3 trends in Textiles

Sobriety

Heimtextil is a german fair that annually presents the newest trends in the textile business, which affects many other sectors as well, such as the automobile industry, interior and exterior design and with regard to technical textiles and technologies that are developed in that field we are talking about almost everything that we see and use – Textiles are everywhere!
The first cool design that I have found was this one.

And what word could describe this design better than “Sobriety” which is the actual trend name as it was presented on the Heimtextil end of 2010. To get a better understanding with regard to the textile sector, my Major, “Sobriety” utters like shown on this picture of fabric monsters.

Typical for textile trends is that they are split into themes that kind of forms this trend. The Trend Sobriety is split into 4 different themes.

Serenity, a theme for people that buy consciously and are very emotional in this process. Those people don’t just buy the products, they buy a certain feeling or story that comes with it and fits to their character.
New School, a theme and a perfect example for hypes that were famous in the past and still get the opportunity to work as a source of inspiration for new ones. New School is inspired by designs from the 1950’s and classic nature.
Classic Modernity, a theme describe through nostalgic and genuine products that create a certain style, especially in fashion industry.
Minimal luxury, a beautiful theme that represents the changed mindset of people. Nowadays luxury is about quality and minimalism. Simplistic designs are more wanted than ever.

The trend Sobriety shows characteristics that fits those of a long-term trend – Sustainability.
Words like simplistic, minimalist, genuine, emotion implicates a changed mind of the consumer. We are more conscious about buying products, and if not we are about to be, and what is most important – it’s not all about the product, it’s also about the story, the feeling, the emotion that is brought with it. (If you are interested in this new mindset that the society develops I recommend you the book “Dream Society”by Rolf Jensen)

Utility


This bag shown on the picture above is a product that represents the trend “Utility”.
As the name itself pretty much clears it up, this trend is about products being particularly functional, simple and for the consumers’ convenience.

The four themes that products of this trend are inspired by are:

Makeshift, simplicity and minimalism is everything. Total sustainable attitude.
Industrial Accents, no special gimmicks on the products, which are still successful at comforting the consumer.
Workwear, a theme that supports the manufacturing of handcrafted products that are tradition-oriented and bring certain feelings with them.
Utility Lux, a refined look of industrial and commercial designs.

This trend features a sustainable attitude, which is a commonality with the trend “Sobriety”. Minimalistic and simplicity are written in capital letters, while technology still plays a big role when it comes to functionality of the products. To reach a highly functional product, it CAN be necessary to use the state-of-art technology in this field.
That is why “Utility” also can be categorized to the long-term trend of “Technologization”.

 

Mix Mash

The picture of this “Concreta Chair” is perfectly describing the connection between the design and the trend name “Mix Mash”.
It is easy to see that products in this trend are “freshened up” in a very, let’s just say, spicy way. With the help of using many different colours, patterns and fabrics – a traditional product can be pimped to something that just stuns you, even if you just have the feeling that you would NEVER buy something like this. It definitely catches your eye.

The four themes here are:

Experimental, a theme that is best described with the words eccentric, dynamic and energetic. Experimental also because unusual production methods are used.
Cultural Hybrid, suggests artistic appearance through craftsmanship.
Technicraft, represents the fusion point of modernism and tradition, technology and craftsmanship.
Treasure and Trash, like Technicraft some sort of smelt point between the state of art technology and old methods.

Mix Mash, in my opinion, combines two trends. One of it is individualisation. Through such eccentric, mostly handcrafted design, products of this trend really push the opportunity of the individual to distinguish themselves from others.
And another trend that I see a connection with is “Globalisation”. Why? Mix Mash is all about using production methods from different countries and cultures in order to create something new, something groundbreaking.

Streetgardening – Confrontation with a dentist – Wicked bar concept

This week I was busy streethunting in Amsterdam. In the frame of “intuitive coolhunting” we had the task to look for 3 things that we find inspiring. People, locations, stuff etc. Of one of those findings, we had to make a more precise observation with all of our sense and describe it in an appropriate way.
My approach this time was different. I decided to take a random tram and made the preliminary decision that I’ll get out after 4 stops. When I wanted to go right, I went left. That was my approach – and my doom. I ended up on a sort island where there was NOTHING cool or inspiring to spot. So I went back and tried again. Here are my results.
The first inspiring thing I came across in Amsterdam was a lovely, little sign that was pasted on a window of a house that lies directly at a main street. The sign read “These plants are treated carefully an with much love. Please don’t use them as a bicycle parking lot. Thank you!”
I find it interesting that people still spend a lot of time in gardening, even though you could not call it an actual “garden”. But this little space that they have in front of the house of a much-used main street is often the only place where they can have something similar to a garden, which makes it more of a home – a much more comfortable feeling. I can imagine that a garden is the most-missed thing among people living in the city and that is how they compensate this need of touch with nature. It is absolutely understandable to have the will to protect those plants, their garden, from random people leaning their bicycles against them.
Maybe I am interpreting too much in this, but I find it cool with how much passion (relative) some people are trying to create a better, deeper feeling of home even though it looks just minimalist – appreciating the little things in life.

The second finding of mine was rather shocking than inspiring but I thought about it and came to the conclusion that it IS actually inspiring.
I walked by the “Rozengracht” in Amsterdam, which was a bit further away from the city centre but still a much-used road – for tourists as well. What I found when I looked to the right was a window which had no curtains but a little writing on it, in a milk-glass sort of way that said “Dental clinic Rozengracht”. Behind that window, that STILL had no curtains or what so ever, I saw two dental assistants and a dentist “operating” on a patient. You could basically see everything which takes the trend “Transparency” to a whole new level. I couldn’t really take good pictures, because they were getting busy and seriously – I didn’t want to interrupt them. Nonetheless, I hope you can make a picture of it yourself, IF you will.

It shocks me that people actually go there for treatment knowing that the procedure can be watched from outside, but this idea and the fact that it works shows people that transparency, even where you don’t expect it, is welcomed and not always harmful to the business. The opportunity to watch this gutsy dentist at work can give the patients or potential ones trust and a respectful feeling.
At around afternoon I spotted a little backyard near a main-street that belongs to a café/bar with the name “Manzano” if I read it right. This backyard reminded me of a place that I’ve been to in Budapest a month ago, not really coolhunting, but still aware of the characteristics of this place. Manzano’s backyard has something “urban-ish” which makes it so interesting and that is exactly the point where I see the commonalities.

This place that I am talking about is a bar which goes by the name “Szimpla” and is located in a very small street around the city-centre. This bar is absolutely stunning and you probably haven’t seen anything quite like it. Szimpla can be found in something that looks like a back-alley that you enter through a squalid bricks-archway. The bar is so complex and differentiates from room to room that it would take pages of pages to describe how it looks. Explaining the style is in this case more important and enough.
Imagine a place that is build mostly out of bricks and furnished with stuff that looks like bulk-garbage and basically everything that you would never expect in a bar. Earphones of telephones as a doorhandle, bathtubs and rotten, sorted out cinema-chairs as seats, old 15” computer-screens as dècor AND lampshades, graffiti on the wall, toilets (basically everywhere) and so on. You won’t find any chair twice, every room is different from the other one, split on 2 floors and a backyard that gives you that urban-ish feeling like in Manzano’s backyard.

Reading the above you might assume that it is not a comfortable feeling that gets conveyed there but as a matter of fact, it is more comfortable than most bars. Of course, that is a question of taste.
You also might assume that with all those rotten chairs and bulk-garbage furniture the smell must be awful but the whole bar is filled with an appetizing smell that results from a sort snack-corner in the “lobby” mixed with cigarette smoke and burned benzene from the torches. The room temperature is not as you would expect it to be. Despite the sordid bricks that this building is built of it gives a perfectly cosy temperature to the different rooms.
The cream topping of this wonderful bar is the music that is played there. It depends on which day you are there (and the room – they also have life-music) but most of the time it is some kind of jazz-chillout mix that makes it very easy to lose track of time.
The conclusion is – it’s a perfect place to meet new people or hang out with your friends. The reason why we don’t see bars like this in the Netherlands is obvious. The safety-guidelines are somewhat stricter in western-European countries so that such sordid buildings would never even be considered as a bar.
But of course there are ways of creating something similar, which suffices those guidelines. And I honestly think, that bigger cities will have at least one comparable location in the future. You just need to look close, because this is usually not meant for the mainstream.

On the streets – Thursday 17th

Although a little injured, I am gonna be on dutch streets on Thursday, streethunting. Due to my absence in class today I don’t know the exact purpose of this hunt, but we’ll might be free to hunt whatever is inspiring and visualize it. No trends preset!

The post will be up around the weekend.

Experience Economy – found in Budapest

People, this is my last post in the course of my Minor “Trendwatching”. I have chosen to combine the last Coolhunt which consists of the findings I did concerning the trend “Experience Economy”, with my Budapest post because of my bad time-management. For those of you that call themselves true followers and for those of you who are becoming interested in being one, there is no need to cry – I will keep this blog alive if not necessarily about the 5 trends that you have come to known, but other exciting changes and movements.
You have been so patient and I feel sorry for holding up the actual Budapest-post about my experience there (will be in another post, extremely detailed) so long but this one gives you a short view over what you can expect.

As you can imagine, travelling to an eastern city (or even capital city) will be very exciting because the things you are about to see are totally different from what you see in your near environment or culture. Budapest itself is a city that is usually run down by tourists. Luckily, I was there when apparently no one else was. And still, you could see that the city and its culture provides experiences that you WILL remember.

Armed with my Blackberry camera and the intention to see as much as I can from this city, I walked through the streets of Budapest and found 2 very cool and interesting things. One in the heart of the city and one that sadly was very good hidden (not good enough for me, though!). Sadly, because I think that this should gain more popularity.

Inner City – Experience sightseeing
There are different ways to travel. There are different ways of sightseeing. But it seems as if sightseeing, even in a beautiful city as Budapest, is not enough anymore – it needs to stick in your mind as a memorable experience.
So, I found this guy waiting for customers/tourists (not a good time for it, at that point) in his custom made sightseeing-bike. To make an experience out of usual sightseeing on a carriage he took the rump of an old Ford Mustang (correct me if I’m wrong – not sure here!) and made a special transportation-vehicle out of it.

Getting chauffeured on such a carriage is a way of spending the day, when willing to see a lot of the city. While busses drive pretty fast and serve big groups of tourist, here you have the opportunity to decide where you are going and when you are stopping. Thus, it is cut out for the tourists/individuals interests. And of course, you automatically become the centre of attention, which adds a little extra spice to your tour.

Outer City – Sunny playground deluxe
I felt very uncomfortable while I took these pictures of a special playground I found in a “hidden” district. I saw the evil-eyes that moms were giving me. Turns out that it’s not that welcome taking pictures of a place with many many children playing on it. Lesson learned!

Anyway, this playground is so special because some very talented artists were given permission to beautify this place by painting the whole wall of an almost rotten house (it was not the richest district in Budapest but as a matter of fact, Hungarians love the old buildings and rarely restaurate them – got to love it!). It makes this place a happy place with the sun shining 24/7 365 days a year. Fooling around and hanging around on this playground is much more exciting than it would be if the wall was simply white. This place not only puts a smile on the childrens’ faces, but also on their mothers’ (if they are not busy giving people like me the evil eyes – still shivering).
In my opinion, this coolhunt could also fit into the trend “Cool Relax”. Back to nature, a place where you can lay back, reminisce and watch your children play.

I found an awful lot more cool stuff in Budapest, but it doesn’t really fit in the trends that you have been reading about.
I hope to have your attention again, when I will be reporting about these.

PS. Want to see another interesting Sightseeing experience that is offered to tourists of Budapest? Check it!

Source: Rico Schnug 2011

EmoBracelet against Emo-thereness?

The “Rationalizer” is a gadget that fits perfectly in the trend “Cool Relax” and serves chronically stressed people, managers and even Urban Nomads. And as we have learned during the minor “Trendwatching” – The more trends a product fulfils, the more potential it has to be adapted in the future.
When you are looking for anti-stress bracelets or devices that are worn, you are very likely to find dissatisfying magnetic bracelets that are “supposed” to help the depressed and stressed-out consumer. Very helpful bracelets are not yet existent, as it seems, so every attempt to fill this niche is thus very well welcomed – at least by me.
Too bad, that the outcome of the corporation between Philips and the ABN Amro – “The Rationalizer” doesn’t actually reduce the stress by let’s say massaging pressure points on your wrist – it reminds you to calm down, take a time-out and as a manager reconsider your thoughts when it gives the alarm.

The Rationalizer consists of the EmoBracelet and EmoBowl (I don’t know who came up with these names, but it is actually kinda funny if you see the connection) which are in constant data-exchange with each other. While the bracelet measures changes in emotions and the stresslevel it sends these information to the bowl, which then automatically alerts the user. It all works with the help of integrated LED’s in the Bowl and in the Bracelet.

Furthermore it’s actual a pretty interesting design which kind of makes it even attractive to me. Like my last Coolhunt “The Fluid Smartphone”, this seems like an awesome accessoire, which however is absolutely not the intention of the product. It is strictly functional and not for the use in public, because that would imply that you had to bring the EmoBowl with you and that is just weird, let’s face it!
So, not only is it useful, reducing the stress you are suffering from, it will automatically get a part of your interior decoration.

Source: Philips design