FSB’s showing at the BAU 2007 trade fair in Munich this January was as ambitious as it was out-of-the-ordinary.

The company’s stand concept was informed by the notion that each and every product originating from this eastern Westphalian makers of door and window handles is an original - inimitable in its way: to the highest technical standard, smartly innovative, imbued with classy good looks, and of fine quality throughout. To give the public a sense of just what underpins the FSB brand and its products, we devised a stand concept of the sort used in art exhibitions or museums: high walls plus an intense yet restrained use of colour plus atmospheric spotlighting. The product presentation took the form not of free-standing displays but of handles and hardware fitted to the walls in such a way that they virtually came across as being works of art. Museum benches underscored this exhibition touch and rendered tarrying at our stand an even more enticing prospect. Our presence was rounded off by an exhibition of large-format photographs by Wilmar Koenig from Berlin depicting recent architectural ventures of some standing in which use is made of hardware from FSB’s Bronze Collection.

The brand’s broad range was shown off in four spaces that together constituted a large hall and were variously host to hardware systems for heavy-duty applications, the Bronze Collection, the barrier-free ErgoSystem and the “brand space”, in which FSB’s extensive expertise and, most notably, its electronic innovations were rendered palpable in the truest sense of the word. The overall spatial impression added up to a focused and, at the same time, relaxed atmosphere that offered welcome respite from the hustle and bustle at BAU 2007.

The public’s response exceeded by far what we had expected. Architects, planners, civil engineers, building contractors, fabricators and trade stockists - including a surprisingly high proportion of foreign guests, mainly from eastern and southern European countries - were magically attracted to the “FSB Cube” in a very literal sense. The organisers of BAU 2007, meanwhile, reported that things were definitely looking up in the construction trade: for the first time in the fair’s history, it was visited by well over 200,000 trade representatives.

Co-ordinator at FSB: Matthias Fuchs, Head of Marketing
Fair concept: Schindler Parent Identity, Berlin
Trade-fair design: ExpoTeam Messebau, Bottrop