Some of you may have seen my post on Facebook or have read about it in the upcycleDZINE Weekly Newsletter. I’m talking about exhibiting for the first time at a big fair. And by big I mean an interior fair visited by more than 65.000 people in 6 days. It’s the Woonbeurs 2014 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Interior fair is like a roller coaster and marathon
In March I received an email with an invitation to hire a stand in ‘Design City’, an important special part of the Woonbeurs. It’s a separate section in the design hall where new and established designers show surprising presentations. Walking between the creative design products the visitor is taken ‘apart’ from the trading floor. This part of the fair is all about originality and design! Within the city, there’s a special section reserved for NL-design with (young) designers and entrepreneurs.
And I had to to decide if I wanted to take part in the NL-design section. I thought it was time to be bold so I could finally meet and talk with people face to face about my designs.
After some time of preparations the fair got closer I started to get pretty nervous. What was it going to be like to be standing for at least 8 hours a day [times 6] and how would people react to my lampshades made out of plastic milk containers?
Well the fair is over and it was a roller coaster run and marathon combined into one. Especially the first three days with a lot of students, architects, stylists and bloggers visiting, were great. All those exciting and positive comments gave me so much energy. A lot of people said they were so glad I was there showing what can be done with trash.
Photos © Indusigns, Balk en Plank, VanderBijl
One thing I’ve got to mention is the fact that I was hoping to see a lot of upcycle designers exhibiting. Although some trendwatchers said 2014 was going to be the year of upcycling, it didn’t look that way at the fair. There were some exhibitors who showed vintage stuff but that’s not what I mean by upcycling. I hoped to see and meet new designers who take discarded objects or materials and transform them into new design objects. The few I found were VanderBijl, Balk & Plank and in someone else’s stand were some upcycle lamps by Indusigns. Great though was that I was able to meet Stef van der Bijl and the great guys from Indusign, Gijs Bodt and Chiel Bodt. The two brothers actually surprised me with there visit, which was very nice. They’re thinking of hiring a stand next year to exhibit their cool Indusigns lampshades.
Photos © Gilbert de Rooij
48 hours after the fair my mind is still full of all the new ideas, vibes, kindness and fantastic contacts I’ve encountered during my stay. Therefore I would like to thank everybody who took the time to visit my stand and was willing to talk to me.
All in all it was a tremendous experience that needs to be explored and unraveled in the next few days.
Design by Gilbert de Rooij
Since you’re here …
I have a small favor to ask. Thousands are visiting upcycleDZINE for upcycle design inspiration every month. Readers in more than 100 countries around the world are now able to support financially.
upcycleDZINE is a completely independent niche site, is very work-intensive, and offers tons of unique information for free.
To keep upcycleDZINE running, I’m asking you for your support.
Your contribution will allow me to:
– meet the hosting costs
– upgrade to keep track of traffic increases
– add new content, and keep improving the older content
– add new functionalities to this site
– improve how it works and how it looks
– and last but not least, my daily dose of coffee 🙂
Again, all contributions will be reinvested into the aforementioned associated costs of running this blog and will help ensure the ongoing quest for quality upcycle design.
Your kindness and generosity will be greatly appreciated and will give me the motivation to continue.
Every contribution, however big or small, is so valuable for the future of upcycleDZINE.
Support today from as little as $2 – it only takes a minute. Thank you.
