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

Nendo: Product Design

From ceramic speakers to a peel-away chair, Nendo is making its mark in Japan and Europe.

Milan : Poetic : Shanghai

Design Directions

Post

Magazines tend to be passive. We might skip to an article, or scan read copy, but the experience has little interaction. With the launch of the iPa...

Interactive : Meri Media : POST

Design Directions

All About Tea

Tea has an image problem. Traditional tea brands can be too fusty. Contemporary tea brands are too green. How you can create a fresh identity for t...

Branding : Proper Tea : All About Tea

Design Directions

Paris Menswear A/W 11

After what felt like quite a tame fashion week in Milan, many were relieved when Mugler’s catwalk spectacle started Paris’s event with a bang, set ...

Bleisure : Sportswear : Urban

Design Directions

Campaign : Retail Design

Retail design agency Campaign sprang into life after its founder, Philip Handford, project managed and created a two-bedroom flat for Burberry’s ch...

New York : Dr Marten's : RIBA

Design Directions

Truman's

It was, to say the least, an unusual love affair. Michael-George Hemus and his best friend James Morgan realised they had fallen, head-over-heels, ...

Branding : Brick Lane Brewery : Truman's

Design Directions

DIY (Design it Yourself)

Traditional rules of creating, marketing and doing business are being broken. A new DIY economy (as in Design/Download It Yourself) and punk-onomic...

D.I.Y : Hack : Open-source

Design Directions

Heimtextil Trends Forum

Textile trends could be experienced as well as seen at this year’s Heimtextil trade show in Frankfurt. This was thanks to the innovative way in whi...

Architecture : Trend Forum : Structure

Design Directions

Milan Menswear A/W 11

This season the designers at Milan Menswear Fashion Week opted for a distinctly low-key, back-to-basics approach to their collections. The buzzword...

Heritage : Authentic : New Gents

Design Directions

Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec: Product Design

Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec are Paris-based product and interior designers, whose work achieves refined simplicity and playful clarity. ‘Few people ...

Paris : Magis : Modernism

Design Directions

Barbour Rewaxing

If you had walked past the Lark menswear store in Vancouver before Christmas last year, you might have witnessed a curious sight. Throughout Decemb...

Craft : Mending : Rewaxing

Design Directions

Amalgamate

Amalgamate offers a decorative and artful way for consumers to defy fast-turnaround trends by choosing thoughtful, collaged designs. In a move away...

Collage : Geo Luxe : Texture

Design Directions

132 5 Issey Miyake

Taking the Super-Minimalist approach to design to its logical conclusion, each of the garments in Issey Miyake’s 132 5 collection unfold ...

Craft : Reality Lab : 132 5 Collection

Design Directions

Trad-Modern

Men are increasingly concerned with sartorial style, connoisseurship and grooming, as seen in our New Gents tribe, creating a desire for packaging ...

New Gents : Typography : Nostalgic

Design Directions

Anthony Burrill : Graphic Art

The work of graphic artist Anthony Burrill is very positive. Pieces are bold, witty and usually packed with double meaning. His illustrations for T...

London : Poster : Type

Design Directions

Puma Creative Factory

New Millennials want to mod, hack and customise their products. And as a result, brands have responded with webstores that let people personalise t...

Design : Shoe : Mumbai

Design Directions

Solid Clarity

Even through the difficult financial times in recent years, consumers have built an ethical self-image and demanded concrete quality. The focus is ...

Surface : Concrete : Sanaa

Design Directions

Idyllic

As explored in our Rurban macrotrend, urban residents are adopting more rural ways of living. Urban homes increasingly feature rural craft objects ...

Luxury : Minimal : Craft

Design Directions

Scholten & Baijings : Product Design

Scholten & Baijings describe their design signature as ‘fusing traditional crafts with new industrial techniques’. For their Woven Willow collectio...

Colour : Glass : Revivalism

Design Directions

Hoxton Street Monster Supplies

At first glance, Hoxton Street Monster Supplies in London looks like a trendy farm shop. Dark wooden shelves are filled with what appear to be jars...