Spring Fair 2010

NEC Birmingham UK

By Nino Acanfora, Creative Director, Euromic, UK

As a Designer it's always useful to attend a number of events during the year. The NEC was an ideal opportunity to get an insight into up and coming design and innovation in the market place in categories outside our own.

The Fair included a section called 'Fresh' which showcased the best contemporary product design and designers in the UK today.  I'd like to share a few of these with you all

The exhibition was well attended and whilst walking around I became very aware that the Union Jack as an icon was really prominent across all categories and the 'Flag Graphic' had been depicted in many different finishes, colours, and style. (see floral range)

I attributed this partly to the up and coming World Cup and the 2012 Olympics, but in reality the Union Jack has been seen on catwalks for the last 2 years and is now simply filtering down to other categories and with some very interesting results.

From a consumer point of view, it was noticeable that the pre-school products with activity sets was the category which was the main focus for development. With parents perhaps concerned with the amount of time children spend in front of TV and home computers they are maybe wanting to find alternatives to occupy their time?

Great day out with lots of interesting things to see and a confirmation that the UK market is really picking up and that 2010 should be a good one.