Last year, for the first time, a Trendtable made up of five European design agencies took over responsibility for trend development. This year the group has grown and become more international. In addition to design agencies Alvisi e Alvisi (Italy), bora.herke stilbüro (Germany), Carlin International (France) and stijlinstituut amsterdam (The Netherlands), the brains behind last year’s Heimtextil trend, Japanese design agency DAN Project and The Future Laboratory from Great Britain have joined the Trendtable.
New Trendtable members from Tokyo and London:
DAN Project is a Tokyo-based design agency run by Dan Namura. The work of the young designer is inspired by the culture of global cities and extends from textile and interior design to bags and shoes. Namura develops smart textiles and colourful, graphic prints for customers like Need’K Textile and the furnishing chain In The Room by Marui as well as selling his own collection under the DAN brand.
The team from The Future Laboratory London develops trend forecasts and brand strategies for customers like BMW, the Gucci Group, Nokia and Gap via their LifeSigns network of 3,000 trend scouts and an in-house team of market researchers and trend analysts. The Future Laboratory publishes a biennial trend outlook magazine entitled Viewpoint. 'THE' is a three-monthly publication for the вЂculturally inquisitive’.
Other members of the Trendtable:
Alvisi e Alvisi have been developing outline designs, colour and yarn prototypes and Jacquard patterns and textiles for international clients for the past 30 years. The motto of the design agency from Como, Italy, is transforming joie de vivre and beauty into design.
The bora.herke stilbГјro (Germany) identifies and visualises new trends in fashion, interiors and lifestyle and creates spaces, which pick up on emotional trends and display them in an artistical way. The agency develops trend shows, product presentations and showrooms from concept to realisation.
Carlin International (France), represented by Exalis in Germany and Switzerland, is the oldest trend agency in the world and one of the top five in the sector. Their key tasks are brand development and consulting, trend-spotting, sector-related trendbooks and customised colour and trend world development in workshops with customers.
The stijlinstituut amsterdam (The Netherlands) specialises in trend consulting in the field of innovative fibres and textiles, colour trend forecasting, product design and strategic design concepts. Their customers are fibre manufacturers like Invista (Lycra and Tactel) and companies such as Asics, Nike, H&M and Marks & Spencer.
In 2008, the stijlinstituut amsterdam assumed responsibility for the contextual, conceptual and visual realisation of the Heimtextil Trends 2009/2010 in the form of the trendbook and are designing the trend show for Heimtextil 2009.
