The DECOR + DESIGN SHOW and FURNITEX 2014 were held from the 10-13 July at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. The co-located events are Australia’s leading hub for the design industry, and attracted thousands of industry visitors over the four days. Showcasing a select range of the latest high-end designs in interiors, soft furnishings and furniture, each year Decor + Design & Furnitex offer the industry an exciting glimpse into the future of design.
2014 is the 10th anniversary of Decor + Design (formerly Decoration + Design) and to mark this occasion, the event celebrated a name change and featured a showcase of spectacular exhibition stands on the concourse of the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. The ‘Decade of Design’ featured five companies who have exhibited with Decor + Design since the beginning: Café Lighting, Hermon Hermon Commercial, Cromwell, and MRD Home & Warranbrooke.
Joel Cooper, Group Exhibition Director of Informa Exhibitions says, “We have been delighted with the look and feel of the event this year, and the success of Decor + Design and Furnitex demonstrates that Australia’s soft furnishings and furniture industry is experiencing a resurge in confidence. The feedback from both visitors and exhibitors has been excellent, with numerous sales opportunities generated over the four days.”
A highlight of Decor + Design 2014 was the International Seminar Series, sponsored by Australian House & Garden Magazine with each session chaired by Editor-In-Chief, Lisa Green. 2014 featured interior designer to the stars, Kari Whitman (USA), eclectic designer Kishani Perera (USA), and leading trend forecaster Victoria Redshaw (UK). Victoria’s seminar, ‘Design and Colour Trends for Interiors 2015 and Beyond’ was a major draw card at the event, and it was hard to find a seat! The international speakers were joined by Australian design experts Shareen Joel of Shareen Joel Design/Share Design, Ben Edwards and Juliet Moore of Edwards Moore, and Sonia Simpfendorfer of Nexus Design.
A new feature this year at Decor + Design and Furnitex was a series of retail presentations held over the weekend on a range of practical topics. A huge crowd turned up to hear Adam McWhinney, Chief Digital Officer and Co-Founder of Temple & Webster share the seven secrets of building a great online business. Other speakers in the 2014 program included Isabella Maggioni, from the Australian Centre of Retail Studies at Monash University, who spoke on emerging retail and shopper trends; Tim Krotiris, of Social Media Servants, who discussed how social media is evolving retail; Sue Robinson of RMIT, who spoke on the importance of visual merchandising; Georgie Leckey, who provided a case study of her business, Heatherly Design Bedheads, and Jorma Palo, of Vividworks Inc. who discussed engaging customers with best practice 3D and augmented reality.
VIVID (Vibrant Visions in Design) celebrated its 12th anniversary this year, showcasing the work of 58 emerging designers. Winners were selected from Lighting, Student, Concept, Commercial, and Green award categories. Winner of the Beacon Lighting Award – Best Lighting Product was Melbourne based trio, Rowan Page, Marinos Drake and Ilya Fridman of Studio Batch, with Diagrid Pendant. Adam Raphael Markowitz from Melbourne was presented with the Concept Award, for Fred, and Fabio Biavaschi, also from Melbourne, won the Commercial Award for Mek_ac01. Jeewon Choi, of Lidcome College, Sydney won the Student Award for Flowlight, and Yulia Holil from Perth was presented with the Green Award for Sandwiched Shelf. Vivid 2014 was sponsored by (inside) magazine and partnered by Beacon Lighting.
DECOR + DESIGN 2015 will be held in Sydney from 4-6 February 2015 at the Royal Hall of Industries. FURNITEX returns for its next instalment from 16-19 July 2015, co-located with DECOR + DESIGN at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre.
Enquiries can be made through Informa Exhibitions. For more information call (03) 8672 1200.
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