Finale Emilia, 1st March 2018 – ABK Group is set to unveil the new collections from its brands ABK, Flaviker and Ariana to an overseas audience at the 2018 edition of Coverings, North America's pre-eminent exhibition for the ceramic tile sector. Innovation, high-definition digital decoration and Italian design are the key qualities of the Group's offerings, which will be showcased from 8 to 11 May in the Italian pavilion, booth #2517 in the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta. Stylistic and material research is expanding the potential for use of ceramic tile and enabling it to establish an increasingly important role in interior design.

ABK explores the many aesthetic qualities of concrete with the LAB325 collection and an aged wood effect in the NEST collection. LAB325 comes in the three different surfaces Base, Form and Metal, part of a contemporary stylistic moodboard dominated by sophisticated colours and industrial inspirations. NEST has a graphic design inspired by aged wood planks that reproduces the three-dimensional details of the original material, including filled cracks and imperfections, and contrasts effectively with the material look of ABK's other collections.

Hyper-realism is a quality much in evidence in Flaviker's new offerings – HYPER, inspired by the aesthetics of concrete, and RIVER, an original reinterpretation of Venetian terrazzo floors. Thanks to a special 3D graphic effect, HYPER reproduces the minutest details of the natural ageing process of industrial concrete, the material that inspired the collection. It also sees the collaboration of Tattoo & Visual artist Tiziano Colella, who has designed a special series of decorative panels as a stylistic fusion with the world of street art. The RIVER collection skilfully brings together surface homogeneity with the beauty of individual fragments, while preserving the signs of wear and tear experienced over the centuries. Micro-pebbles, reproduced with three-dimensional expertise, display long, thin cracks skilfully designed to create a sense of movement in tiles available in a range of sizes from 160x320 cm down to the smallest and most decorative submultiples 10x60 cm and 30x30 cm.

In the elegantly minimalist MINERAL collection, Ariana explores the world of slate, maintaining the strength and consistency of the original stone while using three-dimensional effects to simulate the material's natural unevenness on the otherwise smooth ceramic surface. Ideal for complex projects in both residential and commercial settings, the MINERAL collection comes in a range of sizes from 120x240 cm down to the smallest 10x30 cm “brick” size, ideal for any application including outdoor locations. The new WORN collection inspired by the aged leather of Chesterfield sofas marks a new introduction to Ariana's range of materials. WORN reveals a distinctive heritage aesthetic and comes in a palette of four colours, from intense leather tones through to typically industrial shades of concrete. The collection is available in 6 sizes from 10x60 cm through to the new 120x270 cm panel.