New York, NY — June 12, 2017 — SURTEX®, the global B2B marketplace for sourcing original art and design, welcomed exhibitors at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, May 21-23, 2017. SURTEX attracts buyers, licensees, manufacturers, and brands that license or purchase original designs for their finished products in a variety of categories, such as home furnishings, apparel, bed and bath, fabric prints, juvenile, tabletop, wall treatments, and much more.
“SURTEX had a strong showing of quality attendees and diversity of exhibitors,” said Jill Campbell, vice president of marketing, Emerald Expositions. “Even after the show, exhibitors continue to report that valuable connections made during the show have resulted in ongoing licensing deals for, and sales of, their work,” Campbell said.
SURTEX welcomed back prominent buyers and manufacturers including American Greetings, Barnes & Noble, Big Lots!®, Condé Nast, Fab.com, Fisher-Price®, Hallmark Cards, Home Fashions International, Kohl’s® Department Stores, Lands’ End, Inc., Leap Year® Publishing, Lifetime Brands, Mohawk Industries, Pendleton® Woolen Mills, RAZ Imports Inc., Richloom Fabrics Group, Royal Heritage™ Home, Simon & Schuster, The TJX Companies, Inc., Toys R Us®, Walmart®, and Williams Sonoma.
SURTEX continues to attract new, global companies, as well. Among the prominent list of new attending companies were Abbott of England, Camelot Fabrics, L’Oréal, Encore Hospitality Carpet, Newell Brands, Starbucks® Coffee Korea, Sports Licensing Solutions, Vans®, Broadtex Group, Rolex Watch U.S.A., Inc., Hunter® Fan Company, Kira Kids, Komar Sleepwear.
Those buyers and retailers who missed this year’s show can peruse the SURTEX website, which includes more than 60 digital press releases from artists, agencies, and global design studios, and 150 original design images in the 2017 Design Art Gallery.
“The Victoria & Albert Museum exhibits at SURTEX because it’s a shop window for us. People come to see what’s new at the V&A,” said exhibitor Lauren Sizeland, V&A, London. “We come to be sure we’re working on-trend, to see how we can respond to those trends, and make things easier for our licensees.”
“We’ve been doing this show for 14 years. It’s our main marketing tool,” commented exhibitor Jill McDonald, Jill McDonald Design.
Exhibitor Donna Skupien, Bridgewater + Moss Design exclaimed, “…I’m so busy! I love this show!” Exhibiting artists were featured in one of SURTEX’s three key areas: Art and Brand licensing, the largest licensing forum in NYC; Atelier, representing global design studios selling their trend-forward surface designs and the Design District, featuring first-time exhibiting artist debuts. Exclusively for exhibitors is ReSourceHub, a section of the show that offered the latest technology resources for every artist and designer.
In the sold-out Design District, over 30 new exhibitors filled the show floor including: ThreeMacStudio, Mellmee Company, Watercolor Devo by Amarilys Henderson, Betsy Barry Art, Bean Dog Studio, Charlotte Nicole Designs, Daydreams & Giggles Studio, SandiKim, Eagle Beak, and Gabriela Villarreal Fine Art from Mexico.
“The foot traffic at SURTEX has been good with a number of people proposing good projects,” said exhibitor Cecilia Fletcher, designer and illustrator at Cecimonster.
“SURTEX might be the only time we see certain customers, especially those from the South and West coasts,” commented exhibitor Dan Nazario, Creativo Surface Design.
Now in its 31st year, the designext® student competition celebrated the accomplishments of four young artists selected as finalists from nearly 200 entries from colleges and universities all over the world. This year’s theme for the competition was GEO, representing a combination of natural geode stones and modern geometric shapes. Art and design students were challenged to create six original designs to be applied to the surface of products and presented as a collection. Jiran Xia, a senior pursuing a BFA in fashion and textile design at the Academy of Art University, San Francisco was the grand prize winner. Louise Towers, Leeds College of Art, UK; Meredith West, North Carolina State University – College of Design, and Cassie Suche, Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario, Canada were also selected as finalists.
Three daily, 30-minute complimentary educational sessions were offered in the Trend Theatre on the show floor. These “flash” sessions featured the newest trends impacting industries as diverse as home and accessories, textiles, tabletop, fashion, paper, stationery, packaging and gifts delivered by industry insiders from world-renowned trend forecasting companies.
Artists interested in exhibiting at SURTEX 2018 should contact Awanda Booth, Sales, at 914-421-3230 or via email at [email protected]. Registration for SURTEX May 20-22, 2018 at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center will open in the winter.
###
About SURTEX
SURTEX® is the annual trade show for the surface design industry, bringing together owners and creators of surface design (artists/designers/studios/agents/brands/licensors) with manufacturers, retailers, licensees and marketers utilizing surface design for product development needs. Since 1986, SURTEX has been the single event and global resource offering the full scope of art selling and licensing under one roof. For Individual Artist, Global Design Studio and Art Agency press releases, visit our Digital Press Room.
SURTEX is owned by Emerald Expositions, the largest operator of business-to-business trade shows in the United States, with most of our shows dating back several decades. We currently operate more than 50 trade shows, including 31 of the top 250 trade shows in the country as ranked by TSNN, as well as numerous other events. Our events connect over 500,000 global attendees and exhibitors and occupy more than 6.5 million NSF of exhibition space. We have been recognized with many awards and accolades that reflect our industry leadership as well as the importance of our shows to the exhibitors and attendees we serve.
More information about SURTEX can be found at www.surtex.com
For Media Inquiries:
Dianna Smoljan
The Write Concepts
708-945-7405
[email protected]
Christie Hester
The Write Concepts
708-268-9222
[email protected]
