ICFF - NEW YORK

Octopus Products again exhibited at ICFF , a 4 day festivael of the newest in furnishing and materials, with exhibitors from around the world. We had excellent traffic at our exhibit, and were featuring many new products that were introduded first at ICFF. Contacts were made with a number of major firms, including major hotel chains and designers from major architectural offices. Many interesting project opportunities were discussed, and we look forward to moving forward with these companies.

I wanted to share some observations about the show, and trends that I saw that may speak to new design directions in the near future. First of
all, what did I NOT see? It appears that the tendency to promote furniture made from reclaimed lumber has dropped off considerably. The
dining room tabletop made from a sliced log was virtually non-existent
this year.

While certainly not trained as a trend forecaster, my observations were more from the perspective of a layman.

TREND 1 - Copper. There were a lot of copper finishes being displayed especially in lighting fixtures and hardware. Polished copper seemed to
be a bit stronger than a matt copper, but nevertheless, a significant prescence on the show floor.

TREND 2 - Small Scale Mosaic. Extremely intricate handmade mosaic panels were being displayed by several companies. Bright colours,
whimsical designs, with a splash of gold accents seemed to be a consistent theme.

TREND 3 - Large scale wood grains. Perhaps picking up from the trend of the reclaimed wood furniture, cabinet faces using very large scale
woodgrains was presented by several manufacturers. Clearly a strong design statement is intended here, but interestingly, the more subtle
types of woods were not very prominent.