Carpet Design Awards 2012 announced at Domotex

By Sushma Arora

HANNOVER, Jan 15: The winners of the Carpet Design Award 2012 have been chosen. On Sunday, 30 carpet designers from various countries received the prestigious design award at DOMOTEX. The exciting designs displayed at the leading trade fair for carpets and floor coverings impressed visitors from the trade and other professionals. In fact, the entire event offers an abundance of ideas and information, highlighting the patterns, colours and materials that will dominate in the season ahead.

A total of 211 carpets from 26 countries were submitted to the design competition, creating a "snapshot" of the best in the contemporary carpet design. Traditional and contemporary hand-made carpets are the ultimate lifestyle statement and exemplify the best of modern interior design and artisan skills.

"Like fine paintings that adorn the floor, beautiful handcrafted carpets have experienced a renaissance in recent years and are again considered as quality design objects for the home. They play an invaluable part in creating the style of a room and bring together all the separate elements of the interior design to create one harmonious overall composition", says one of the competition judges, Nina Yashar. As the director of the Milan gallery "Nilufar", she has incomparable knowledge of traditional and modern designer furniture, carpets and objects as well as an impeccable international reputation.

"All winners have contributed to the world of carpet design with spectacular ideas and true pieces of art. We as the jury however wish to point out one entry that is truly a 'rug revolution'. The carpet "Tagged" by Jan Kath Design is phenomenal. Tradition and street style combined in a highly innovative and aesthetic manner. This rug will cause an uproar in the carpet scene", says jury member Jean-Louis Mainguy, interior designer based in Beirut and known for the phenomenal depth of his imagination.

The Carpet Design Award - one of the most prestigious international prizes for hand-made carpets - is recognized as a mark of quality worldwide. Past winners have therefore been able to use their award effectively in their own PR and marketing activities. The winning products are featured in the exclusive publication The Carpet Design Review 2012 , which will be produced specifically for the competition. The brochure is distributed among the trade, as well as in the trade press and mainstream media, and attracts a great deal of attention.

For 2012 an international panel of top professionals evaluated the designer products submitted in ten product categories. The products were judged on the basis of criteria such as design, material quality, unique product features and innovation. A new category "Best Studio Artist Design" was introduced to the competition this year to represent the work of smaller producers with limited editions.

The winners in 2012:

NEW CATEGORY IN 2012: Best Studio Artist Design
Prisons by Chevalier édition

Best Modern Design Superior
Ruby Room by Jaipur Rugs

Best Modern Design Deluxe
Reflection Sky by Wool and Silk Rugs

Best Traditional Nomadic Design Superior
Haleemi by Ali Mohammadi

Best Traditional Nomadic Design Deluxe
Noor by Werner Weber Zürich

Best Traditional Workshop/Formal Design
Cypress by Zollanvari AG

Best Old/Antique Carpet
Tekke Main Carpet by Foumani Persian Gallery

Best Collection Modern
Jazz Collection by Nexus rugs

Best Collection Traditional
The Spanish Design Collection by Ariana Rugs Inc.

Best Innovation
Tagged by Jan Kath Design GmbH

DOMOTEX 2012: Business meets Lifestyle

By Sushma Arora

HANNOVER, Jan 15: The flooring trends and fashions for the 2012/2013 season will be on show at DOMOTEX, the world's foremost trade fair for carpets and floor coverings, from 14 to 17 January 2012.

"DOMOTEX is a business platform and flooring lifestyle show in one, a powerful mix that makes it the most important annual event for the international carpet and floor coverings industry," commented Deutsche Messe Management Board member Dr. Andreas Gruchow.

"All indications are that it's going to be a great success. The global market leaders will be out in force, plus there's the hotly anticipated premiere of the Wood Flooring Summit, a new, improved site layout and a range of new online services. With features like these, our exhibitors know they will be in pole position for new business."

Themed "Customized Living" DOMOTEX 2012 is where 1,350 exhibitors from over 60 nations have chosen to exhibit their new collections and design developments. The range is truly comprehensive, encompassing everything from hand-knotted and machine-made carpets, parquet and laminated flooring through to textile and resilient floor coverings.

Architects, interior designers, skilled tradespeople and wholesalers and retailers of furniture and interior furnishings can look forward to a multitude of exciting new products, trends and developments for both the domestic and contract furnishing sectors.

They will be able to gain a complete overview of the international carpet and floor coverings market because DOMOTEX draws some 83 percent of its exhibitors from outside its host country - a level of international participation that most trade fairs around the globe can only dream of. Trade visitors can compare different manufacturers, products and prices, negotiate directly with suppliers and learn about the latest trends - all under one roof.

DOMOTEX is equally advantageous for exhibitors, who benefit from the highly international composition of the fair's trade visitors (with 63 percent coming from beyond the host country). "The international visitors who come to the fair tend to be highly motivated buyers, as they see DOMOTEX as an opportunity to do all their buying for the entire season and eliminate the expense of further business travel during the year," Dr. Gruchow said.

'Customized Living' the keynote theme at DOMOTEX 2012

Personalization is one of the defining trends of our age and has an enormous bearing on interior design. Carpets and floor coverings in particular offer almost unlimited scope for individual design. The customer can choose from a rich palette of off-the-rack materials, colors and formats, not to mention the customized products that a growing number of providers are now offering. Dr. Gruchow: "Increasingly, our human desire for greater individuality and self-realization is finding direct expression in the design of our own four walls." These trends are reflected in the lead theme chosen for DOMOTEX 2012, "Customized Living." The theme symbolizes the leading design trends among the carpets, textile and resilient floor coverings and parquet and laminated flooring products that will be on display at the fair.

DOMOTEX 2012 will also feature highly targeted special displays, speaking events and panel discussion on interior décor and design that will yield new ideas and insights for visitors from the wholesale/retail sector, the skilled trades, architecture and interior design. For instance, the fair is continuing its Souk Deluxe partnership with renowned carpet designer Jan Kath, and will feature the new Wood Flooring Summit with its strong focus on product design.

Wood Flooring Summit attracts full complement of market leaders

Located in Hall 9, the Wood Flooring Summit puts hard flooring at center stage at DOMOTEX with a winning combination of exhibition space and central information and event zones.

"All the market leaders are coming to Hannover to present their latest product developments. The premiere of the Wood Flooring Summit really is promising to be a first-class showcase," Dr Gruchow said.

Leading manufacturers like Amorim, Barlinek, Bauwerk, Berry Floor, Classen, Egger, Faus, Hamberger, Kaindl, Kährs, Kronotex, Margaritelli, MeisterWerke, Parador, Spanolux/Balterio, Tarkett and Unilin/QuickStep will be showing a diverse range of parquet and laminate flooring products.

New online services for DOMOTEX exhibitors and visitors

Deutsche Messe has significantly extended the functionality of its online exhibitor database at www.domotex.de. DOMOTEX exhibitors can now include more detailed descriptions of their companies and products, and can add photos, logos, application examples and much more. This will enable exhibitors to create comprehensive company and product profiles that attract more attention from existing and potential customers. The service helps visitors plan their time at the fair more effectively and gives them all-year-round access to highly targeted information on products and providers of interest to them.

DOMOTEX 2012 will be supported by Match and Meet, a new Internet-based service that intelligently matches DOMOTEX exhibitors with relevant visitors and vice versa. To use the service, trade visitors first create a personal profile online at www.domotex.de, specifying the kinds of products and services they are interested in. The matchmaking software then compares the partner search requests made by visitors with the exhibitor and product profiles stored in the DOMOTEX exhibitor database. Users automatically receive lists of matches, complete with contact details, so that they can contact potential partners to arrange meetings.

Visitors to next year's DOMOTEX show will once again enjoy the benefits of our DOMOTEX2go mobile trade fair guide. The guide makes all the key DOMOTEX website functions available to users of cell phones and smartphones. With DOMOTEX2go, trade fair visitors can use their mobile phones to locate exhibitors, products, and events and to create their own personal schedules.

The mobile guide also offers an interactive map of the exhibition site as well as directions between any two points on the DOMOTEX grounds. The guide can be downloaded free of charge at www.domotex2go.de or the Mac App Store.