Today, brands and products must have emotional resonance to be noticed: the consumer must be surprised, intrigued, fascinated. Wether at a visceral level, through an original or an agreable stimulation of the senses, or at a more intellectual level, through the symbolic and semiotic content of shapes and colors, designers must learn to fully exploit the expressive potential of products.
The recent development of new materials and processes provide designers with a wide array of sensations and feelings that can be used to design new and original sensory attributes for a product. But this arsenal of new sensations that designers can choose from also creates new challenges and responsibilities: as the range of possible sensory caracteristics widens, consumers’ tastes and preferences become more and more precise and sophisticated, in such a way that it is essential for designers to be able to understand and objectify these sensory preferences. The new era of sensory design has begun.
Which smells are to be favoured, and which are to be discarded? Which textures convey a feeling of quality, and which textures feel cheap? What shape can convey an image of youth and modernity? A misplaced squeak can fundamentally alter a user’s perception of an otherwise perfect product, just like a subtle click at the right time can convey an image of precision and quality.
In this era of global design, in which consumers and designers rarely share the same preferences and references, it has become essential to guide designers’ work with a knowledge of users’ emotional and sensory preferences and expectations. Knowing which product attributes are key for a given population, and what emotional preoccupation lie behind these attributes, is necessary to increase the chances that a new product be well perceived by its targeted user group. In other words, designers must be able to understand sensation and its meaning for users.

Alexandre de Rouvray,
designer, human factor consultant

On the fringes of the Milan Furniture Fair, the VIA will present a selection of French design that has emerged from its Designer Grant programme (Carte blanche for Inga Sempé and Matt Sindall + 12 project grants) as well as products by French designers and manufacturers who were awarded the VIA label.
From 18th to 23rd April, 10am – 10pm (late night opening on 20th until midnight).

Analysing and giving meaning to the product, and sublimating the material stimulates innovation and improves the quality of your project…  So come and see, touch, listen and feel an exhibition of more than 60 materials and find out more about a method for bringing sensorial criteria into the development of innovative products.
From 16th April to 14th September.  CTBA Innovathèque – 10 av. de Saint Mandé – 75012 Paris.
Free entry from 10am – 12 noon and 2-6pm from Monday to Thursday.

IMM COLOGNE, 15th-21st January 2007
www.imm-cologne.com

286,000m², 1,300 exhibitors from 60 countries and buyers from 125 countries: these are the figures the International Furniture Fair in Cologne has announced for 2007.  Even disregarding such statistics, it is undeniable, if one has done the rounds of the great European fairs over many years as I have, that this one is still one of the most important ones on the continent.

www.salondumeuble.com

At the end of January, Paris put on a vast display of furniture and decoration.  More than 3,500 exhibitors took part in either the Salon du Meuble or Future Intérieur which were brought together under the banner “Place au Meuble!” [Make Space for Furniture!] (20th-25th January at Paris Expo – Porte de Versailles), Planète Meuble (25th-29th January at Paris Le Bourget) and the group made up of Maison&Objet – now! design à vivre – Scènes d’intérieur – Maison&Objet éditeurs (26th-30th January at Paris-Nord Villepinte).

7th-11th February 2007
www.stockholmfurniturefair.com

For those who like the Scandinavian spirit, this fair is becoming an absolute must, all the more so because it improves in quality with every passing year.  This is the place where Swedish, Finnish and Danish designers, influenced by the powerful veneer wood chain, come to express themselves.  Simplicity, comfort and preserving the environment are the other hallmarks of this region whose harsh climate does not encourage ostentation.

The distance between the designer and the final user has increased with the growing number of actors involved in the design process.  As the designer is no longer in direct contact with the user who has ordered the product, it has become necessary to develop tools and methods that make it possible to inform the designer of the final user’s true needs, in particular his emotional needs.  This is why the CTBA, in partnership with the ENSAM, considered it crucial to develop a new design tool that would make it possible to take account of consumer perception by including sensorial criteria in specifications…

Synthétix is a specialist in new polyurethane-based plastics and helps designers with the development of viscoelastic polyurethane foam with a skin. 
Viscoelasticity is obtained by an appropriate mixture of large and small molecules that slide over each other while still preserving their shape memory.  The supple protective skin is obtained by projecting an elastic polyurethane paint that follows the contours of the foam.
Since it hugs the shape of our bodies and gives the optimum distribution of weight, this viscoelastic foam offers a surprising degree of comfort.

LiTraCon is a block of translucent concrete incorporating fibre optics into its mass.
Thousands of fibres that are oriented depending on the thickness of the concrete help light to pass through the concrete.  Although the concrete is transformed into a material that can diffuse light (either natural light or direct lighting), it still retains all its mechanical properties.
This concrete is situated in an in-between zone where transparency and opacity, between unveiling and concealment meet, and play with our sensations.

The technique of micro-encapsulation makes it possible to give new practical uses to materials through the addition of micro-capsules.  These microscopic capsules imprison active principles (either liquid, solid or in jelly form) which can then be either gradually diffused or released from time to time by rupturing the membrane.
It thus becomes possible to increase user comfort by the diffusion of pleasant smells and relaxing oils.  For risk prevention, it is even imaginable that a material that suffers structural damage could release a strong smell as an alarm…
There is however much exploration that still needs to be done into secrets of micro-encapsulation.
www.euracli.com

The Sensitive Object systems confer interactive properties on just about any everyday object simply through contact.  This technique actually uses a sonar signature (a specific wavelength) generated by an impact with any one of an object’s surfaces.  The information about the impact can then be recovered using two sonar sensors; any material in any shape can thus be made into an interactive source.  For the moment this technology is better adapted to hard materials with a high internal resonance but tomorrow it should be possible to make as many “invisible” keyboards and buttons as required, to move them around.  There are so many possibilities it’ll be difficult not to lose one’s head completely.
www.sensitive-object.com