IHFC To Introduce New Designer Preview Magazine

Furniture World News

The International Home Furnishings Center has introduced Designer Preview, a magazine focusing exclusively on information important to the burgeoning number of interior designers shopping at the world’s largest home-furnishing market here. Designer Preview will be mailed a month before the October International Home Furnishings Market to a targeted list that includes every interior designer who has registered at the three previous High Point shows. The new magazine will also be distributed through IHFC’s Designer Resource Center, the market’s media center in the IHFC Commerce Wing and in Designer Preview advertisers’ showrooms. “We saw an opportunity to offer a magazine that addresses the unique needs of interior designers at this market,” says Tom Lindh, who became IHFC president earlier this year. “Interior designers are becoming an increasingly large and important part of the buying mix, but it’s important to understand that they come to High Point with a different agenda than other buyers. Designer Preview will help them connect with designer-friendly manufacturers and more easily find those unique products that will impress their discerning clients.” The magazine will feature a profile of designer juggernaut Candice Olson, star of “Devine Design with Candice Olson” on HGTV and the W Network, plus a wide variety of stories about companies that cater to interior designers. It will be an important source for product information as well. The magazine will also be an advocate for designers by demonstrating to manufacturers that the steadily growing numbers of interior designers attending market provide excellent opportunities for business growth. Beyond the new magazine, IHFC is committed to doing everything possible to meet the special challenges interior designers face while shopping here at the world’s largest home-furnishings trade show. For example, the company has enhanced the Designer Resource Center, a 4,000- square-foot office away from home with computer stations and other amenities in a comfortable lounge setting on the first floor of the Hamilton Wing next to Interhall. DRC, which features a concierge service and highly qualified staff to assist designers, has added the Catalog Wall packed with catalogs, brochures, DVDs and other helpful materials from designer-friendly exhibitors. The center will also compile a list of companies that welcome and service designers, and that require low or no minimum orders. IHFC also sponsors two events at each April and October market as part of educational programming designed specifically to provide interior designers an opportunity to increase their knowledge and improve their skills. The most successful designers in the world have led IHFC seminars, including Candice Olson, Alexa Hampton, Nina Campbell, Doug Wilson, Alexandra Stoddard, Christopher Lowell, Mark Hampton, Chris Madden, Tracy Porter, Mary Engelbreit, Charlotte Moss, Raymond Waites, Mario Buatta, Bob Timberlake, Vladimir Kagan, Lillian August, Judy George, Alexander Julian, Mary Emmerling and Larry Laslo “As the industry’s largest exhibition building with 3.5 million square feet, IHFC is a destination for virtually every interior designer who comes to High Point,” Lindh says. “We are not only uniquely positioned to enhance their shopping-learning-networking experience while they’re here, but we are also determined to do everything we can to make this market a terrific experience for them.” Opening in 1921, IHFC was the original showroom building in High Point and after 85 years of expansion remains the centerpiece of the world’s largest home-furnishings trade show. As “Market Central,” IHFC alone is home to 650 of the leading home-furnishings manufacturers, including 13 of the top 20 companies. More than 2,500 manufacturers exhibit in High Point twice a year in more than 11.5 million square feet of showrooms.