The 26th annual edition of SURTEX will take place on May 20-22 next year at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City.
With some 350 exhibitors and more than 6,000 other industry professionals from around the world expected to participate, according to Penny Sikalis, GLM Vice President and SURTEX manager, the show will once again be a huge event.
SURTEX attracts textile designers, illustrators, graphic designers, fine artists, and other talents offering trend-on artwork for the creation of top-selling products of all kinds. In addition, licensing agents and design studios exhibit artwork from their diverse sources, making work from more than 1,000 artists and designers available under the same roof.
Attendees include manufacturers, top retailers and other product developers from the US and abroad, who come to SURTEX seeking “the latest surface designs to create exceptional products,” Sikalis explained.
“We expect a broader and deeper range of attendees this year – there’s virtually no limit on the variety of products that make use of surface designs,” Sikalis went on to say. “So we expect the attendance to be up again in 2012.”
Invitations for the 2012's designext section of SURTEX, which gives students the chance to showcase their artwork, have already been sent to colleges and universities around the globe, urging surface design students in their third or fourth year to accept the designext challenge for 2012, which is to create a collection of original surface design for products to be used in an outdoor setting in the year 2020. Products can range from outdoor furnishings and fabrics, to tabletop, decorative accessories, wall coverings, floor coverings, and lighting.
Four designext winners, chosen by an august panel of judges, will land in the spotlight at SURTEX, where one Grand Prize winner will be named. During the show, the students can present their entries and portfolios, and network with the largest gathering of professionals in the industry.