13. March 2008.

Content and detail might compensate the reader for the longer-than-usual pause in breaking news. This is an account by Ákos Tamás, a designer working for the manufactory, of his experiences in Frankfurt...

AMBIENTE, i.e. environment - this is the label for the world's possibly largest fair specialised in interior decoration, tableware and gifts, held each year in February in Frankfurt am Main, a grand city boasting ten huge and imposing exhibition halls.

Between February 8 and 12 this year, 4600 exhibitors put an incredible amount of items on display, seen by a total of 150 thousand visitors in not more than 5 days. Each of the exhibition halls had at least three floors, except Building No. 10, where the luxury porcelain items were exhibited on five floors. The infrastructure of the fair is extremely advanced technologically, each hall is connected via escalators - the indoor corridors are heated - so even lightly dressed visitors have no difficulty seeing all the items - that would normally fill approximately twenty department stores - in low outside temperatures and cold weather. The items are displayed in exhibition areas - either temporary or permanent - and sophisticated installations are used everywhere. Herend Porcelain Manufactory has for the past few decades displayed its products in its own exhibition area, close to those of other manufactories producing luxury porcelain and world class products, such as KPM Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin and Meissen.

 

The aim of the exhibition - besides the obvious commercial objectives - is the presentation of the most recent achievements of designer creativity. In doing so, market leaders will have a positive effect on fashion trends through their style-shaping capabilities. The three mottos of the exhibition are: "dining", "living" and "giving", i.e. tableware, interior decoration and gifts. All materials were expertly arranged along with these themes and were made available for easy viewing in various exhibition halls if, of course, the enthusiastic visitor could cope with distances of tens of kilometres.

Herend presented its products of the year in a stylish exhibition area in the 'pedestrian precinct' of the exhibition hall, possibly the best positioned area of the entire exhibition and among the most famous exhibitors of luxury articles. Their items this year focused on sea-life and the ambience of inland waters. The most spectacular composition on display was, undoubtedly, one painted on large format porcelain surfaces overlooking the exhibition entrance, quite an eye-catching piece greeting surprised visitors. This complexity of surfaces of painted porcelain panels - designed by using a unique, innovative technology - merged into a uniform surface and fixed onto the wall by using magnets for individual porcelain units, paves the way for new options in the architectural application of Herend porcelain, leaving practically no obstacles for the creative imagination of future designers and investors of luxury buildings.

Visitors entering the stand, after having admired the dexterity of the lady providing a continuous display of porcelain painting to demonstrate some rudiments of the craftsmanship, could not help, but feel the atmosphere of distinguished elegance emanating from the objects on display. This year motives of sea-life - fish, snails, shapes of coral - dominated the various sets, ornamented items and figurines. The theme gave the Herend exhibition a very distinctive and unified image. This is all very important for a manufactory such as Herend, well known for its treasury of forms and patterns.

In addition to the material focusing on sea-life, visitors also had a taste of particularly interesting, new luxury items.

Most precious of all were, most certainly, the Fabergé eggs ornamented with small diamonds - a combination of porcelain and gold, representing a (not so) new alternative for the use of porcelain in the world of expensive jewellery. The price of this particular set, a limited edition of 15, was USD 55 thousand, which speaks for itself.

Also on display in various recesses of the apsis situated at one end of the exhibition area were other limited-release items which accentuated the sophistication of hand-painted ornaments and the richness of form .

Herend's world famous, by now classic and emblematic patterns, the Victoria and VBO shapes were, as usual, part of the exhibition. These shapes we also used to introduce 'Fortuna', a new breakfast and tea set, composed of elements of the four-leaved clover, a lucky token.

Throughout the fair, the Herend exhibition attracted immense attention, possibly due to the fact, among other things, that the entire exhibition area reminded visitors, both in appearance and in the wealth of items on display, of a treasury, and this attracted passers-by, both individuals and traders, who were otherwise dazzled by the amount of exhibits in every exhibition hall. As a designer, I walked many kilometres in the company of my colleagues from our manufactory, looking into almost every nook and cranny of the fair, and we were equally surprised by the tangible luxury of the Herend exhibition.