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Euroshop virgins...

11 March 2011

It was our first ever visit to Euroshop. Of course we’d heard of it before but it was never really on the radar - Light & Building or EuroLuce combined with Light Fair were always enough for one year

So after the adventures in sweet unwrapping described by Sharon in our previous blog it was time to enjoy some of the show. For those who don’t know, there is one main hall for lighting (#11) and obviously it was pretend shops for all the big boys!

Our first discovery of the day was a really interesting material that created a holographic stripe effect with a limited LED points behind it. A bit artistic and random but the effect was definitely interesting. It could be encapsulated in glass, perspex or perhaps the most interesting was a fabric version that could even be made into clothing!

The stand designs ranged from the medium sized village to the simple minimal – one of the most minimal being the Open Russia stand. It looked very cool and we thought that they were selling LED anglepoise-style luminaires but the space was so empty and minimal that we didn’t dare ask for fear of looking stupid.

In fact investigation after the fact has led to the discovery that they were the only Russian company at Euroshop and they were actually called Tochka Opory Lighting Solutions and partners with many major brands in Europe. Sorry Tochka – we didn’t get it from the stand.

The GE stand had an amazing way to engage the punters with the first working augmented reality set-up that we have used. Well impressive.

By moving a simple cardboard cube in front of a web cam and a 40 inch TV screen you could look inside a series of different virtual shops. Simply turning the cube moved the model and changed your viewpoint. Well impressive.

XAL did their usual superb job of creating a high class super sexy space. They also had some really interesting products – the highlight for us was the ultra-minimal magnetic track. Designed for use under shelves and with dimming and variable colour temp built in, it was a very impressive piece of tech and design. Their edge lit shelf details were also good.

As with Light & Building, in fact even more so, there was a definite LED bias to the majority of stands. For the designers, one of the most interesting areas outside the lighting hall was Hall 12 which featured designers, shop fitters and turnkey solution. There was some inspiring creativity, great use of materials and seriously cool stand designs.