IMM Cologne 2012

At the Pure Village!

We had a great week at Cologne, where Arré was present for the second time. This time in a professional setting at hall 3.2 in the Pure Village programme. Last year Arré was in the background, supporting Mediodesign at the D3 professionals programme, this time a step forward as a brand.

We met lots of interesting people, and we had a great team: Wibo Vermeulen from Amsterdam, Yoraco González from Berlin, Adriana Juncú assisting us with the visitors, and myself.

Great show and great products. We got compliments from trade visitors about the L-shelf designed by Juan Pablo Quintero/Mediodesign, which some people already recognised from last year, and about Insekt desk and Ecke Flow table. One of our major highlights, Metro Chairs designed by Azul Cadenas, never made it to the show… one of the minor things that happened. But we got good response to Insekt Desk, people love it. L-shelf still has to break some kind of resistance of the public, but when people see its simplicity and its genius they are crazy about it. Ecke flow had a very good international debut. German and France clients were quite enthousiast about the work of Michiel van Malestein from Rotterdam.

We are very much in the follow-up now, contacting our leads, and preparing shipment of the orders we took. We had a nice booth and a clear message: here is Arré, designed in Rotterdam, designed in Barcelona, designed in Miami, designed in Berlin.

The general public was really enthousiast about the L-shelf. During the last weekend of the fair, lot of visitors wanted to know where to buy it. How can we make this information clear to all the interested retailers?? We’ll solve that too.

We got some critical remarks from the blogs… surprisingly! 23sqstil was very dissappointed about Arré’s stand. She had followed the company, the work of Yoraco in Berlin, the L-shelf, the new products, etc. She expected more from our show. Well, a critique we take seriously, of course. But for us a kind of recognition that make us smile: we have followers!

We have clients. Clients we meet, we meet again, we retake our conversations, we discuss the next trends, the next steps. We are engaged in new proposals, new businesses. We chatted with the press, we explained our work as a new kind og agency to young professionals at the D3… and surprise, some want to be the next one at Arré.

A nice show, a great place to meet the world, to show our work. We are still working hard, demanding the best quality in what we do. Follow up time now!!!

Designed in Barcelona | Designed in Rotterdam | Designed in Berlin

Arré is ready to show the latest collection of designs and products at IMM Cologne. The show is focused on the international location of our designers and brands, their workplace, their inspiration. Each of them, Juan Pablo Quintero, Kellie Smits, Michiel van Malestein, Azul Cadenas, Yoraco González, are inspired by their cities, interacting with the creative partners, culture, architecture, businesses, friends and life in those places.

We like to think that, though it might be irrelevant for some, location plays a part in the creative process. It is the promise of Arré as well, to support those ideas and try to carry the stories and developments that brought them up in the first place. Designed in Barcelona, designed in Berlin, designed in Miami, yes.

But what does Arré? Organises in Rotterdam? Management? carries a Collection? Perhaps a new business model, a new mode for design, our way to contemporary furniture, a different approach. We are, most definitely, working on that.

We believe that we are preparing to become a furniture and contract label. But we are thinking and pondering, looking around and outside, thinking that perhaps there is room for a more collaborative approach, for effective production, for creating good value with these wonderful resources. We have started engaging conversations with our designers, clients, friends, suppliers, producers, design enthousiasts. In Chicago, Barcelona, Rotterdam, Berlin, Vienna, New York City, Kortrijk. Not only because we like to travel (we do!) but also because this journey of Arré has brought us there. We’ll get there.

IMM Cologne 2012, already a good start!

We are preparing a good and solid show for january 2012, when we will be back at Cologne for the international furniture fair. Among the things that we have done was to send Mediodesign’s product L-shelf system to competition for the Interior Innovation Award, an award organised by the German Design Council.

Did we really get surprised this week when we heard that L-shelf was among the winners? Well, yes, a little bit. But we were confident that Juan Pablo Quintero’s brainchild had everything to get through to the final rounds. So far, L-shelf, launched by Arré and designed by Mediodesign, has won its first award. It its still competing for the «best of the best 2012» award, due for final award ceremony on january 16th 2012.

Of course, this will give Arré the opportunity to show L-shelf twice at IMM Cologne, at our own booth and at the innovation boulevard. Already a good start!

Blickfang Vienna

Last weekend Mediodesign presented its collection at Blickfang Vienna, on a special invitation by curator Andrés Fredes.

We had a lot of feedback from Blickfang visitors, other exhibitors and the curator team. Most important, Vienna’s public was enthousiast about Mediodesign’s products.

Juan Pablo Quintero, Adriana Juncu and myself were present at the MAK Museum, a great venue by the way.

We could close some sales with private clients, and we were able to initiate conversations with retailers and distributors in Austria and Germany. We met some good designers we already met during IMM Cologne! we are now part of that world too…

We are expecting some follow-up from this, as we made contact with many private clients whom meant to contact us in the next weeks. Well, don’t forget to do it! We’ll hold the special prices of Blickfang Vienna for a limited time!

SerieZ looking at Medio

still making waves

Another interesting blog from Barcelona is looking at mediodesign’s collection with good eyes. They like Juan Pablo Quintero approach and have somehow summarized the key features of the collection. «Metáforas de la complementaridad» a rather complicated sentence, but still attractive for the people at SerieZ.

Trendsetters?

We got a request from a trendwatchers bureau in Germany to use pictures of the elephant chair in their latest rapport book.

Is mediodesign a trendsetter? We don’t know yet, and perhaps that is not important. As long as we do our job the best way possible, we are satisfied. That’s the philosophy we recall from our conversations with Mediodesign’s team.

Nevertheless, this is an interesting request, a reminder of the unknown impact of what we are doing. We’ll keep the work of Trend büro on check to see what part is mediodesign, Juan Pablo Quintero and Elephant chair playing in the trends of the future.

A succesful IMM Cologne!!

Yes, we can say that. We went to Cologne with modest goals, and we fulfilled all of them!

first of all we brought Mediodesign to Cologne to see what the trade and the general public had to say about the collection. We were very curious about their opinions, their comments, their suggestions. Well, we got very positive feedback, interest from all sides, nice compliments and good suggestions.

We also went to Cologne to multiply our contacts in the european market. That was such a success! We have interesting leads and confirmed contacts in Germany, Denmark, Zwitserland, The Netherlands, France, Sweden, Spain, Italy, China, Korea, Japan, the U.S. and Puerto Rico. In all gradations, from big retailer to small boutiques, from schools to architectural practices, we now have a good base network to develop our business.

In the same line, the press was very enthousiast about Mediodesign. We have a couple of articles in Schöner Wohnen online, before and during the fair, that was great. At the moment, several print and digital media editor have our info, our photos and our stories. Who knows, maybe there would come more press coverage for Mediodesign.

The third goal, which we set up as last one not to bother us during the fair, was to be open and prepared for business. Well, that one was also quite good. We had from day one a lot of interest from retailers and traders in our products. This is wonderful!

Juan Pablo Quintero, head of design at Mediodesign, was complimented many times by fellow designers, producers, retailers, architects, etc. Hard work pays, we know that and we know how hard has Juan Pablo worked. Together with his partner María Teresa León and his team in Barcelona, they put years of experience and months of preparation to make the show succesful.

We also got a few compliments from some senior trade personalities. They said the business is right, the approach is correct and the products are wonderful. Well, we are doing the best we can!!

So, we are still on tracks, better and stronger that before. Arré Design Agency and Mediodesign are looking good.

We still have a lot to do, but there is confidence in our products in our capacity. This post-fair days and weeks are crucial and we are working hard to respond to our clients.

Japanese press

During the official opening day on tuesday january 18th, we got many visitors and many good contacts. We also had visits from the press, the local newspaper here in Cologne, and these guys from Zero Design magazine from Japan.

They stayed for almost half an hour at the stand, interviewing Juan Pablo Quintero. When they were finished talking, they got they gear and started shooting videos and making pictures of the stand and mediodesign’s pieces.

Great! See you in Japan!

First day at the fair!

Monday january 17th the IMM Cologne trade fair started for VIP guests and press guess. The pre-opening! With about 300.000 sqare meters of exhibition surface, one of the biggest trade fairs in the sector. We are in! Of course you already know that, but still, we can’t believe it sometimes.

During the first day, Maria León, Juan Pablo Quintero, John Larking, Yoraco González and Antonio Paiva were standing at the fair. We made a lot of contacts, about 20 business opportunities and about 6 press contacts. Great for a day with limited entrance.

We have incredible attention for the L shelf, and a lot of people stop at our booth to look closely at the system. That gives us the excuse to engage people in conversation and introduce the whole collection, make the contact and get the information we need.

It goes fantastic! So we are really excited about the next days, with the offcial opening on tuesday. Mediodesign, go!

Moving on towards IMM Cologne!

The opening’s day is approaching, people are working at the stand right now, printed material is being finished, the team is coming to the old Cologne, wow!

Yoraco has arrived to Cologne early today and he should be working at the stand, painting the walls, receiving goods and arranging things with the IMM Cologne organisation.

Juan Pablo and María arriving tonight from Barcelona. Tomorrow is the big day for set up.

In Rotterdam, rush hour for our offset printer! we certainly put flyerzone to work this week. 1500 Folders, 3000 postcards, 1000 business cards, it looks crazy, but we are just calculating that perhaps 2% of the 150.000 visitors  would pick up a folder and bring it home to look further…

The gross of the printed material is going by express courier to Cologne, it has been just picked up tonight and it will arrive monday morning at Cologne. There goes the euro’s of Arré Agency, because those express deliveries aren’t cheap! But that’s our work, a long stretch of support, marketing, logistics, phone calls, counseling, finance support, contracts, lawyers, and working with designers!

Soon the blog will report from the fair grounds, on site, at the heart of the matter…from Cologne!