Formland 2021

Formland. The Danish fair is not really the first since the breakout of the pandemic – but the first one for me. For 24 hours I went there to check out how the design industry is doing. And of course to check out some trends.

Trendhunter on the prowl.  So, I went to Formland. My first actual fair since Ambiente in February 2020. Before going to Formland I went through a lot of different emotions. Excitement, joy, fear, fatigue of trends, fatigue of stuff… What is the role of a fair? Are they at all necessary after a pandemic? Will a fair show happiness (as in the “swinging 20s”)? Would there be any new design for our new needs – or will everything go back to where they were??? Are fairs necessary?

So. I was almost stressed out with all these questions and emotions when it all started on Thursday. But it was good. Really good. In this introductory part I can say that the atmosphere was amazing. Everyone was so happy to be back. There was joy in the air. Optimism was intense. Really. I met noone who was negative – and most of you know – at fairs we tend to talk about negativity first. Lack of visitors, lack of media, not enough creativity, too expensive, blah, blah, blah.

To get a perspective from someone else but me – listen to Nina from Eden Outcast. She is also very positive to a fair like this. It can be found on my Youtube chanel.

Well. So. Overview. My grades for this… Super optimistic. Super nice to be back. Everyone was soooooo friendly and longing to talk to other people. I overheard in the hallway that the fair had expected 300 exhibitors and they got somewhere around 410-420 exhibitors. I was there the first day and as far as my perception this as a floor filled day. Lots of people.

The picture above looks grim and harsh. But the fair was filled with people. I am sure they will publish a lot of numbers. However the hallways were generous. I am sure they could have squeezed in a few more exhibitors. But Formland is all about the “extra”. You get trend exhibitions and cafés like no where else. Formland is so much more than an efficient meeting to buy stuff. Formland is atmosphere and fun. And absolutely this year was full of that.

Formland 2021 as usual have a full hall with curated exhibitors. Hall One is great. Good quality and fun brands. Fall always have dining as a separate hall and usually with bigger brand names like Stelton, Kähler, Eva Solo etc. And so this year. Some larger brands were missing. I have previously met Georg Jensen here, for instance.

But it was good. Plenty of brands. Plenty of people. As I say in the film – I was so tired after meeting so many people, it was rediculous.

Lets dig into trends. There are really no new behaviour in sight. At least not among the design brands. Very little about the home office or post pandemic life. It is actually more about the same behaviour but in a different colour. So trends 2021 is actually most about colours.

And this is Denmark. I would say that the Danes have a much more elevated relationship to colours than anyone in Europe. So, their colours might apply for the Danes at heart, but might not work on a commercial large scale. I could for instance see that the brands who work more on an international level tend to get “safer”.

Pejgruppen showed a colour palette for the season and normally this would be fall coloured. But it is very bright and light.

One colour hue that was dominant was corall.

Christmas kit by Kit Company.

Corall is dominant, but I really think orange will grow. Here glass plates by Kodanska.

Orange with a milky purple by Liv Interiör.

This milky purple was pretty dominant too.

Milky purple towards a grey or blue hue. Here by Broste.

Here colours by Stelton. They blue grey in the middle with green.

Blue/grey and terracotta by Kähler.

Same combinations but by Stelton.

Here a sand version by Rig-Tig. It is funny how there seems to be a lively and young colour palette and then a slower and more adult colour palette. The older is they blue grey, sand and perhaps teracotta. And the young is corall, yellow and milky purple.

With the young and lively colour palette there is always a yellow. For 2021 yellow is absolutely the new pink.

Colour is of course fun – but what about sustainability? As always there are some nice examples but as an industry it is not exploding. You have sustainable brands like Lubech Living. They are doing extremely

Ceramic pots by Lubech Living that are made with sustainable materials and with solar energy factories.

Home cleaning utensils that are sustainable. By Simple Goods.

Rosendahl made flower pots in upcycled PET-bottles.

A monkey in upcycled wood by Kay Bojesen.

Pictures from one of the trend installations with dyed fabrics from flower dying.

I have three lasts observations.

1. The material meeting of shiny and matte.

2. Swirl

3. Paint your walls

We have already talked for quite a bit. I will keep this short. One of the things I see besides colour is something we have talked about for a while in the trend world. The meeting of matte and shiny is absolutely here. Above by Kristina Dam.

Stelton focusing on matte.

Eden Outcast with matte and shiny.

Second trend in this part.The swirl pattern. Everywhere. Here Hubsch

Kodanska again.

Eden Outcast again

Hubsch

Last observation. So we have talked about colours. Remember to use them at more places than usual. Quite a few of the exhibitors had sections (especially towards the floor) painted in different colours.

Look at the list towards the floor