On October 15, the 2021 Bologna, Italy Building Materials Exhibition Trend Viewing Meeting was grandly held at the Ceramic Theater of China Ceramics Headquarters. Five important guests, Yin Hong, Zhu Wei, Chen Gaozhao, Huang Yongcai, and Hanberto, together with more than 300 ceramic people on site, and about 100 colleagues in two sub-venues, Taoqu Live Room and China (Zibo) Ceramics Headquarters, discussed the latest industries in the industry. Gain insight into cutting-edge trends, and further understand the forward-looking layout and innovation of the building ceramics industry under the development trend of diversification, segmentation, and specialization.
The following is a record shared by ICC Ceramics General Manager Humberto
I am very happy to stand on this stage again after many years since I started focusing on trends with China Ceramics Headquarters many years ago. After the first Trend Viewer, our industry has made a lot of progress. I am very happy to be invited to attend and share with you this time. Due to the epidemic in the past two years, everyone has not been able to go abroad to participate in important exhibitions. It is a great honor to have the opportunity to share some of our team's exhibition results.
The logos you see above are exhibitions or design companies that we visit every year. The more work we do every year, the better the preparations can be. While I personally don't have the means to go to those shows, our North American team has the opportunity to go to different shows. I believe that through my sharing, we can see more clearly what new products we will see at this year’s Bologna show. Last year was a gap year and there was no way to hold these exhibitions. However, during this period, we still had some exchanges with many design companies, including raw material suppliers, to better understand the trends of the entire industry.
The world is changing at an unprecedented speed, and speculation about the future is accelerating to become a part of our lives. This is an important factor in the accelerated trend of the new crown epidemic. You can understand that in fact, all parts of the world are living in the era of a major epidemic. Because China has done a good job in preventing and controlling the epidemic, we cannot feel it. But for me, I have experienced three quarantines in the past two years. , so I know that globally this new reality is already the norm.
In times of crisis like this, it is often a node for social change and innovation. People are paying more attention to health. Now is an era of anxiety. Everyone hopes to have more calming and comfortable elements in life. There is a demand for those ultra-clean designs, as well as healthy environments. Our homes or our office spaces need to become more flexible, which also poses challenges to complex environments.
So the design requires us to develop towards a more sustainable lifestyle and towards creating a warmer or simpler space.
Many people now have to adapt to the reality of working from home. For example, colleagues in the United States need to work from home 50% of the time. They even have to do fitness, spa, etc. at home, and the kitchen also needs to integrate other functional needs such as office work. A kind of spiritual well-being or calming atmosphere in the garden is important for the present moment. In different sharings, you can hear the emergence of functional healthy wall and floor tiles. The sound absorption function is also very important for reducing stress.
Although there was no exhibition last year, for a summary of trends from 2020 to 2021, you can read the keywords in the picture above.
As the sharing progresses, you may feel that everything makes more sense. This is our review of color trends last year. The most important thing about color is that it can help people improve their mental or physical health.
The previous part was a quick review of last year’s trends, and the following begins with a summary of the 2021 Milan exhibition.
Milan Exhibition: Life Now and Future
This was 100% organized and summarized by our colleagues in the exhibition team, who gave it a name: Life Now and Future. Time will be the ultimate luxury element. This year's Milan exhibition brings a concept of democratic design. All brands will be displayed in fixed forms. Their display ultimately hopes not to have any impact on the environment. There is a greater preference for comfortable styles, established during the ongoing epidemic, and using time, comfort, and health to define luxury in 2022. This is a new definition of luxury.
Let’s summarize this year’s Milan exhibition through the next eight keywords: design style, color, shape, material, texture, lighting, outdoor, sustainability.
#01
Design style - green therapy
These are some real photos taken by our team at the Milan exhibition. Our team decided to use the name green therapy to summarize this style and continue to get inspiration from nature. Green is this year’s big color trend. Moderinco is a style that is very popular at this year's exhibition. It uses eclectic techniques to influence different ages, mix ancient and modern things, put ancient and modern things together, and draw inspiration from them.
Dior has tried this concept very well through their exhibition. This is a collaboration between 17 designers. They reinterpret these very classic chair styles in a modern way to give old things new life.
This hybrid style is emerging now, which is to try to fuse Japanese and Nordic styles together, putting Nordic preferences for comfort and warmth together with Japanese simplicity.
#02
Color
The colors from last year to this year’s exhibition are gradually evolving.
From last year’s color to this year’s sky blue, we can see that blue can better give people a sense of tranquility and concentration in the space.
White has been used to reflect purity and simplicity, but now it is changing to warmer or off-white colors.
Green has now become more like olive or emerald green, echoing a sustainable minimalist lifestyle.
The color looks a bit like orange on the screen, and more like a clay color on the computer, which can remind people of a soil close to the earth, or wood grain, etc.
Burgundy color combines warm brown and deep red to bring a sense of heritage and style into the interior.
This is a summary of the colors above.
#03
Shape
Hermès brought a very interesting concept and display this time, using a lot of geometric shapes, straight lines and curves, including avoiding the use of some flat surfaces on the structure, and using some very textured feelings to present their concept. This groove-like pattern was displayed at the exhibition, and the combination of straight lines and curves was presented on the furniture.
#04
Materials
The materials are closer to natural materials. Natural materials include many rich wood grains and warm-colored marbles, as well as products that combine materials such as leather, metal, semi-precious stones, and glass.
Speaking of the wood grain trend, wood grain has been on the decline over the past few years and is back again this year. Updated with more natural colors, you can see some warmer marbles in the picture, and relatively less conspicuous and low-key rocks. Semi-precious stones such as jade and cloth with a clearer texture are used as partitions to separate the indoor and outdoor spaces.
#05
Texture
The texture is mainly matte, with relatively few shiny surfaces, and glossy surfaces like lacquer are more common. Therefore, the countertop panels at the exhibition are mainly made of matte materials. Of course, there are also some lacquer-like textures, which are a bit like the texture of Spanish pottery.
#06
Lighting
Speaking of lighting, whether it is in the past, present or future, light is essential in our lives, but this year’s lights have a different interpretation, which is different from the previous ceiling lighting and can better interpret the unique characteristics of the lights. A surface effect of architectural texture. The lighting display in the picture above is the most interesting interpretation of lighting in the entire exhibition, as if it is given life to the lights.
#07
Outdoor
The outdoors can also be related to the Bologna Ceramics Exhibition. They call it borderless life, which blurs the boundaries between indoors and outdoors. People bring the outdoors into the indoors, and through many Green plants and so on.
Green is the answer. You can see at the exhibition that basically all brands will use green, whether indoors orIt is presented through outdoor elements.
#08
Sustainability
The word sustainability is the most important.
The "sustainable part" We want to show our thumbs up to the industry. From temporary scaffolding, to cardboard waste baskets, to removable wooden booths, in fact, the show recently received the honorary certification of Zero Impact.
The above is a sharing of the eight key words of the Milan Exhibition. Finally, to summarize, through this exhibition, we can see the current situation, whether it is ceramic tiles, trends, or some keywords in design.
Sustainability
Various brands have passed green certification to demonstrate their responsibility for the environment.
Color
Color, the color of vitality can promote physical and mental health.
Architectural texture
The texture of architectural style can give our industry a good way to present projects from what we want and the technology our industry can afford.
Because with the advancement of our technology, we can basically reproduce many elements in nature, blurring the boundaries between natural products and ceramic tiles. The application of architectural textures in our products at the Bologna exhibition is worth learning.
Integration
As I have said in different sharings before: gods create and mortals copy. Today’s technology gives us the ability to create new things.
This is a great example of the combination of terrazzo and granite.
Pattern
Mood Board
Mood boards are a great way to display our thoughts and emotions in a small space.
Democratic Design
Democratic design is a very obvious trend at the Milan exhibition this time. Let us read this passage together: "Today, luxury goods have a completely different meaning. Tranquility, health and comfort will become the hallmarks of luxury goods in 2022. Definition. A design that combines multiple styles to create new emotions, feelings and experiences through a more modern approach, simpler yet elegant, using high-quality materials, harmoniously blending the old and the new. Create something with soul – emotion transcends everything. “Simplicity is the ultimate style.
We learned a lot from the exhibition and major brands, and got a lot of information to organize our reports. We hope that everyone can use this information to create their own style.
