Foam & Bubbles meets Bisque
by Kevin Mullaney, on Feb 20, 2018 3:53:00 PM
One of the most eye catching stands at Decorex this year was the bright and colourful display from Bisque. After rubbernecking past the stand a few times we caught up with Head of Product and Marketing Barbara Payne to find out what’s new with Bisque and what goes into designing an iconic radiator.
We are here with Barbara from Bisque and could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
So we are Bisque, we create beautiful radiators for stylish interiors, we have been going for 38 years, and I am not lying when I say we really started the trend for stylish radiators in the UK. Absolutely true. A lot of what we do is about colours, as well as iconic shapes. So we are here for the first time at Decorex and in terms of what we are promoting versus bathroom trends will be textured finishes like greys, matt blacks which we really see coming through recently. Also things like brass and copper shapes being a big trend now. A little bit of a move away from maybe the shiny chrome we had before. So that’s what we see coming out and I think I’ve seen it around the rest of the show as well with taps manufacturers. So that’s kind of the things we do and with bathrooms we have some of our famous and iconic designs, we have a lovely product called the Archibald designed like a coat hanger which is very distinctive and.people really know us because we always look at the kind of details of the product, that’s very important for us. If you are hanging towels and you’ve got deep brackets you can hang your lovely fluffy towel on there and your dressing gown. So that’s why we’ve been going on for so long I think and probably why we’re still the leading supplier in that category.
What’s been gaining the most attention on your stand this year?
The colours! The colours! People know about that, we’ve been able to say to people: “Look, we can literally do anything you want”. If you want something colour matched, your favourite colour, whatever you want, let’s talk about it and we’ll try and do it. We are really passionate about our products, all the people on the stand have been working here for years and years. We absolutely love it, we want people to be happy with them so we want to give you exactly what you want.
Bright and beautiful is that something people want more and more of at the moment?
Absolutely yes it always comes back there different finishes and textures that we can offer. I think that people are really kind of opening their eyes up to, what they know about it they suddenly start thinking about not just outside in the bathroom but other areas as well .How we can stand across the home.
In terms of other products in the bathroom, what do you like to see your products alongside?
Well, I think we working a lot with some top manufacturers because here are some exciting new colour trends coming that sort of way. So it’s important for us, you know if they are going for some furnished brass, red gold or something like that. We want to say :”you can have a radiator to match” and tie in with them. So that’s kind of very interesting following what they are doing and working closely with them.
Where do you guys get your inspiration? Your design influence?
All over the place really! I mean, the basic essence is that we can be at home ourselves so if you think how do I want to hang my towels, what do I need, what sort of shapes would work. We work with lot of designers, so we work with designers in Italy, Turkey, there are some really lovely designs coming out of there and we take the best. I think for us we really want our products to be long lasting, you’re not going to want to change our products every couple of years so that’s really what we’re always thinking about. What’s going to be a design that lasts and lasts.
With radiators I think a lot of people probably go for functionality over form? Would you tell people to be brave or, what advice would you give to people?
I would say go for beautiful and functional, that’s what we always strive to do. We would never have something that looked great but doesn’t really work. So I think you’ve got to find that right balance with with both, it’s easy to go with something gimmicky that doesn’t really work. So go for something you can have a passion for and you respond to and something that is going to work for you. If it’s a big family bathroom, you’re gonna need a lot of big towels. If it’s a smaller ensuite you’re going to need something different so the options will open up depending on what you need..
What advice would you give for smaller bathrooms? Any tricks or hints you can give us?
Yeah, we do a lot of taller, vertical ones. So if you’ve got a smaller bathroom you can have a narrower one with rails to hang towels off which works really well. Sometime different finishes so if it’s a small space you can have colour matching to help blend it all in. So those are the kind of things we look at, or lower hanging ones. With some of our products there are 2,000 sizes to choose from so if you want a really little one to hang you can definitely do that
So we are Bisque, we create beautiful radiators for stylish interiors, we have been going for 38 years, and I am not lying when I say we really started the trend for stylish radiators in the UK. Absolutely true. A lot of what we do is about colours, as well as iconic shapes. So we are here for the first time at Decorex and in terms of what we are promoting versus bathroom trends will be textured finishes like greys, matt blacks which we really see coming through recently. Also things like brass and copper shapes being a big trend now. A little bit of a move away from maybe the shiny chrome we had before. So that’s what we see coming out and I think I’ve seen it around the rest of the show as well with taps manufacturers. So that’s kind of the things we do and with bathrooms we have some of our famous and iconic designs, we have a lovely product called the Archibald designed like a coat hanger which is very distinctive and.people really know us because we always look at the kind of details of the product, that’s very important for us. If you are hanging towels and you’ve got deep brackets you can hang your lovely fluffy towel on there and your dressing gown. So that’s why we’ve been going on for so long I think and probably why we’re still the leading supplier in that category.
What’s been gaining the most attention on your stand this year?
The colours! The colours! People know about that, we’ve been able to say to people: “Look, we can literally do anything you want”. If you want something colour matched, your favourite colour, whatever you want, let’s talk about it and we’ll try and do it. We are really passionate about our products, all the people on the stand have been working here for years and years. We absolutely love it, we want people to be happy with them so we want to give you exactly what you want.
Bright and beautiful is that something people want more and more of at the moment?
Absolutely yes it always comes back there different finishes and textures that we can offer. I think that people are really kind of opening their eyes up to, what they know about it they suddenly start thinking about not just outside in the bathroom but other areas as well .How we can stand across the home.
In terms of other products in the bathroom, what do you like to see your products alongside?
Well, I think we working a lot with some top manufacturers because here are some exciting new colour trends coming that sort of way. So it’s important for us, you know if they are going for some furnished brass, red gold or something like that. We want to say :”you can have a radiator to match” and tie in with them. So that’s kind of very interesting following what they are doing and working closely with them.
Where do you guys get your inspiration? Your design influence?
All over the place really! I mean, the basic essence is that we can be at home ourselves so if you think how do I want to hang my towels, what do I need, what sort of shapes would work. We work with lot of designers, so we work with designers in Italy, Turkey, there are some really lovely designs coming out of there and we take the best. I think for us we really want our products to be long lasting, you’re not going to want to change our products every couple of years so that’s really what we’re always thinking about. What’s going to be a design that lasts and lasts.
With radiators I think a lot of people probably go for functionality over form? Would you tell people to be brave or, what advice would you give to people?
I would say go for beautiful and functional, that’s what we always strive to do. We would never have something that looked great but doesn’t really work. So I think you’ve got to find that right balance with with both, it’s easy to go with something gimmicky that doesn’t really work. So go for something you can have a passion for and you respond to and something that is going to work for you. If it’s a big family bathroom, you’re gonna need a lot of big towels. If it’s a smaller ensuite you’re going to need something different so the options will open up depending on what you need..
What advice would you give for smaller bathrooms? Any tricks or hints you can give us?
Yeah, we do a lot of taller, vertical ones. So if you’ve got a smaller bathroom you can have a narrower one with rails to hang towels off which works really well. Sometime different finishes so if it’s a small space you can have colour matching to help blend it all in. So those are the kind of things we look at, or lower hanging ones. With some of our products there are 2,000 sizes to choose from so if you want a really little one to hang you can definitely do that
