Scientists have recently confirmed that a fist bump is more hygienic than a handshake. Hands aren’t just in the news, they are appearing everywhere – wrapped around dresses, printed on t-shirts, as brooches, chairs, clasps on bags, cufflinks, door handles, coat hooks and vases. We’ve spotted hands all over the world, on everything from hair bands […]
This is a trend that won’t go away. From the 1960s to the ‘80s, American toys like Barbie, My Little Pony and Care Bears transformed the colour palette of the young wardrobe. During the 1990s, when many international brands opened their first branches in Japan, Harajuku-style fashions were adopted by Europeans, and designers like Servane […]
Craft workers and product designers are rapidly becoming the new elite of the art world. Master craftspeople, working with basic materials like wood, natural resin, wax, stone, metal, glass, leather, wool, paper or clay, create practical objects, as opposed to functionless art. Practicality and ease of manufacture is seen to outweigh the need for refined […]
The Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi sees imperfection as a form of beauty – a product can actually be enhanced by its irregularity. Here we take a look at some designs which celebrate the imperfection of handcrafted work. In the spirit of our previous post, Kaixi Lin reuses discarded materals to create functional woven textiles. Inspired […]
The Designs of the Year 2014 exhibition, sponsored by international law firm Bird & Bird, starts today and runs through till 25th August. The Design Award nominators are practitioners, critics and academics, scouting for the very best designs – seventy-six of which have been chosen in this the seventh year of the awards. The disparate array […]
The second issue of Visuology Magazine is now available to order for delivery in 5-12 days. Be first to see 148 pages of sustainable summer style, with product picks encompassing fashion, textiles, art, craft, accessories, furniture and lifestyle designs. Discover inspirational new trend ideas and colour combos. Visuology offers a uniquely independent blend of trend forecasting […]
Oscar Medley-Whitfield creates pottery from Thames mud. Based beside the river in SE1, he calls his creations Wharfeware. There are many problems associated with using mud rather than clay. The drying out and tempering process makes the mud crack and it can’t be modelled and manipulated like clay. Oscar has created his own casting process, […]
As climate chaos becomes a more regular feature of our lives, designers will increasingly employ icy effects and frosty finishes in their work. The candle holder above, made from natural rock crystal, will come in handy during power outages caused by freak storm conditions. The glittery, paillette-covered bag by Mawi will cast sparkles of light onto snow […]
Pearls have fascinated for centuries and the popularity of the exhibition at the V&A reflects the universality of their appeal. Pearls are the inspiration for one of our product trends for Autumn/Winter 2014-15. In Elizabethan times, pearls were both a symbol of virginity and of fertility. The latest pearl embellished products capture this curious dichotomy […]
The video below shows a small snippet from our latest presentation. A previous Curious Trends report highlighted some of the bee and honeycomb inspired product designs spotted during 2011. Sarah Burton’s Alexander McQueen collection for Spring/Summer 2013 also reflected the beekeeping theme. Bees and honeycomb designs were common features of Elizabethan embroidery. They are now appearing […]