Besides you, there will be at least 92 thousand people in black suits. That is primarily who you will be encountering daily at the exhibit booths. They look particularly stylish in black hallways with mirrors. Why there are practically no women at the fair is a big question, but you are going to have to make peace with such reality.
This year, the tile part of the exhibit was rich with gastronomical feast. Using a large part of its territory, FAP built a mirror bar with leather coaches - probably the best at the exhibit. They fed everyone with pizzas, fruit, pate, pies, and gave everyone wine, juices, and extraordinary cocktails. The tile demonstration had a rather small space, which made the Mr. Smiths at the bar rather happy.
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FAP Bar
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Marazzi booth
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Straight across from FAP there were Marazzi, who, once they realized their worth, decided that there is no need to make themselves work too hard and built a bar on their entire territory. There was no tile at all. Such darling strategy attracts a good number of visitors to Marazzi booths every year. Foodies should have made it to Edilcuoghi as well, where several waiters could barely keep up with the refills of hot baked good and Sicilian wines.
It was slightly less populated in the bathtub and shower cabin section, but there were a lot more special effects. Every self respecting ceiling had water running from it, there were waterfalls on the walls, bathtubs were filled with water and made a pleasant sound.
2007-2008 season trends
Finding any specific trends at such a large fair is a task suitable only for great minds. Half of companies show that, which the other half of the companies exhibited last year. Two-year-old collections are produced under new names. New collections have borders that were produced 10 years ago. However, if one is smart enough, it is possible to find proof for the following patterns:
1) Measurements continue to increase. No one is surprised by 60x60 format. 40х80, 50х100, 120х120 – soon enough you will only need one piece of tile in order to cover the entire kitchen floor. The area of water that comes out of the shower is becoming wider as well – a lot of companies are combining several showers into one. I wonder, what will happen if you do not have strong water pressure?
2) Optical illusions. During the last several years designers are working hard to make sure tile doesn’t look like itself at all. Wood, leather, cloth, metal – anything to make your guests feel that there is no tile in the bathroom. This year you can cloud their minds with geometric patterns, such that can make their poor little heads spin.
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A new collection from the Ragno factory
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Geometrical news from Marazzi
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Something new from Iris Ceramica
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Optical illusions from the Cerdisa factory
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3) Metal is still alive! It’s even more alive than the flowers that are beginning to wither away. All of the companies that failed to make metal collections in the last three years, finally made it. All of the companies that did produce metal, switched to even more extravagant techniques and even bigger sizes. Metal fabrics, textured metal, metal with geometric patterns, rusty metal, wood interspersed with metal – the dreams of metal workers in Europe came true.
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Metallic mosaic tile from CISA
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Lacquered metal from CERDISA
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Marazzi scribbled something on metal
on metal
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Metal from Iris has rusted
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Wood with metal
insertions, CISA
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Two more incredible metal imitation tiles,
but it is so hard to remember the manufacture!
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4) Orange and amroon colors. For some reason this year they were considered very fresh and trendy. (Atlas, Cisa). By the way, would you like an orange bathroom?
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A new stylish collection from CERDISA
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Carrot collection from Marazzi
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An orange novelty from CISA
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Orange tile from Atlas Concorde
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Maroon tile from CISA
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Blindly bright floor from KER-AV
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5) Flowers have died, long live
walls made of flowers! There are a lot less flower insertions and borders, than there are villages in china. But the wall that is entirely lined with flowers is more relevant than ever. Ceramic factories coveted the Sicis turf and now, instead of mosaic panels, it is possible to glue tile panels to the wall.
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Socis’ beautiful panel didn’t disappoint this time either не подвел и на этот раз
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The end of mosaic ruling!
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FAP a gigantic flower wall
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6)
Eco-label. It is the latest trend that is inspired by global warming. At the suggestion of the Association of Ceramic Tile Producers of Italy, factories now receive a certificate with a little flower indicating their good treatment of the environment.
7)
A store inside the store – a distributor’s set.Several companies chose to improve the quality of their distributors’ show-rooms. Thus, companies strongly recommend for them to buy ready-made expositor designs, while they are greedily rubbing their hands. There are usually several sets (for instance Bizazza has 2, Iris has one, made out of 7 parts and as many options as one can possibly imagine) and they are priced anywhere from 5 to 25 thousands euro. These sets were exhibited at the fair, in order to stun the customers (it is better to see it once, than get 100 emails with the description).
8) Baroque is coming back ? There are rumors among tile manufacturers, that minimalism that has been ruling the last few years is on its last leg - better life is coming. Such trend was not noticed at this exhibit; however, Rex already calls to make interior designs more luxurious and has made Neo Hedonism it’s new slogan (it’s a nice word that simply means having fun being life’s goal), and Ragno has positioned its new collection as a Satin Baroque. If all of this is true – we will see the result in a year or two, so we are waiting, sir.
