Experiencing the Trade Fair

Last Saturday, the 21^st of July, I went to the Furnitex and DECORATION + DESIGN Trade Fair at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. Being a student, it was a great experience to be able to walk around the different booths and see the upcoming products. There was a noticeable difference between the three areas. Furnitex was mostly for established businesses and Design Made Trade was more of a boutique event for upcoming Australian designers. DECORATION + DESIGN showed the latest decoration trends.

There were some amazing booths

Ink & Spindle

'Ink & Spindle' is a boutique textile studio located in Kensington, Melbourne. Lara Cameron & Tegan Rose design and screen print all their textiles by hand in an ethical and sustainable manner. Their designs are largely inspired by nature, particularly Australia’s native flora and fauna. These products are made using water based, solvent free inks, and are printed onto lovely organic cotton and hemp blend fabrics.

The Wall Sticker Company

The Wall Sticker Company design gorgeous wall stickers and are the best available on the market. These stickers won't damage your walls, peel up at the edges, fall off or fade. They'll go up, stay up and look amazing for years to come. They are also more wearable then other fabric wallpapers; when they get moved around a lot by little fingers, you are able to wash them down.

Print Paper Cloth

Print Paper Cloth create truly unique surface printed designs. Their designs range from abstract and organic, floral and geometric and illustrative and stylised. All images are hand drawn and are printed on either paper or fabric.

Silk Road Hand Made Rugs

Silk Road Hand Made Rugs is a family-owned company dedicated to decorating with Persian and Oriental handmade rugs. Situated in the heart of Melbourne’s interior design precinct, their Prahran retail and trade showroom features hundreds of highly individual rugs handcrafted in Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan, India and Nepal.

Tactile Textiles

Tactile Textiles use surface design, digital printing and heat setting to explore techniques in different mediums. They make various products, such as cushions, screens, lampshades and room dividers.

Vyntage Vogue

Vyntage Vogue is an Australian-based and a regionally-owned business committed to designing and manufacturing quality modern vintage furnishings . They have a fabulous range of mix and match chairs and ottomans, all with removable covers.

While it was very large and almost overwhelming, I would definitely recommend that design students attend next year.