Unilin
Panels

Beauty & Brains: een allround-aanpak voor Unilin Panels

Unilin Panels is not your average client. A company with global allure that plays Champions League in terms of both quality and trendiness. The Belgian manufacturer of high-quality and versatile sheet material has applications in international public and private spaces and offers an almost inexhaustible range of possibilities for the interior designer, contractor or architect. In 2017, King George was invited to strengthen the brand’s presence among interior designers and highlight the fashionable flair of Unilin Panels. An attractive assignment that King George tackled – even today – in a holistic manner: stunning exhibition stands, derivative online content marketing and tight PR campaigns as a power trio to put Unilin Panels on the map as a market leader time and again. We highlight some notable passages.

Exhibition stand at Architect@Work 2019, Kortrijk (België)

Bedazzle with Blueness

King George went for no less than a smash hit as the debut project for Unilin Panels. The brief? Create an exhibition stand for Architect@Work 2019 in Kortrijk with stopping power. Roger that! The King George team got to work and allowed the classic stand with neutral, small panels and samples to emerge as an artistic statement that repeatedly caught visitors off guard. Like an optical illusion inspired by abstract, geometric architecture, an installation made of panels was set up within the stand’s dimensions of 2.5m x 2.5m x 2.5m). Besides the visual effect, the strength of this stand also lay in the previously unconventional use of panels for small utensils. For example, the stand incorporated two stools that could not be seen at first glance and which on top of that emphasised the versatility of the panels.

A premiere with a standing ovation, as the exhibition stand visited as many as 12 fairs and, thanks to its high stopping power, generated an increase in the number of leads compared to previous exhibition stands. Besides physically meeting the installation at several international trade fairs, the stand also made its rounds in the virtual world. A targeted social media and PR campaign created a lot more conversion to the website, which was manifested in an increasingly higher number of samples ordered online by (interior) architects.

Unilin Pavilion at Interzum 2019, Keulen (Duitsland)

Panel Deco

On the second occasion, the playing field for King George’s creative thinkers was a little wider. No less than 600 m2 was available to them to shape their imaginative interpretation of Unilin Panels. An opportunity to impress that the team did not pass up: they continued to build on the idea of surprising applications of sheet material, but this time larger than life. Inspired by the many marble designs in the new 2019 collection, the concept of a true art deco villa was born. An artistic movement that celebrated Unilin Panels’ roots with its rich Belgian history. The temporary ‘Villa Empain’ was covered from head to toe in panels: floor, ceiling, bar furniture, doorknobs, pylons, lamp stands, etc.

In addition to the creative concept, the stand’s presence at the fair was also exploited to the maximum. Because when everything looked deserted overnight, King George’s content team went into action. With precision, they visualised every detail of the stand, not only to provide content for blog and social media posts, but also to allow virtual visitors at home to enjoy all the stand’s amazing subtleties. Think stained glass that is basically black panel material with silver inlays and delicate waffle patterns from gold metallic panel material. Enough sophisticated details to fuel months of (online) content.

Unilin Conceptstore at Euroshop 2020, Dusseldorf (Duitsland)

Shop till you drop

For Europe’s biggest retail fair, King George once again managed to step in and steal the show. A concept store, once again conceived as a Gesamtkunstwerk of mainly pastel-coloured sheet material – a completely different selection of the 2019 collection from the decors used for the art deco stand at Interzum. With the fresh and popping colours, a collection of shoes, garments, perfume bottles, bags and other accessories was elaborated and displayed enlarged in the Unilin Conceptstore. An exuberant experience stand that also generated a lot of buzz online.

Trendshooter at Salone di Mobile 2021

Targetting the custormer in a hybrid way

The past corona years have turned our lives upside down. The same goes for business. To respond to hybrid and smaller-scale initiatives instead of XL exhibitions, the royal brain came up with a mobile exhibition stand: the Trendshooter. A 1980 shooting booth was bought and converted from A to Z to King George’s design into a colourful and attractive trailer that playfully highlights Unilin Panels’ leading trends anywhere in Europe. The visitor ‘throws’ a trend into the Trendshooter and then gets to see it highlighted and musically supported, while in the meantime a picture of the shooter is drawn causing data capture – important for sales.

In addition to the idea and design of the Trendshooter itself, King George also took care of the selection and development of the 6 master trends, the design of all visuals accompanying the Trendshooter, the conceptualisation and writing of the trends, and the copy and development of the accompanying website. An all-round approach for King George with an all-round-profit for Unilin Panels, because with the cost of just 1 exhibition stand, it can now literally tour Europe. The playful and informal Trendshooter bridges language and national borders and was launched at Salone Del Mobile in June 2022. It is currently travelling around Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the UK.

 

 

"For Unilin Panels, we have been exploring the boundaries of creativity in both trend content, activation and hybrid presentations in Europe for years. "
- Nicolas Block Founder King George

Master Oak at Architect@Work 2021, Kortrijk (België)

Grandmaster's move

In addition to the colourful ferocity of Trendshooter, Unilin Panels’ 2021 collection also includes the revolutionary Master Oak. A panel material that rivals and smoothly outclasses natural oak. To highlight the details and finesse of the Master Oak panel material, it was decided to use a marquering technique in the exhibition stand. This technique, which traditionally involves inlays of different pieces of veneer, was used to elaborate a chessboard that folded in Dali-like fashion in the corners of the stand. An effective way of saying, “Sorry Oak, we checkmated you”.

Meet the Unilin Family-campagne / 2022

The biggest smallest interior

To draw attention to the collection, King George was asked to conceive and elaborate a visual campaign. As a kind of sympathetic parody, the choice was made to do the typical photo shoots of international designer furniture brands. Rather than working purely graphically, King unleashed the talent from the interior design cell on a maquette. The result is a sleek design that does the opposite of what a classic visual campaign would achieve: instead of depicting the sheet material far away and thus losing the details of the designs, they were now magnified to 1/5 scale through application in the maquette. This created a very distinct character of the featured materials and the overall campaign image.

King Georges graphics department went to work with the photos from the maquette, creating a catchy overall image and a host of corporate derivatives such as e-mail signatures, communication carriers and, of course, visuals for the Unilin Panels website.

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