Design fairs will have to radically change as brands switch to digital marketing channels, according to Sanna Gebeyehu of Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair.
"Really big fairs will perhaps not exist in the long run," said Gebeyehu, who is product and concept owner at Stockholmsmässan, which organises both the annual fair and Stockholm Design Week.
"It's maybe going to be smaller physical events, working hand in hand with the digital," she told Dezeen.
Stockholm Design Week took place in the Swedish capital last week even though the pandemic forced the cancellation of the furniture and lighting fair that usually anchors the event.
The design week took place in reduced form, with low-key showroom events held alongside a range of online activities. Tom Dixon attended the reduced fair as a hologram
But several Swedish design brands explored ways of launching products without physical activities.
"We don't need a design week, we don't need a design fair," said Petrus Palmér, founder of Stockholm furniture brand Hem.
"We realised that we don't really need to pin our launches to a physical fair."
"We need to look more into the attention economy"
Stockholm Design Week was the first major design event to take place this year, with January's Maison&Objet and IMM Cologne fairs both cancelled due to the pandemic.
Milan's Salone del Mobile and the parallel Milan design week, which usually take place in April, have been postponed...