Ambiente, the world’s leading consumer goods exhibition from 7 to 11 February 2020, will present a remarkable highlight: Trends 2020. What are the new styles, materials, themes and product mixes for the coming year? Ambiente Trends in Messe Frankfurt covers a broad spectrum, offering an overview of the entire industry and its new products, researched and curated by design studio Stilbüro bora.herke.palmisano.
The studio sifts through the most ground-breaking influences in the areas of design, art, architecture, fashion and lifestyle and selects products from the collections of nearly 4,500 Ambiente exhibitors, providing a tangible experience of future trends. For 2020, the design studio selected three thematic trends to present at the fair: shaped+softened, precise+architectural and artistical+diverse.
Shaped+softened
Functional furniture achieves a sculptural quality by adding soft shapes and emphatic contours. This powerful effect is enhanced by a neutral palette of reduced colours with white and shades of grey, sometimes warm and sometimes cool. The surfaces are smooth, soft or textured. Glass, either satin or transparent, impeccable porcelain and rough ceramics inspire enthusiasm, both visually and with their tactile qualities. Textiles are natural and suitable for daily use, often bearing images that are full of movement and irregularities. Particularly effective materials are translucent fibres and pleats, light wood, and wallpapers featuring a tone-in-tone painting technique.
Precise+architectural
A touch of industrialism is added to high-quality materials in this architecturally inspired range of colours, with tones of brick and cement as well as rusty burnished nuances and float glass green. They create a captivating ambience, enhanced by dusky dimness and the blue of the evening sky, set within otherwise starkly designed spaces that focus on essentials. These innovative combinations conjure up cosy clubs and a strong emphasis on material aesthetics. Terrazzo, polished or blackened wood, glass, steel, bronze and surfaces with a matte finish or a subdued gloss effect harmonise with leather, heavy textiles such as cord, tweed, bouclé and velour as well as with geometric designs and mottled patterns.
Artistical+diverse
This style turns a living space into a personal collage. With its artistic character, unusual colours and diverse combinations, it has a stimulating effect. The pallet displays a refreshing mixture of bright orange, fruity raspberry, milky colours, strong honey and lively sky-blue. In this multidisciplinary and multi-local interaction between art, craft and digital technology, “controlled chance” plays a central role. Each object has its own unique character, thanks to the creative use of a variety of new materials, unusual manufacturing processes, unconventional themes and special shapes.
Talks, audio guide and booklet
Each day, the design studio gives exclusive talks on the platform of the Ambiente Academy in hall 9.1, at 11.30 am and 2.30 pm. There is also an audio guide in German and English, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in this powerful special presentation, at any time and at their own pace. The audio guide is available for all visitors via the Ambiente Navigator app.
While walking around the various worlds of style, visitors are given valuable background information, and their attention is drawn to specific details and arrangements. It also provides plenty of inspiration on different ways to put ideas into practice in a shop.
In addition, a specially designed booklet will highlight the core messages of each trend, including the relevant Pantone colours and descriptions of the materials. The Ambiente Trends will also be presented on a dedicated website, where the results of the trend research will be illustrated by examples of products, materials and specific colour ranges: www.ambiente-trends.com.
