Branding Trends & Inspiration

Some think of inspiration as something that strikes now and then and one must take advantage of these random moments. But how can we make these instants repeat themselves more often?
When involved in any design field we are in a constant hunt for new trends and inspiration. Recently this topic has been very present, therefore the decision to write this blog. Some think of inspiration as something that strikes now and then and one must take advantage of these random moments. But how can we make these instants repeat themselves more often?

Nurturing your mind with quality content is key. Let’s forget about what we usually find in social media that’s just a click away, making it one of the most common resources for inspiration and ideas. So much so anyone with a smartphone has access to the same information and creative resources. Let’s go a tad deeper and find creativity in other places. Get yourself inspired by things that are not accessible to just about anyone. Travel, walk, go to museums, visit coffee shops, read, watch movies that no one watches, check out fashion shows, and so on.

This is a great way to keep the imagination going. However, another way to stay creative is analyzing and forecasting trends. The key to this is observation, understanding and connecting the dots of what’s going on around us is how we can predict the future. In broad terms, trends are spotted when two or more subcultures adopt what we at first may identify as a fad. The difference between a fad and a trend is that a fad is just a spontaneous thing that is suddenly popular, out of the blue, but it’s forgotten and is considered outdated just as fast. A trend is something that is here to stay, a good example of a fad is the little moment leggings had in 2010 in the fashion world. An example of a trend is jeans, since their popularization for women’s wear after WWII, they haven’t gone anywhere and they won’t leave anytime soon.

Socially speaking, when multiple tribes that have little to no relationship with each other adopt a style, a device, or any other thing it’s more than likely that this will become a trend. For instance, if two different subcultures, such as hipsters and the Amish adopt something, like the use of smartphones the chances of this device becoming a trend are huge. So if we can identify trends in their early stages we can stay one step ahead with our designs. This is why research is so important, we have access to more information we could ever dream of in human history so diving into the web and analyzing what’s going on in different parts of the world at different levels is crucial.

Through this research, we can maybe detect that punks in London are using leather jackets, but you can also find the use of these in the streets of Harajuku in Japan. Again, the chances of leather jackets becoming a global trend are huge. We can detect the same patterns on a smaller scale in the design world. For instance, if we are detecting the use of primary colors in graphic projects in Spain, India, and Canada this may become a strong trend within the field. Discovering these patterns can open doors to being more than updated with what’s next to come.