MCH Messecenter Herning will be filled with design, applied art, and interiors when Formland Spring 2008 opens on Friday 1 February. Scandinavia’s biggest trade fair for the industry will be attended by 625 exhibitors who present a large number of innovations for the spring season.

Of these, 48 exhibitors come from abroad – more than half of them from Sweden – while the others are distributed between Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, and Spain. Formland is offering six trend zones with the latest trends, a new area entitled FASHION, and the large hardware hall with leading suppliers such as Rosendahl, Royal Copenhagen, and Eva Denmark.

“Formland Spring 2008 is the trade fair where visitors can see the latest trends and meet exhibitors from Denmark and abroad. One of the hottest themes in the retail trade right now is hybrid shops, and this can be seen among Formland’s exhibitors who will bring along a host of innovations in the fields of applied art, interiors, jewellery, handbags, and furniture,” relates Project Manager Lars Jespersen from MCH Messecenter Herning Kongrescenter.

Growing trends at Formland
Scandinavian design is flourishing at the trend zone HOThouse in Hall D under the influence of global cultures and local design. The trend bureau Eckmann Alive is in charge of the zone with a series of current Hot Spot themes – among them recycling, ecology, and ethical responsibility – themes that are illustrated through such means as exhibitors’ innovations and products. Another Formland trend zone is villAlive in Hall C. The house of the future was designed by TechnologyDenmark and can best be described as an experiment in lifestyle. The house breaks out of the square framework because it comprises two staggered ellipses one on top of the other. This offers families new options so they can spread out through five rooms. villAlive will be equipped with modern interiors during the Formland Fair.

The other trend zones at Formland Spring 2008 are the trend cafés: A World of Colours, Diva Lounge, and Aqua Lounge, as well as Wellness Lounge where visitors can take a break in the central corridor of Hall M.

Familiar brands in new FASHION area
FASHION is the latest step taken at Formland. The focus of the area is fashion and it offers popular brand-name products and collections in shoes, clothes, handbags, and jewellery, and much more. There are more than 50 companies in the FASHION area and among the exhibitors attending for the first time are Adax / Maanii by Adax, Balschmidt Agentur ApS, and Boasko A/S. The latter is the Danish agent for the well-known British shoe brand, Fly London.
“We have also previously had fashion exhibitors. We have now gathered them in a new, joint FASHION area. We have found that visitors are increasingly looking for fashion products. This makes it a natural development for Formland to expand with new exhibitors and product groups,” emphasises Lars Jespersen, MCH.

Trade fair centre with a new name
From 1 January 2008 the group behind Messecenter Herning changed names to MCH. This is part of the group’s vision and plan to become Scandinavia’s leading arranger of trade fairs, cultural arrangements and events. MCH comprises MCH Messecenter Herning, MCH Herning Kongrescenter and MCH SAS Arena.

What Anker saw with her fresh eyes came as a surprise. The region’s heritage of modernist furniture addressed the three desires that she knew were forming in the collective unconscious: the yearning for sensuality, purity, and effortless functionality. “Although there is an austerity to the Nordic sensibility, there is a raw power and physicality to the land that is almost primitive,” Anker says. “This combination is compelling; the aesthetic is very understated and elegant, yet run through with a brute sense of the body and the natural elements that govern every aspect of life here.” Inspired to investigate this mix further through her own designs, Anker put the life she knew in New York City on pause and turned instead towards the Arctic Circle.

Working out of Oslo, Anker incorporates precise structural systems into organic, sculptural forms. Years of architectural training and experience inform every part of her process: each of the five furniture pieces is conceived and designed with a rigor usually reserved for buildings. The debut collection on view at the Talent Zone is inspired by Arctic ice and snow. The astounding precision of natural phenomena inspires the furniture’s pure, unwavering lines. The unexpected, at times playful, dance of light in the Nordic winter landscape is echoed by the swooping curves, sharp angles, and the stunning,
reflective materials, such as giant plates of stainless steel. Anker’s production methods also reflect her geographic circumstance: the prototypes are made with a combination of advanced digital technology and vernacular craft knowledge. nea studio’s work speaks a language of this moment, in which organic fluidity is balanced by scientific rigor.

About nea studio
After four years of work experience in architectural firms in both Manhattan and Oslo, and two years of teaching experience at New York’s Pratt Institute, Edwards Anker started nea studio in 2006. She received her Masters in Architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in 2001 after completing two years at the Architectural Association in London.

Visit http://www.neastudio.com/

45 years later, on May 15th 2007, Norstaal is yet again evolving and reaching a new milestone – it will join forces with the brand-design-house Stelton A/S. This generation-shift is part of both companies’ strategy to strengthening the Scandinavian way within the world of design.

Early Success
Norwegian Finn Henriksen was a man with determination, when he founded Norsk Stålpress AS in 1947, later to be simply called Norstaal. Located in Bergen, Henriksen focused early on creating Scandinavian design with a human touch. The concept proved to be right and soon, Norstaal grew to be the only Scandinavian producer of stainless steel cutlery designed by world-renowned artists.

At the same time that Norstaal grew big, another Norwegian appeared on the design-scene, Tias Eckhoff, who is today regarded as one of Norway’s best designers. Finn Henriksen approached Eckhoff in the beginning of the 60s, requesting a totally new stainless steel cutlery series. The result was “Maya” in 1962 and has been Norstaal?s bestseller since then.

Norwegian Design Highlights
Today, Maya is regarded as a pearl in Norwegian design and recently voted by Phaidon as one of the 999 best design icons worldwide. It is also exhibited in most of the well-known museums around the world such as MoMA in new York and The Victoria and Albert museum in London.

Based on this early success, Tias Eckhoff designed other outstanding cutlery series for Norstaal, among others “Una” in 1973, which was even awarded ‘royal’ status, as the associates of the Norwegian Royal Court gave a complete Una-line as their personal gift to the Norwegian Crown Prince Couple on the day of their wedding in 2001.

During the years, Norstaal engaged other famous designers, such as the American-design pioneer Don Wallance, who created “Aztec” and “Magnum” in the mid- to late-Sixties. These cutlery series are today part of Don Wallance’s complete design archive exhibited in the permanent collection of The Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York.

In 2004, “Capelano” designed by Norway’s “Designer of the Year 2002″ Johan Verde, represented the latest addition to the long line of design classics and can be seen as the young rebel with its unique form-language. The twisting form between handle and blade being an often copied feature, although without rival.

A new milestone
At the turn of the year in 2006, the daughter of Finn Henriksen and now Managing Director of Norstaal, Kari Helen Bell, was looking for a new set-up for what can be seen today the gemstone of Norwegian Design. Norstaal shall grow even further and expand its presence, not only in Scandinavia, but also in the rest of the world.

Together with Michael Ring, majority owner and Managing Director of the brand-design-house Stelton A/S, the two put their heads together and came to the conclusion that yet another generation-shift and growth-stage can be achieved by adopting Norstaal as one of Stelton’s product lines, benefiting from the sales and marketing power of Stelton’s brand-positioning.

On May 15th 2007, this generation-shift will officially take place and a new milestone for Norstaal is reached. The two companies invite on that day press and trade customers for a day-long event, on which the whole new layout of the Stelton norstaal-line is to be presented.

Innovative Shop-in-Shop and marketing material
This includes the new, state-of-the-art Shop-in-Shop system designed by Stelton’s Design Director Mads Surel. The system is probably the most front-running of its kind with perfect viewing angles for consumers and the effect of rusty backgrounds on which the cutlery is placed, highlighting the high-quality Solingen-steel from Germany, of which the design classics are produced.

Also, a brand-new gift-box in A4 format was developed for 4pcs and 16pcs sets of each series. Thus, these are perfect gifts for weddings, birthdays, and similar occasions as well as for storing the cutlery itself, for filing important papers and, possible due to a magnetic sealing, for positioning the box alongside your favourite books in the bookshelf. Each gift box also includes a small care instruction leaflet, so consumers are not left without good tips on how to take care of their new Stelton norstaal cutlery.

Finally, design lovers will be able to pick up the new Stelton norstaal brochure featuring high-gloss images of each of the 8 different lines, including Stelton’s famous EM-series designed by Erik Magnussen, now also part of Stelton norstaal. The brochure includes detailed info about each designer, the form-languages and the available parts within each series.