitors can now include more detailed descriptions of their companies and products, and can add photos, logos, application examples and much more. This will enable exhibitors to create comprehensive company and product profiles that attract more attention from existing and potential customers. The service helps visitors plan their time at the fair more effectively and gives them all-year-round access to highly targeted information on products and providers of interest to them.

DOMOTEX 2012 will be supported by Match and Meet, a new Internet-based service that intelligently matches DOMOTEX exhibitors with relevant visitors and vice versa. To use the service, trade visitors first create a personal profile online at www.domotex.de, specifying the kinds of products and services they are interested in. The matchmaking software then compares the partner search requests made by visitors with the exhibitor and product profiles stored in the DOMOTEX exhibitor database. Users automatically receive lists of matches, complete with contact details, so that they can contact potential partners to arrange meetings.

Visitors to DOMOTEX show will once again enjoy the benefits of the DOMOTEX2go mobile trade fair guide. The guide makes all the key DOMOTEX website functions available to users of cell phones and smartphones. With DOMOTEX2go, trade fair visitors can use their mobile phones to locate exhibitors, products, and events and to create their own personal schedules.
The mobile guide also offers an interactive map of the exhibition site as well as directions between any two points on the DOMOTEX grounds. The guide can be downloaded free of charge at www.domotex2go.de or the Mac App Store.