Formex 2019

Formex, Formex, Formex. The design event in August in Stockholm. This fair used to be enormously big with around 1000 exhibitors and visitors from all around the world. With the change of the industry, so is a fair like Formex. Today the fair hosts about 600 exhibitors and that can be compared to for instance Formland that hosts 500 exhibitors.

The fair changed the floorplan and it would be kicking in an open door to start complaining. I do like change. I like that people are forced to find new routes in halls. I for instance heard some visitors were really happy that candy, edibles and snack were near the standard design exhibitors. On a more personal note – I think the fair got a bit too small, and slightly boring. Very local.

Anyway, here are my observations from Formex 2019 for this season.

The whole fair felt a bit repetitive. The industry is handling the slow down of retail and many brands looked for the safer aesthetics. Guest of Honour Li Edelkoort made an installation with craft on white background. Something we have already seen… Very few new surprises. But I do like this exhibition much more than last year’s Zandra Rhodes.

Speaking of lack of creativity – yes, I did actually see some exhibitors launching pineapple as news. Really??

At the best you could see some “industrial” tendencies as we saw at Formland. The black, the bauhaus production, a bit colourless.

It’s with this insight I voted this vase by Normann Copenhagen as being my favourite at the fair. Yes, it might look like something a child made a school. But it’s different and it stands out. It has identity.

I would like to point out four themes that can act as trends for interior design.

Blue, checkered, animals and terracotta terror.

So yes. A lot of blue. Still pretty free of patterns. Here from Cooee.

Blue details. I think this is Bloomingville.

Blue at Knaudstrup.

At Hubsch.

Blue textiles with tactility and terracotta.

Blue tableware at Primavera.

Blue background at ByOn

Textiles at Axlings.

And blue works really well with the other colour trend – terracotta.

The second chapter is about animals. Yes, exotic animals. We have seen it for a while and there is plenty of it. Here at Jakobsdal.

Porcelaine and animals by ByOn.

But lets continue. At Formland we talked about checkered patterns and yes, they are here and square. Here Normann Copenhagen.

Elvang

Broste

Ceannis

New checkers at Klässbols

Now lets talk about terracotta. Its the new base. You add pink or yellow and it gets a trendy hue, but if you add green or denim it gets more serious. Regardless – terracotta is so common I want to call it terracotta terror.