• MEET THE MANAGEMENT
• TRENDS IN THE WIND: MARKET REPORTS
• UPDATES & UPGRADES: New at SURTEX '10
• COUNTING DOWN TO SURTEX
• SURTEX SURPRISES THE PRESS
• TARGET BANKS ON GOOD DESIGN

We hope that you will love the new look of the SURTEX creative campaign we're launching with this issue of On the Surface. We aim to be cleaner, clearer, sharper in every sense of the word. After all, good design is the very subtext of SURTEX.
 

MEET THE MANAGEMENT

MAKING SURE THE SHOW GOES ON:

PENNY SIKALIS, GLM VP & SURTEX SHOW MANAGER
 
You may not see a lot of show manager Penny Sikalis during the demanding hours when SURTEX is humming away at the Javits Center.

But you can be sure she sees you.

Hers is the sharp eye in the sky, looking down, keeping watch from the GLM offices on the top level of the Javits. From there, Penny and her colleagues can see at a glance how things are running down below. After all, they've spent all year envisioning the show's success, working through the complex arrangements that go into knitting together nearly 300 exhibitors, thousands of attendees, legions of crates filled with original designs and artworks from all over the world, plus all the activities taking place during the market.

And that's just for SURTEX. A l5-year member of the GLM team,
Penny is also show manager of the Gourmet Housewares Show and international sales manager for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), which runs concurrently with SURTEX. She's helped draw record traffic to the shows - at SURTEX alone, attendance was up a whopping 29 percent last May, boosted in part by the new location on the main level of the Javits Center, directly adjacent to the National Stationery Show.

It was a move Penny had her eye on for a long time, she says. As show manager, she's responsible for overall strategic development and marketing, including day-to-day management of sales, marketing, and operations. That keeps her globe-hopping much of the year, so don't be surprised if she returns your call from the back of a car to the airport or e-mails from, say, Belgium, while she checks out other events like the Indigo show in Brussels (see her eye-witness trends report elsewhere in this issue).

Still, Penny finds time to give back to the industry she's been part of since graduating from the University of Rhode Island. By the time she joined GLM in l994, she brought more than l7 years of experience in home fashions (including licensing, marketing and communications positions with key players like Springs Industries, Dawson Home Fashions, and Gear Holdings.) In addition, her tenure at GLM has included show management of the New York Home Textiles Show, EXTRACTS, Global Home Textiles, and the Dallas International Gift & Home Accessories Show.

No surprise then that she's also stacked up an impressive list of honors: a cover feature in EXPO magazine, lauding her as one of five top show managers in the US; a 2001 Circle of Excellence Award from the International Furnishings and Design Association (IFDA); and one of HomeWorld Business Magazine's "People to Watch" in 2008.

In her, ahem, free time, Penny is a member of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE), the Fashion Group International, and currently serves as President of the New York Chapter of IFDA. She also sits on the Advisory Board of the Fashion Institute of Technology's Home Products Development and Marketing Program.

She somehow finds time to horse around, literally, in the weekend country retreat she shares in the Northern Catskills with her husband, two cats and favorite equine companion.

TRENDS IN THE WIND

EYE-WITNESS REPORTS
FROM EUROPE'S TOP SHOWS

At INDIGO, Brussels, the show that's all about textile design and allied with a decorative fabric trade fair called MoOD (Meet Only Original Designs), our reporter, Penny Sikalis, GLM VP and SURTEX Show Manager, saw "lots of diversity in color and pattern: something for every taste." 

But what's worth writing home about?

The "wonderfully sophisticated children's designs," Penny says.  Plus, what she identified as a "light-hearted" approach to design.  "There was much humor and whimsy."  A reaction to the dark economic times we've been through?  Maybe, Penny concedes.  "People are feeling business start inching back up.  Manufacturers across the board need new, fresh ideas, which means more product development." 

Another bright note:  Penny sees a revival of the wallcoverings industry in the UK. The market for wallcoverings has always been more robust there than in the US, she reports, which may account for what she calls "bigger, bolder patterns" than those that work in the US.  "The European sensibility is different than that of the U.S.  When it comes to the scale of patterns, they're more risk takers."

At Maison et Objet, Paris, the home-oriented show that generates buzz heard round the world.  Our New York-based experts Patricia Bouley and Hermine Mariaux also remarked on the (almost) up-beat attitude they detected.  "People were surprised by the amount of business they are doing," reports Hermine, an expert in branding and licensing who has developed home collections for the likes of Valentino and Calvin Klein.

She and Patricia (an international designer with work in the permanent collections of the Cooper Hewitt and Rhode Island School of Design) also saw waxing trends everywhere they looked. Top of their Hits List: a new emphasis on the outdoors. Not be confused with the ecological movement, Patricia warns.  It's about design rather than self-conscious eco-statements. "Americans make a big political thing about the ecology. We're obsessed with landfills while Europeans have always lived sustainably," she reports.  Major outdoor motifs included palm trees, (manmade) rattan, huge parasols, and umbrellas shaped like giant leaves. 

Also being recycled is at least one old concept: the l8th-century "Cabinet of Curiosities" filled with eccentric collections of natural objects and oddments, such as fossils, bones, taxidermied animals, and feathers, popular motifs interpreted in textiles, wallcovering and accessories.

Human anatomy is on-trend, too, often taken disarmingly out of context.  Wing chairs get real legs, a lamp may have a spinal column, and fabric prints reproduce charts from Anatomy 101 with inner organs on display.  More design motifs to watch for:  Animal motifs of all species are showing up, especially elephants.  They're everywhere, particularly on silk pillows; ditto, pug dogs. 

"Chalet" furnishings may be the country look gone European ski-lodge chic.  More popular patterns include overblown Edwardian florals, embroideries on bedding; and a resurgence of menswear patterns (Patty credits the popularity of "Mad Men," the TV series). 

Mapping color trends:  Black is the new black, deep as ink, often mixed with navy. "The Italians are going to black, and they always lead color trends," according to Patricia. 

Also get ready for hot mustard, gold, mustard-flavored greens, and poppy - it's the new red. Meanwhile, purple and lavender refuse to go away.  In fact, says Hermine, it's metamorphosing back to - are you ready for - mauve?  But it's a dustier, rosier, more subtle mauve than its last time around in the l970s.

And just under the radar - don't blush - a whiff of what Hermine calls the "kinky trade," translated into black leather furniture, hobnail accessories, even a tea set wrapped in chains.

How to process it all?  Be selective.  "Keep in mind that a trend can be your friend," advises Hermine, a design industry veteran and pro forecaster, "Or it can lead you down a cul de sac."

TARGET BANKS ON GOOD DESIGN

PROVING THAT HIGH STYLE
LIFTS THE BOTTOM LINE

Talk about a design motif that says it all at a glance, Target definitely hits the bull's eye with its corporate logo.

Round, red, and readily recognizable on the far side of any mall in America, the logo proves the power of smart, simple design. It's also visual shorthand for the company's credo, "Expect more. Pay less."

 

What shoppers have grown to expect is great design from some of the world's top design talents. And they get it in good quality products at true bargain prices - a combination rare enough to inspire great devotion from the trendiest of shoppers. Not to mention an affectionate nickname, "Tar-Zhay,"said the French way even though a company spokesperson objects, "We're not a French company!"

Indeed, not. Target was born in Middle America as a chain of "discount department stores" - their description - launched in l962 by the corporation originally founded in Minneapolis in l902 by George Dayton as the Dayton Dry Goods Company. You don't get more Middle American than that. Except this was up-market Middle America, with a taste for good design and a belief in good value, the core corporate credos that have helped fuel Target's growth into the nation's fifth-largest retailer. With sales hitting $62.9 billion last year, the company is outstripped only by Wal-Mart, the Home Depot, Kroger, and Costco.

Now with a total of 1,700 doors, Target is in every state except Vermont. That's a lot of shelves to stock, a lot of product to design. Or to commission. Even with a product design and development department more than 300 people-deep, Target execs (led by Kathy Tesija, executive VP of merchandising) are constantly on the hunt for "more thoughtful innovation, more exceptional design and unique style," to quote the annual report to shareholders.
In the company's noteworthy commitment to taste over price points, the never-ending hunt for new ideas takes Target staffers to trade shows around the world, including SURTEX 2009, which was covered by four Target design pros in May.

The hunt also leads to the studios of the many name-brand designers who have signed exclusive deals with

 Target since its first ground-breaking alliance with architect Michael Graves in l999. His whimsical tea kettle celebrated its first decade this year, the lead item in a subsequent series of Graves' great designs for humble house wares.

In Graves' wake has come a flood of design stars, including Mossimo Giannulli, Victoria Hagen and Thomas O'Brien. Race to Times Square before October ends and you can see future Target handbags by the latest Big Talent, Anna Sui. They'll be made from the vinyl of the nine-faced Target billboard featuring New York-inspired artworks by Laurie Rosenwald, Michael Anderson, Josh Goldstein, and Charles Wilkin.

Fashion icon Anna Sui (who's also designed an apparel line exclusively for Target),
will use the billboard vinyl to create 1,600 one-of-a-kind, limited edition tote bags.
A typical Target inspiration, according to Target spokesperson Jana O'Leary: "We're committed to bringing newness and innovation to all aspects of our brand."

The company is officially committed to design and art on a higher plane, too. Among its community ventures, Target sponsors free admission days at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Brooklyn Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the Boston Children's Museum, plus the Walker Art Center and Minnesota Children's Museum in Target home territory of Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

It's back to that core company belief, as Jana sums it up, that "great design is more than aesthetics and style. It's about promoting creativity and innovation that leads to extraordinary products, processes, and experiences."

It's also a far cry from John Dayton's old "dry" goods.
 

COUNTING DOWN TO SURTEX 2010

In our month-to-month, step-by-step march to SURTEX 2010, October brings us to what licensing veteran and public relations pro Kay Degenhardt calls "the most important task for right now," determining the size, configuration and location of your booth.

TO-DO THIS MONTH:

Decide What You Really Need

Trade show success, just like real estate, depends on three factors: location, location, location!

And which location works best for you depends on how you plan to use your booth.  Here are some guidelines to help you decide:

If you are a textile designer.  Because designers who focus on the textile and wallcovering trades have asked that an area be set aside for their specialty, the folks at GLM have carved out two aisles specifically geared to the textile trades.  While many of your designs will translate beautifully to paper goods and other products, the size, motifs, and techniques used to produce those patterns are geared to manufacturers of decorative fabrics, home textiles, wallpapers, and even apparel fabrics.  If your designs fit this overall category, you might consider asking for a spot in this special section.

If you are selling designs outright, you will want a booth that can accommodate as many showing tables and counters as you need for your inventory, the scale of your work, and the number of designers and/or staff you will have on hand.  A corner booth is a good bet, as it allows several people to show designs at the same time.

If you are licensing collections, an entirely different booth display may be more advantageous.  In addition to your latest work, you may wish to feature licensed products already on the market (be sure to call them in early enough!), especially if they are being shown at the National Stationery Show in the adjacent aisles.  By displaying the finished products alongside your newest collection, you're illustrating your diversity, and also reminding potential clients that your name and work are highly desirable.

If you are a generalist - like many surface designers - you gear your work toward the larger marketplace.  Whether you are licensing or selling your work outright, the question is, how do you set yourself apart?  How do you draw attendees to your booth? The answer: create a unique setting.  Use color.  Study the work of truly great merchandisers.  Anthropologie is one retailer that's mastered "enticement merchandising," the trick of drawing customers from one vignette to another.  Take it all in and use it to create your own special environment at SURTEX.

If you are still sitting on your SURTEX application, get up and get it off to GLM pronto!  Space is limited, so the sooner you apply, the more likely that the organizers will be able to accommodate your needs. Besides, you'll want all the time it takes to make your space exactly what you decide it should be.