The Spring 2008 New York tabletop show was a very busy one for us. This is the last major show before the summer gap and this year’s show was even crazier as the shift in the schedule condensed the show into three days. Although the halls were open over the weekend it was a ghost town.

Most of our customers also had successful shows, although the recession, or slow-down, of the US economy did seem to be weighing heavy on the minds of retailers. This trickled down to their ideas on dinnerware designs where people seem to split two ways.

The majority tend to look for safe, traditional designs. Classic english tableware companies are a beneficiary of this trend as are large well-established brands. Royal Doulton is great example. More retailers look for floral designs, although there are subtle changes. Tableware trends are moving from the silhouetted flower patterns that have been popular for so long to more expressionistic, artistic detailed painting with splashes and brush strokes.

Another faction goes in the opposite direction. Instead of going back to more traditional designs they take greater risks. The thinking being that in harder times people are looking for something different. The Chirp pattern by Lenox Simply Fine (which we did not design but wish we had) is a perfect example. This is a bold, risky design that many would say is too contemporary for American tastes. We are happy that Lenox has been very successful with this pattern and think it shows that design risks do pay off.

There is always a lot of bridal in New York and this show was no different. Formal china is often paired with bridal designers, Vera Wang for Wedgwood and Monique Lhuillier was introduced by Royal Doulton. The casual end, particularly white-ware is often branded with celebrity chefs from Jamie Oliver with Royal Worcester to Mario Batali and Rachel Ray.

It is hard to differentiate, especially in all white ware, which is good news for celebrities looking for endorsements. Patterned tableware still comes down to what is on the plate and tougher compettion will lead to more expressionistic, lively sketchy patterns where the artists work can show through and less rehashing of silhouetted flowers and motifs from Chinese pattern books.

A letter-sized, PDF version of our presentation on tableware trends is now available to download through ‘Resources’ to the right of our blog posts. The presentation consists of five mood boards and headline points for the trends that we see coming to the table.

We made our second annual visit to the Chicago International Home and Housewares Show. The McCormick Center is an enormous space, however, the show felt a lot more compact than the Frankfurt show and altogether less daunting. It may be the layout, with high-end and mass-market tableware not separated by floor. In fact, the tableware section of the show exhibited kitchen gadgets and cutting boards in booths right next to tableware. This presented us with the opportunity to meet Chef Ming Tsai as he happened to be promoting Totally Bamboo cutting boards right down the way from a booth where we had an upcoming appointment and half an hour to kill.

Corelle had an impressive theatrical booth with models acting as mannequins in green dresses slowly and robotically showing off World Kitchens latest collections. The Oneida stand was also impressive displaying their latest flatware and dinnerware designs.

With the show being so close to Frankfurt there wasn’t much of a visible shift in trends. There is still an industry emphasis on florals, damasks, and monochromes. One style that did stand out, although, more of an emphasis of the US market then a trend, is folk design. The US has had a long-standing love affair with the country kitchen style of roosters and gingham. In a similar vein seaside scenes of lighthouses and beaches are much more popular in the US market and thus more prevalent at this show.

Styles are often born in France or the UK and make their way later to popularity in the US market. In fashion and technology often making a longer journey from Japan, to Europe, and onto the US. Predicting which styles catch on, and the timeline of those styles is key. And then there are the roosters that grow up in the middle of the US and seem to stick around for eternity.

Statement Colours -> Neons & Brights
This season’s kaleidoscopic colours make bold statements. From electric blues, acid yellows, hot pinks, emerald greens, to the leader of the pack: neon orange. These hues work best in block colours, standing out against blacks or paired with subtle neutrals such as greys and beiges.

Artistic Brush Strokes
The Jackson Pollock inspired paint splatters seen on the catwalk cross over effortlessly to interiors. Expressive splashes and dribbles are a great fit for the table.

Florals
From soft seventies meadow flowers to bold expressive botanicals, florals are still proving to be a fashion staple. This style will continue to strengthen developing more edgy blooms and exaggerated silhouettes.

Geometrics
Geometrics will take the form of ethnic patterns and abstracted African prints in this season’s neons developing from the Eighties Rubik’s Cube style angular graphics.

Figurative Graphics -> Comic Book Chic
Comic book colours, cartoon figures, surreal decorative icons, and punk graphic scenes. Inspired by the emergence of urban art and graffiti in mainstream popular culture.

On King’s Road in Chelsea or any high street right now florals are bursting out of all the stalls as a premonition of spring. Beautiful, floaty feminine dresses appear to be a staple in almost every clothing store right now. This look was in part pioneered by Stella McCartney’s retro seventies floral dresses recently seen on the catwalk. Florals will continue their journey from the catwalk to the high street and will be making their way to tableware shortly. I couldn’t be happier.

I also found inspiration this month at the Tate Gallery in Liverpool at an exhibition of Nikki De Saint Phalle. Her flamboyant Nana paintings with their fantastical detailed patterns have motivated me to develop a series of designs where my pen is free to doodle incoherently. I look forward to showing them at the International Home and Housewares show in Chicago.

Julie Pople Designs spent the last week at Frankfurt’s Ambiente Expo, one of the largest shows for tableware in the world.

We met with dozens of design directors as well as spending time browsing the different showrooms to get a feel of where the tableware, as well as homewares, markets are moving.

More than ever, design directors are looking for something new and different. Many are tired of traditional florals and other perennial standbys, yet they are still around as they are still selling. It is unclear if this is because consumers still like them or that the industry has not yet found an alternative.

Established brands are marketing brands within brands so they can move away from what has been their core business with more limited risk to their image. Villeroy & Boch gives us a good example of this with their Vivo sub-brand. Vivo is young, hip, bright and loud where as Villeroy & Boch made their name, and continues to succeed, with more traditional botanicals.

Companies seem to be having a hard time differentiating themselves through pattern and are employing all available technology to stand out. Shape is becoming more and more important as well as texture. Embossed patterns on porcelain seem to be gaining in popularity as well as textured decals.

A lot of companies are re-releasing their retro patterns from the sixties, Portmerion and Dansk for example. With any return it is important to note the subtle changes from the original sixties pattern to the updated retro looks that succeed today. Renewing a pattern, even when on trend, is much more than just dusting it off and putting it back on the shelf. To quote Julie Pople, “Trends come full circle but progress in a spiral rather than returning to where they originally were.”

Back in London the forecast trend for urban art continuing to push into mainstream culture was highlighted by a visit to the Waterstones bookshop in Piccadilly Circus where an entire section is titled ‘concrete as a canvas’.

1. Figurative graphics
Cartoon figures, surreal decorative icons, and punk graphic scenes. Inspired by the emergence of urban art and graffiti in mainstream popular culture.

2. Statement colours
Hot pinks, bright fuchsias, neon oranges, greens, and acid yellows. Late eighties early nineties colourways as seen on the catwalk will make appearances as accents on the tabletop paired with muted greys and blacks.

3. Seventies florals
The bo-ho look is still around but with a twist. Seventies inspired bohemian gypsy will be strong on the table in the form of soft focus botanicals and romantic meadow flowers in more adventurous colours. Think Pre-Raphaelites with acid house palettes.

4. Geometrics
Geometrics will reappear on the table in 2008. Eighties style Rubik’s Cube coloured angular graphics. Think Mondrian. As well as the more familiar retro geometrics with soft edged circles and squares in traditional sixties colourways of oranges, and browns.

5. Beige with greys
Subdued tones are rising in popularity, ideal to offset the trend for neons. Beige is appearing alongside the ever fashionable grey. Tabletop trends will be looking to pair shades of muted colours to add depth.

Having decided to update the base here in the Albert Dock we’ve been trawling the interior shops of the North West for inspiration. It’s early days yet but judging from what’s already in the stores I think the big colours for 2008 are going to be the usual greys and blacks but complimented by lime greens, yellows and a few eighties fluorescents. They started to appear a couple of year ago but with anything a bit daring it takes us a while to come round. My tip for colours in the home are the wonderful muted grey paints from Farrow and Ball. I’d like to have the guts to paint a room with the sultry ‘Downpipe’ but we have opted for the more easy to live with but no less striking ‘Pigeon’. Now we need a bright lime rug or a couple of yellow accessories. It will be interesting to see if any of these colours have made it to tableware collections at the Frankfurt show; they certainly make several appearances in our portfolio. My eyes will be peeled.

Welcome to the blog at juliepopledesigns.com. This is the place where we talk about trends and ideas in surface pattern design. It is also a forum to discuss what’s going on in the tableware industry and at the tradeshows. The first big event for us in 2008 is the Frankfurt Ambiente show:

http://ambiente.messefrankfurt.com/frankfurt/de/home.html

We will be reporting on what’s hot and what’s not from the fair. We’re giving the January Maison et Objet a miss this year but would love to hear about it from any of you attending. As we’re based in Liverpool (European Capital of Culture 2008 in case you hadn’t heard!), we’re expecting to be wowed by the Klimt exhibition at the Tate in May; and the newly restored and extended Bluecoat Craft Centre is sure to be a source of inspiration:

http://www.bluecoatdisplaycentre.com/

That’s it for our first post of the year!