Oct 4, 2012

Christmasworld Presents Window Wonderland by 2Dezign

A tiger leaps from a gift box, angels fly on merry-go-rounds and a sea of fresh flowers consists – half of it at least – of silk. Nothing in the Window Wonderland is what it seems at first sight. This scintillating special show can be seen at Christmasworld from 25 to 29 January 2013 in Frankfurt am Main.

It is now the third time that 2Dezign have been commissioned to put together a major presentation at this leading international trade fair for festive and seasonal decoration. This year, the Dutch design duo have devoted themselves to the topic of window display and in-shop decoration. To do so, they have brought with them to Frankfurt a complete funfair, including the big wheel, roundabout, stalls and a ground-breaking augmented-reality installation. Their aim: to demonstrate how the retail trade can create the ‘wow factor’ to continually and consistently surprise and intrigue their customers.

The result is that a very special kind of spectacle now awaits our trade and professional visitors in Hall 9.0. In a number of huge shop-window displays, surrounded with red fabric, the big wheel and the rest of the fairground equipment create unusual displays with exhibitors’ products. At the same time, each window is different from the next and each offers surprising and unexpected design ideas. “Nothing at Window Wonderland is obvious, nothing is as one expects it to be,” promises Rudi Tuinman of 2Dezign. The entire gamut of the Christmasworld product range will be showcased, including candles, ribbons, lighting, festive decorations and more. In terms of decoration, the creative team once again concentrates on the mix of fresh and artificial flowers. They are planning individual flower heads and real plants, which will provide the unifying element across the different window displays.

A world first: the ‘Virtual Mirror’
Alongside the great variety of ‘analogue’ inspirations, Window Wonderland will showcase a world first in terms of technology: the ‘Virtual Mirror’, an augmented-reality screen developed by the Rotterdam firm of Twnkls. With this, visitors to the show are invited to take an active part themselves and to experience the wonders of the virtual world. At first, real objects appear to represent nothing unusual. If they are moved, however, their intriguing inner life suddenly emerges onto the screen. So that, say, a tiger suddenly leaps from a gift box; or it begins to snow when you shake the box. “What we are showing here will become the future for the retail trade. For not only is the trend towards entertainment and ‘gamification’ not letting up, it is opening up whole new horizons of experience and purchasing incentivisation,” says Karel Roes, Manager Marketing and Sales at Twnkls.

Particularly noteworthy in Frankfurt is that not only is this the first time that an installation of this size will have been shown, but the interactive effects are also new; nothing like it has ever existed before. Roes explains: “If I shake the box harder, it snows more heavily and the snow ends up actually landing on my own (virtual) shoulder; if I walk to and fro, the tiger follows me on the screen. It all sounds light-hearted and playful. But what we are exhibiting here really is a ground-breaking innovation in the field of augmented reality.”

Amaze them!
Crazy ideas, state-of-the-art technology, attention-grabbing “wow factor” – in the Window Wonderland the observer gets to experience, first-hand, just what is possible in terms of shop-window decoration. “When we secured the services of 2Dezign, we brought on board a creative team which, on the one hand, understands the sector extremely well and on the other is capable of thinking in a completely fresh and challenging way that goes beyond the sector’s traditional horizons and stimulates new concepts,” says Eva Olbrich. As Director of Christmasworld, it is important to her that all visitors to the trade fair – from the tiniest boutique to the largest shopping centre – are able to take full advantage of the inspiration provided by the special show. “Of course, Christmas is also a very commercial time. People are emotionally pumped up and keen to spend. Finding the right products for them in the right form is a great opportunity for the trade,” continues Olbrich.

That is why, in Window Wonderland, 2Dezign showcase functioning mechanisms: “Decoration does not always need to be large and expensive – but it must be effective. Movement is one way of getting people’s attention. One can, for instance, just hang items from the ceiling on brightly-coloured ribbons and let them dance around in a stream of air. Or, you can decorate up-market gifts stylishly and place them amongst some rubber ducks and toy cars. Window Wonderland is, therefore, conceived less as a model to be copied, than as a challenge: let your designs be irritating, surprising, amaze people with them – awaken emotions in them,” explains Tuinman.

2Dezign
2Dezign’s preference for grandiose effects and fresh greens is, in part at least, attributable to the backgrounds of the two designers, Pascal Koeleman began his career as a florist and product designer. Tuinman comes from the fashion and styling sector. In 2000 they came together to found their joint consultancy in Rijnsburg near The Hague and, since then, have chalked up a number of international successes, amongst other things, in the design of showrooms, exhibitions and public spaces. Today 2Dezign consists of the two founders, a permanent team of designers and a network of independent creatives.

Christmasworld in Frankfurt
Christmasworld in Frankfurt am Main is the most important trend platform and major international venue for placing orders in the decorations sector. With some 1,000 international exhibitors, it welcomes almost all the sector’s relevant suppliers and showcases the entire gamut of seasonal and festive decorations as well as the latest trends for all the seasonal celebrations during the year. The two parallel trade fairs Paperworld and Creativeworld will be open concurrently with Christmasworld from 26 to 29 January 2013.

Background information on Messe Frankfurt
With a turnover of € 467.5 million and 1,725 employees worldwide, Messe Frankfurt is Germany’s biggest trade-fair organiser. The Messe Frankfurt Group has a global network of 28 subsidiaries and around 50 international Sales Partners, giving it a presence for its customers in more than 150 countries. Events ‘made by Messe Frankfurt’ take place at more than 30 locations around the globe. In 2011, Messe Frankfurt organised 100 trade fairs, of which more than half took place outside Germany Messe Frankfurt’s exhibition grounds, featuring 578,000 square metres, are currently home to ten exhibition halls and an adjacent Congress Centre. The company is publicly owned, with the City of Frankfurt holding 60 percent and the State of Hesse 40 percent. For more information, please visit our website at: www.messefrankfurt.com