At this year’s edition of Ambiente in Frankfurt, sustainability, material innovation, and the impact of digital tools were recurring themes. From industrial design to wellness products and next-gen textiles, many exhibitors and speakers pointed to a shift in how and why we design.
We spoke to trend forecasters, designers, and entrepreneurs to better understand what’s driving the change — and how companies are adapting.
In Ambiente’s 2025 Trends exhibition, the agency Stilbüro bora.herke.palmisano highlighted the colours, materials, and patterns set to shape the interior industry in the coming years.
— We’ve come from a few seasons with very clean surfaces, neutral colours, and Scandinavian minimalism. Now, we look at nostalgia and heritage, we’ll see more patterns, such as tartan and checkerboard, and a lot more diversity, says Annetta Palmisano, co-founder.
And what are the other major overall trends?
— Durability and sustainability. Those are ongoing, regardless of the styling, but the overall theme. We also think about what the other parts of the digital living are, AI, and all the things happening only in the virtual world. That’s why we’ve looked at products that are handmade and very haptic with textures that feel ’real life.’ The really big thing is the combination of digital and handmade, including products made using new and innovative techniques, such as 3D knits, merging tradition with innovation.
The pandemic raised relevant questions concerning the future of trade fairs; Can clients be reached in other ways?
— The bigger companies have more money to bring people to their own showrooms, so nowadays, there are much more smaller companies at the fairs. This can make the visitors, looking for the big guys, a bit sad, says Ineke Hans, Professor in Design and social context at the University of the Arts in Berlin, who arranged guided tours at Ambiente.
According to her, when everything is digital and we order things differently, things also have to be designed in a different way.
— So that a three-piece sofa can go through a letterbox, Hans summarises it. When I educate my students, I take them to all kinds of companies that are on top of sustainability. I urge them to work a lot with realistic situations in companies, to get them into it as soon as possible, not 5 years after graduating. It’s important that we educate people to be able to work on industrial stuff. We need it. There are so many people (on Earth) now — we need industrial things and people who can think about it in a clever way.
Hans blames the designers, media, and companies equally for the current sustainability issues.
— The companies now ask how to get out of the current situation. This doesn’t sound very nice, but I think that in ten years, one-third of all the companies around us at a regular trade fair will be bankrupt. Simply because they don’t know the way out. And it’s all understandable – these companies have people working with them who don’t know where to start. Things have been done in a certain way for a long, long, long time. It’s not very easy to start changing, but you have to be brave.
Will one-third of the trade fairs be gone in 10 years as well?
– Yes. The fair in Cologne has already disappeared, and there’s a lot of focus on smaller events and fairs now, while Messe Frankfurt (organiser) and Ambiente, I think, are better off than others.
The current and upcoming EU legislations were a rising topic at Ambiente, and Vincent van Dijk, Secretary General at ETIRA (European Toner and Inkjet Remanufacturers Association), took the stage to share the latest developments. According to him, the percentage of reused cartridges could rise from 15-25% to 80% already today, for companies to achieve their CO2 percentage reductions.
— This is if it weren’t for technical and commercial barriers. We understand the world we’re in – this does not happen overnight and it would require a full change of market structure and business thinking. Technically, though, there is no reason why not 80 to 90% of all cartridges could get a second or even a third life cycle. It would require a full change of market structure, business thinking, and so forth, and some lobbying circles are pushing to not rush it, and delay the whole process, saying it’s too technical. All in all, realistically, it’d (the changes) be by the end of this decade.
— Large companies are already doing reuse of their own cartridges, while the biggest, with a 45% market share in Europe, has said that the quality will suffer and has told their customers that their warranty will be lost. It’s not all true, but it’s their sales pitch to make sure that the customers stay with original cartridges only.
The coming EU legislations will also create new business models.
— It is a big, big misunderstanding that green is bad. Green means so much new business, so much new technology, so many things that young people, engineers, and technicians will be able to dive into. And, you can make money out of it too! We’re not all philanthropists doing all this because we like to be green. We also want to make bloody money! And you can make big, bloody money if you do it right. There’s no reason why all these barriers exist. Slowly but steadily, these OEMs will come around and realise that the only way forward is to at least support and incentivise reuse, van Dijk concludes.
During the pandemic, a group of French entrepreneurs explored how to reinvent sports accessories. They first looked into tennis and gymnastics. Then, they found yoga and founded Hercule Studio.
— They wanted something usable, comfortable for everyday life that you won’t hide in a cupboard but expose as a statement piece, Elton Buckman, International Sales Retail Manager, explains.
The distinct, wavy design is now patented, has been featured in the likes of Vogue, Forbes, Elle, and Marie Claire, and stands out in a highly competitive market.
— There are a lot of actors, Buckman agrees. However, for many brands, it’s more about marketing and not always the product. We really tried to come up with something that looked new. Something that is playful, joyful with the colours, and with a bit of design in it. When we think about sports accessories, we think about rubber, black, and green. We don’t think about red, purple, and yellow. That’s what we wanted to bring.
Except for the aesthetic aspect, what’s so special about the design?
— It’s for comfort and ergonomics; with the waves, there are also small cushions that support you when you practice. We found out that some people tend to fold their mats to have an extra layer. Here, you have more comfort for elbows and knees, and now, with everybody focusing on wellness and thinking about themselves, the timing is great.
By scanning a QR code, the customer not only gets all the details about fabrication and the product but also access to a digital platform with exercises.
— Sometimes, you have the product but don’t know what to do because you’re not used to it, says Buckman. There, you have the whole service, a Studio Club, and a community.
With the mentioned rise of wellness affecting sector after sector, it came as little surprise that we now see it also in new kinds of beverages.
— We present our innovative new capsule in the health segment, Boost, to get your matcha, beetroot, or ginger shots from a capsule machine, says Henrik Ohlstenius, Head of Business Development at premium coffee capsule and machine brand Sjöstrand.
The capsule is made from upcycled coffee beans and is industrially compostable, which requires the right infrastructure in the recycling facility.
— Instead of buying big bottles that you need to store in a fridge, you can now get a ginger boost shot very easily, with a very long end of date.
You’re also expanding in hospitality and looking at the US. It sounds like an exciting 2025.
— I think it’s going to be super interesting. We’re now rolling out in the whole of Europe, in markets like Germany, France, the UK, and Poland, in the premium retail segment, driven by demand.
One of the clear highlights was Ambiente Talents, highlighting the next generation of designers. One of them was Maike Burghoff, an industrial designer and product design student at Folkwang University of the Arts, showcasing How are you feeling? at the fair.
— It’s my bachelor’s project, trying to provide a good overview of people’s health, she explains. You can choose how you want to use it; the blue part can be physical health, and the yellow part can be mental. You push and pull the elements back and forward every day, depending on how you feel. When you’re in a good mood, you push it up, and if you’re in a bad mood, you push it down. If you do that, after a while, you’ll be able to follow which days you’ve experienced a good time and how your mental health is connected to your physical health. If you have a headache or other issues on certain days, there might be some connection between your mood and the headache. It’s a tool for you and a three-dimensional way to get the chance for a good overview.
There’s also a purple part. What’s that for?
— It can be for a menstruating person to pull the elements down when you’re menstruating and look at your mood during these days. If you’re not menstruating, you can use it for the days when you feel stress. If your mood on those days is not so well, there might be some connection to other things. Then you can ask yourself, Do I have to accept it? Or can I do something to change it?
How did you come up with the idea?
— I wanted to visualise my own health and thoughts. I had all these apps and digital devices, but I needed something to grab. Something more analogue. It’s also worth it to make it beautiful and not so two-dimensional or graphic. You need a three-dimensional object to make it more beautiful and interactive. Every time I see it, I think to myself, ’How am I feeling?’ So it has helped me.
Have you received any interest in producing it?
— Not yet. However, many are interested in buying this demo piece. Somebody thought it was a good industrial manufacturing process project, so potentially, it can be sold very well, and there are so many things you can produce much cheaper in the industrial world, rather than by me, by hand.
Swedish interior brand Klippan has worked with local wool from the island of Gotland for eight years. Two years ago, they joined The Swedish Wool Initiative, where various companies along the value chain — farmers, producers, and brands — bring their respective knowledge to the table, aiming to increase the use of local resources.
— Together, we have been able to produce a lot of new products that are set to be launched, says Pernilla Roos, Deputy CEO. The important part is that we all come together. Our own products, made from Gotland wool, are very, very popular, and we’ve also been able to export them a lot. For the consumers, we push not only that the wool doesn’t have to travel so far, but also that we can trace the wool back to the individual farmer, which is a big plus, of course.
The next step for Klippan in The Swedish Wool Initiative is to help Swedish brands with supplying local wool. At the same time, the brand is also working more and more with recycled wool.
— In textile production, you get a lot of waste, and we don’t want to throw away anything, so we collect it, spin new yarn, and make new blankets. Recycled wool always has shorter fibres, so, to have a nice product, 50% recycled material is the maximum, and we need to mix it with new wool, Roos explains. She adds:
— We’re now actually able to tear apart old blankets that, for instance, have a fault, and turn them into a new one. These days, when you’re supposed to collect all textiles that you’ve been using and make something out of them instead of just burning them, this feels very good.
