28/09/2007
International design and architecture studios showcase innovative concepts dedicated to retail
Following its successful premiere in 2005, interest in the “EuroShop Designer Village – Forum for Retail Architecture and Design”, on show at the upcoming EuroShop to be staged from 23 to 27 February 2008, is at a high. “Although the space allocated to the EuroShop Designer Village has been more than doubled, the showcase is fully booked,” comments a delighted Wilhelm Niedergöker, Managing Director at Messe Düsseldorf, adding, “The EuroShop Designer Village concept is unique. While it was a completely novel idea to canvas architects as exhibitors at the last EuroShop, they will be joined by designers in 2008 on an extended gross exhibition area of over 700 square metres. There, myriad dedicated solutions for the retail industry will be presented.”
Design studio Schwitzke & Partner GmbH will be stepping out for the second time already at the EuroShop Designer Village. “We participated in EuroShop for the first time at the last staging. Our experience at the Designer Village was extremely positive as we were able to forge highly interesting contacts – many of which ultimately translated into commissions,” says managing director Karl Schwitzke, commenting on the decision to participate in the event.
Once again, the village is being designed specially for EuroShop by the prestigious department of interior design at the Coburg University of Applied Sciences. It promises to make a statement with its attractive and architecturally striking design which will be specially tailored to the needs of designers and architects. Large-scale “display windows” will serve as a uniform exterior to the showcase while the interior will be individually designed by the various companies.
The core activities of the architects and designers represented at the EuroShop Designer Village could not be more diverse. While, for instance, Blocher Blocher Partners focuses on customised solutions devoted to making shopping an experience as well as providing an end-to-end service for monobrands from the design of logos through store design and visual merchandising to the global roll-out, Collective Design has specialised in harnessing the benefits of 360-degree photography for store planners and store owners. This is achieved through interactive 360-degree panoramas that create a virtual experience of the room. In turn, Moysig Retail Design has found its niche in global project management and facility management with the help of databases, providing shop design solutions for German and international brand and lifestyle concepts. Larsen Indoor Shop Design are the full-service partners that give chain stores set on an international expansion course store concepts devised to be effective around the world, factoring in local differences in the availability of resources.
Design and production of interiors for the textile industry, banks, insurance companies and showrooms as well as trade fair stand construction for private clients are all part of the Knappe Innenarchitekten interior decorators’ portfolio. Head of the company Manfred Knappe let us in on some of the coming trends in materials: “Materials such as wood and warm colours matched with hard surfaces of varying gloss levels are very much the in thing and in high demand.”
Plajer + Franz Studio, which supports international retail businesses and brands from the concept stage right through to roll-out, will not be confining its showcase at the fair to a presentation of the company. As managing director Alexander Plajer explains, “The scientific part of our participation will address wellness and the needs of the over-forty target group in the retail landscape of the future.” For him, EuroShop not only offers benefits to his company as an exhibitor but also as a visitor: “We also take advantage of the opportunity EuroShop presents to investigate innovative products. And it’s not just the materials that are of interest to us but also above all new production methods.”
For all the companies taking the spotlight at the Designer Village, EuroShop offers the ideal conditions for getting together with their target group and expanding their client base. “The EuroShop Designer Village is our ‘gateway’ to the customer. Here, we aim to pique curiosity and build up trust in our ability to deliver,” points out Olaf Larsen who heads up Larsen Indoor Shop Design. Manfred Knappe adds, “EuroShop is of prime importance to us as a marketing instrument. After all, where else do you get the chance to work so intensively on forging so many high-calibre contacts?” Karl Schwitzke emphasises the large number of visitors from outside Germany who attend EuroShop: “We plan on making a concerted effort to appeal to international visitors. What’s more, we will be personally inviting companies especially from the Russian and Arabic markets to EuroShop 2008.”
Altogether, 22 international companies will be on show at the EuroShop Designer Village. These include: Blocher Blocher Partners (Stuttgart), Brugger & Nielsen A/S (Copenhagen), Campbell Rigg Design (London), COLLECTIVE DESIGN (Marbach, Germany), CRI GmbH (Bensheim, Germany), DALZIEL and POW (London), Gruschwitz GmbH (Gröbezell, Germany), JPS jonas planning services (Oberhausen, Germany), Knappe Innenarchitekten (Marbach, Germany), Larsen Indoor Shop Design (Oststeinbek, Germany), Meier-Ebbers (Oberhausen, Germany), MAI / Messerschmid (Stuttgart), moysig retail design gmbh (Herford, Germany), Optimat – Heim & Wagner GbR (Eschborn, Germany), OVOTZ DESIGN LAB (Krakow), plajer & franz studio GbR (Berlin), ppm (Dormagen, Germany), RPA Vision (Middlesex, UK), Rottmann Innenarchitektur (Weil am Rhein, Germany), Kinnersley Kent Design (London), Schwitzke & Partner GmbH (Düsseldorf), Schwitzke Project GmbH (Düsseldorf). From October 2007 you can download company profiles of the firms exhibiting in the EuroShop Designer Village at the EuroShop Portal – www.euroshop.de.
Your press contact:
Dr. Cornelia Jokisch, Melanie Koßmann
Tel.: +49 (0)211/4560-998, -999
Fax: +49 (0)211/4560-8548
E-mail: jokischc@messe-duesseldorf.de
kossmannm@messe-duesseldorf.de
September 2007