Present &
Future &CO

Interprint & Toppan – trendy lifestyle and visionary products for tomorrow

Arnsberg / Cologne, June 2023. There are trade fair appearances. And there are surprising experiences. In May, the Arnsberg decor printers once again impressively proved that Interprint prefers the latter. There were lots of creative impulses at the Design Post Cologne. For contemporary interior design. For the lifestyle of today and tomorrow. For rethinking the familiar. For this purpose, Interprint presented itself for the first time together with the parent company Toppan. But also with other cooperation partners. With pioneers who had a lot to tell and marvel at. With whom Interprint is taking interior design further.  

When does it ever happen that you start at a trade fair right from the beginning again after you have already completed it? You might have missed something. You want to experience this or that highlight again, in detail. This was exactly the case for many visitors to the Design Post in Cologne. Impressive, creative, playful and trend-setting was what Interprint presented on two floors. Just like it has often been the case, Interprint questioned the usual. It recognized the signs of the times. It showed the possibilities with foresight.  And thus hit the nerve, the heart and the stomach of the trade visitors. Lifestyle competence, innovative technologies and visionary thought experiments resulted in a mix that was hard to resist – and also a pleasure to experience.

&CO – for a new lifestyle

The status quo has never been Interprint's thing. Rather, the decor printers asked themselves the question of where interior design is heading. It has to move. To this end, Interprint looked at areas of living, life, work and shopping with the &CO concept - our living worlds, which are currently undergoing major changes. Co-working, co-creating and co-individualization are the drivers of the moment. Co-working is becoming more and more important. People with different needs and preferences live and work together. Rooms are losing their clearly defined function. In future, furniture and surfaces will have to be thought of together. &CO is therefore freeing the interior industry from classic patterns of thought and procedure. To do this, Interprint gets everything moving. Highly flexible. But always authentic.

In the basement of the Design Post, Interprint translated the idea behind &CO into Connected Spaces. In extraordinary, interactive "possibility" spaces, visitors could playfully experience how the boundaries between the interior areas are becoming increasingly blurred. Pure playfullness. Nothing is fixed. Everything remains undefined. The viewers decided for themselves. Do bathrooms always have to be tiled? Does being sustainable only mean relying on soft earth tones? Old and new surfaces "cooperated" and were thought together.

"I think it's exciting how we seem to be adjusting and re-examining our values as a society. Everything is in motion. The pursuit of a better quality of life, protection in the community and the urge for freedom seem to be increasingly more important to people than the expensive car. As Interprint, we want to offer our customers added value from the interaction of the different influences. The holistic approach is the key for us. What is really needed? And what suits the customers best? We want to understand the changes. Identify trends. Determine styles." Steffen Fillibeck, Head of Marketing, sees Interprint's role as a trend pioneer and style advisor for future living and interior worlds. And most of the trade visitors were happy to agree. The people from Arnsberg are the networkers who attract creative and innovative partners. So that something new and surprising can always emerge. 

New decors, cut-optimized digital print & large flooring prints 

The new Interprint decors were also surprising. From wood to textile structures and stone decors to plain colours. Oak is still one of the most popular woods. However, new wood decors such as chestnut, elm and coniferous wood immediately caught the eye. In particular, the beech decor Levo and the cedar décor Mayru made the trade audience unanimously rave. Stone decors such as Stan and Calia had an overwhelming effect – especially in combination with the wood decors. Expressive and full of character. Naturally cosy. Discreetly restrained. Noble and elegant. The Interprint decors are as versatile as the customers' wishes and dreams.  

In order to prove how good large floor planks look in a bedroom, for example, Interprint unceremoniously fitted an entire room with the Raya Oak decor. Planks were also simply printed in landscape format. This way, completely new patterns can be created.  Interprint has also thought differently or further about the possibilities of digital printing. Especially for industrial production. The aim is to have as little waste as possible. That is why Interprint has optimized the printing technology in an innovative way. Areas can now be used to the maximum.

The Power of We

When creation and technology work together, great things happen. Interprint has clearly proved this in the Design Post. With the close and in some areas visionary cooperation with the parent company Toppan. But also with projects for which Interprint has teamed up with other external specialists. For example, Interprint presented MEISTERWERKE, a fascinatingly designed acoustic panel, as well as the world's longest floorboard - made possible by the seemingly endless decor printing developed in the cooperation.  

The products of the Research and Design Lab BY THE END OF MAY were also worth seeing. The Portuguese were given an exciting task as part of a research assignment by Interprint: How can new design objects be created from the fibres of paper scraps? New design from old design, so to speak. Sustainable. And future-oriented. A project that proves that far more is possible with waste paper than the usual and less efficient paper recycling.  

With the Second Harvest décor print, Tensei, Felix Schöller and Interprint show that sustainable décor papers can be produced even from harvest residues of rapidly renewable plants. In the past,this otherwise surplus material was mostly burnt in a climate-damaging way. Visitors were also able to marvel at technologies such as the super-matt, scratch-resistant anti-fingerprint surfaces, which are produced in cooperation withHans Schmid from Gronau. Other highlights were mother-of-pearl coloured decor papers for digital printing and new thermoplastic MODUS FILM films. Innovations were to be found at almost every corner of the Design Post. 

Into the future with Toppan

Things became really futuristic when Toppan introduced the advanced GEMINI lab. With a combination of digital and analogue worlds, the concept goes far beyond printing technology. Data and people form one unit. And enable the connection of physical and virtual reality. Surface textures and multimodal materials create spaces that defy the usual way of seeing and experiencing. Time and again, visitors could be seen playing with and in the fantastic worlds or feeling as if they were in a science fiction movie with digitally controlled 3D and 4D metamaterial prototypes. How much these technologies will influence interior design can only be guessed at today. But the possibilities are promising, the ideas inexhaustible.

Steffen Fillibeck draws a very positive conclusion: "With &CO, Interprint is once again leading the way. And shows the way from today into tomorrow. Together with strong, equally innovative and creative partners - and with the courage to determine the change itself - and to surprise the interior market again and again."

Photocredits: INTERPRINT GmbH & jankaiser.eu