So, 20,000 steps, 13.5 kilometres and two sore feet later, the Spring Fair 2016 at the NEC is done for another season. I was there mainly as a driver and bag carrier for my wife and associates and, beyond the inevitable kitsch and distressed homewares fatigue, there were a few things that caught my eye amongst the many thousands of willow wicker weaved hearts of all proportions …

Lit with LEDs

A couple of years on from observing how embedding LEDs in all manner of objects was clearly an emerging trend the fashion has matured a bit with some objects actually looking quite tasteful with a little LED enhancement and trendy lit lettering adorning the cover shot of the show catalogue as well as illuminating logos and messages of stands themselves.

Retro record playing

Hot on the heels of vinyl returning to popularity – a digital to analogue revolution that literally sounds great – the retail industry has been quick to reinvent the styles of record players that were first seen in the baby boomers’ bedrooms and the living rooms of their parents too – and why not. With recognition that with audio in particular, lossy digital formats and loudness wars have diminished the quality of recordings considerably the same observation could be applied to the playback devices themselves which are virtually invisible these days. I’m not sure the same could be applied to the other obvious retro trend of the moment – ‘analogue’ telephones. As I am old enough to remember having to ‘dial’ a telephone number that is not something I want to return to doing any time soon – even for a sense of nostalgic fun.

Scent delivery evolves

All corners of this show appeared to have stands with a product or two devoted to scent delivery – from traditional candles to LED enhanced, bluetooth connected devices. Less than a month on from the potential dangers of scented products in the home hitting the headlines again http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35281338 the sense of nausea and faint headache these stands induced at times with their overwhelming aroma had a more sinister undertone with the latest research highlighting carcinogenic dangers of some scent substances when released in poorly ventilated homes. Anyway, the latest thing being driven by Italian company Mr & Mrs is ‘sonic-fragrance diffusion’ with George – an electronic scent diffuser that’s also a bluetooth speaker.

Drones get bigger and smaller

A good five years on from the Parrot AR drone’s first appearance at CES, quadcopters have grown to sizes that would give you serious concussion and probable hospitalisation if they hit you but also shrunk to sizes resembling insects that could be feasibly swallowed if you were unfortunate to have your mouth open at the wrong moment.

Hand-crafted thermoplastic

I was anticipating seeing a MakerBot or two dotted around the stands and indeed there were a few printing the obligatory chains (an impressive output that demonstrates the amazing flexibility of 3D printing to create interconnected objects) and pen pots as well as displays of some of the more impressive outputs from the ‘thingiverse’ – including this T-Rex skull that apparently took the stand owner 17 hours to print http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:308335. Right now though, the analogue use of thermoplastics looks far more commercially viable with brands like Formesta starting to establish its use in DIY and hand-crafted modelling.

There’s a joke pill for that

The diabolical gift people are guaranteed to provide a laugh or two and amongst the old favourites of the ‘grow your own’ variety was this lovely take on pharmaceutical product display

Honourable mentions

Turbospoke – the 21st Century version of pegging playing cards to your bike spokes to make them sound like motorbikes.

Easylace – a simple, colourful and inventive alternative to shoe laces

Facematt

Gravecard