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Trends – Do we really follow trends or do we just stick to our own style?

As the New Year has dawned, a barrage of emails has filled my inbox stating what the new “trend” for the year is. Whether it’s a certain colour, style or even a meal, do any of us really follow any of these trends or do we just stick to what we know and continue with our own style?

As a designer, I get a lot of information regarding colour and image trends from various sources, but I can’t honestly say I utilise any of it when I am setting my work. This is because colours are usually chosen as more relevant to a company’s brand or the subject of the item I am producing.

Pantones’ Colour of the Year, for example, is Greenery ( https://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year-2017 ); a bright and refreshing, spring-like colour. Yes spring is around the corner, thankfully, so I may subconsciously use it in that respect. But I’m not going to theme my designs around it.

Pantone Colour of the Year #Greenery

Imagine if everything featured the same colours! How boring would that be?

However certain aspects of packaging do seem to follow similar trends. Have you ever noticed how Mr Biscuit Brand 1 always has VERY similar offers to Mr Biscuit Brand 2? Well that’s because they do seem to follow the same trends.

Throughout the year you will notice other very similar offers too; like when the certain gooey centred chocolate eggs appear in the shops – they’re always 3 for £1, or similar, in the run up to Easter.

Generally similar products made by different manufacturers often offer very similar offers at the same time as each other. The reason? To make you stop and think in store, and maybe make new choices for your shopping such as persuading you to choose the supermarket’s own label over the branded label if the price is more favourable and has the same offer running.

Think about it next time you do your shop and note if you make any new choices.

I follow fashion trends rather loosely and I suppose we all do in a subconscious way, simply by wearing jumpers in winter and t-shirts in summer, or by just buying something new from a shop. High streets follow the high-end fashion-show trends making them accessible to us all and allowing us to recreate catwalk styles (or slightly toned down versions) ourselves, at home, in our very own mirror!

Fashion Show #trends

But why should we follow a trend created by somebody else whose sole intention is to encourage us to spend our money? Why not just make our own trends and wear/do what we want without worrying about others?

The answer is because we live in a highly sharable society. You get dressed, you take a selfie, you share it, you get criticised/complimented, and then someone copies you. There you go; you’ve set your own trend without even trying!

I know I’m very guilty of seeing something on someone else and then trying to recreate it at home. But that’s how we get inspired.

Everything around us inspires our choices, otherwise we would all be wearing the same pattern and would walk around looking the same.

Be bold. Be brave. Be inspired! Who needs to be on trend anyway?

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