Design Directions

Translating consumer trends into actionable designs, colour palettes and materials.

Biofabricated Futures

A revolutionary sustainability breakthrough, biofabrication is the engineering of biological products. This report explores its market evolution and future potential in transforming materials to drive commercial success

Design Directions

Design Directions

Industrial Futurism

As storytelling and fantasy emerge as increasingly important ways to engage consumers, designers are seeking inspiration from science fiction.

Sci-fi : Storytelling : Metropolis

Design Directions

Field Guide

The battle for attention between print and online mediums has been raging since the internet began. As the web pushes print to the fringes, an exhi...

London : Tom Metcalfe : FiledGuide

Design Directions

Milan womenswear S/S 2013

The spring/summer 2013 collections at Milan Fashion Week this year offered a nostalgic and global view of current fashion trends. The 60s proved po...

Sci-fi : 1960's : Pop Art

Design Directions

Studio Arhøj: Design Studio

Studio Arh¿j: Design Studio

Craft : Music : Ceramics

Design Directions

Kopiaste

It is not often that the worlds of design and global economics collide, but with the Eurozone at the centre of the latest chapter in the financial ...

Design : Financial Trouble : Greek Culture

Design Directions

London womenswear S/S 2013

The spring/summer 2013 collections in London played with colours, textiles and nostalgia to create a vibrant and whimsical mood. This season a 90s ...

Sportswear : Minimal Luxury : Teen

Design Directions

London Design Festival 2012

This year the London Design Festival (LDF) offered a diverse range of new work. Small design objects were presented alongside an assortment of furn...

Flexthetics : Galactic : Re-enlightenment

Design Directions

The Monument

Every object tells a story. Swedish Royal College of Art graduate Hilda Hellström has taken this ethos to its ultimate degree with her latest proje...

Craft : The Monument : Hilda Hellstrom

Design Directions

New York womenswear S/S 2013

The spring/summer 2013 collections in New York were presented in a contemporary feminine form that played with colour and experimented with textile...

Optical Illusion : 1960's : Sportswear

Design Directions

Épatant

Aesop founder Dennis Paphitis has already broken the mould of how prestige beauty shops should look with Aesop’s high-design, unique-every-time sto...

Shopping : Hangout : Dennis Paphitis

Design Directions

Maison et Objet 2012

The second Maison & Objet of 2012 was a playful and evocative event. In the autumn/winter show in Paris colour palettes remained vibrant, but desig...

Surreal : Black Magic : Haptic Illusion

Design Directions

Yayoi Kusama for Louis Vuitton

Brand collaborations are two a penny these days, but Louis Vuitton is taking a fresh approach to the idea. In a partnership with Japanese artist Ya...

Louis Vuitton : Video Game : Storytelling

Design Directions

Christoffer Rudquist: Photography

As consumers become increasingly interested in the provenance of design and production, brands are expected to demonstrate a willingness to share. ...

Transparency : BMW : Photography

Design Directions

BeautyMart

It’s become a well-trodden path in fashion retail now — hiring a big-name consumer magazine editor to create magazine-style content to drive traffi...

Cosmetics : Anna-Marie Solowij : Recommendation

Design Directions

Hyper-reality

As explored in Faction Marketing, industries are blurring the lines between fact and fiction to create a credible, enticing faction landscape that ...

Fiction : Second Life : Graphics

Design Directions

Buijtenkeuken

Times are tough for farmers living and working in the rural area of Rhoon in the Netherlands. In a bid to rejuvenate the region and to help farmers...

Heritage : Boiler House : Studio Elmo Vermijs

Design Directions

Anagrama: branding

Food : New Luxury Millennials : Graphic Design

Design Directions

Social Samba

Transmedia storytelling has become the buzz phrase in the entertainment industry. Companies are rushing to introduce multi-channel, interactive soc...

Entertainment : California : Start-up

Design Directions

Electric City

In advertising, the message must always fit the medium. As new mediums arrive, it takes marketers time to live up to this statement. There are stil...

Advertising : Reliance Entertainment : Playtone

Design Directions

Emblematic

As consumers seek design that cuts through the stuffocation of everyday life, so designers are playing on the idea of instant recognition by incorp...

Symbolism : Logo : Graphic Identities