Understanding and using trends are critical for any creative professional or entrepreneur. Trend forecasting is the phrase that is used when people try to tell the future. It is important because it can help you design products, websites, services and experiences that will help to shape the needs of people in the future. This is hard to do because the future isn’t here yet.
Trends in fonts, colours, imagery and layout are always changing. On the marketing and business front, knowing how the business landscape is changing is equally important. Have you ever noticed that the same colours, trends and patterns are usually in different stores? How do they end up with the same palettes and styles? It is because they all use the same method of gathering trends. They hear about trends from the same manufacturers and go out and shop at the same places across the globe. Trend forecasting services can also be purchased for almost any industry.
Here are a few places where you can discover trends to drive change in your design, branding and business:
Digital Culture
This is a broad term, but it refers to knowing what is going on currently on broadcast news, Google, websites and news sites.
Physical Retail
If your products or designs show up in the real world in retail, you need to go out and shop it regularly. Go out and pay attention to really observe what is happening in stores so that you can recreate this in online experiences.
Competitive Research
Go online and look at the blogs and social media of your competition; as it is really critical for discovering trends. This way, you will know what they are doing over time and be able to jump when your competition launches new campaigns, loyalty programmes or other services. Staying on top of your competition is one of the best ways to pick up on trends in your industry.
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