A few of us headed over to Dusseldorf, Germany at the end of February to check out Euroshop.
Once every 3 years, this HUGE event in the world of retail highlights all aspects of the store environment - from lightening to technology, to branding and design - this is a monster size show in both scale and scope.
Though there was MUCH to cover, and at times hard to take it all in, we did manage to see some emerging trends and will share some of those here. This is in no way a comprehensive list but rather a highlight/ snapshot/ overview.
Lighting continues to evolve and will play an important role in the evolution of retail. There were a lot of exhibitors sharing some of their ideas on this and "ambient lighting" was the clear winner.
Hand made and crafty elements continue to inspire people, perhaps in reaction to the tech revolution as well as mass production- and we saw people cooking, knitting, crocheting, cobbling shoes among other things - all mean to highlight the importance of craft and well made goods.
Repetition was another theme - were one item or object was repeated in multiples for maximum impact.
Many booths and exhibitors had large wall size chalkboards - often with the chalk smudged (a result of people walking by)- like living art.
The scale and largess of some of the booths was inspiring - many had restaurants at their core and the activity and buzz was amazing. One of those - if you build it, they will come type moments.
and finally, saw a lot of natural woods, neutral tones, folded paper, wool and felt materials, all with a very edgy, urban country theme.
Overall, it was great to see and we felt energized with loads of new ideas afterwards. Would love to speak with you more about it.
