The Set List: Something Borrowed...

Image © SebastianWood

Editor’s note: this blog is the fourth in a series discussing trends and insights into the world around us.

I recently bought my first home - a pretty amazing achievement considering London’s current housing crisis! It’s a beautiful period property, and I want to restore its wooden floors. It's a one-off activity so do I; 1) Hire a specialist to do the job? 2) Buy a sander and do it myself? 3) Hire a sander and get going? Or, option number 4) Borrow a sander for free?

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The Set List: New Rules Of Engagement

Image © Art Wonder Everyday

Editor’s note: this blog is the third in a series discussing trends and insights into the world around us.

In a generation of time-poor consumers, never has it been more important for brands to find new ways of engaging with their audiences. It’s no longer enough to rely on advertising to gain awareness.

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The Set List: Instant Gratification

Expectations of immediacy have never been higher. How should brands meet these expectations?

Editor’s note: this blog is the second in a series discussing trends and insights into the world around us.

“I WANT IT NOW!”

Sound familiar? In our digitally enabled world of instant access, expectations of immediacy have never been higher and the demand for immediate results has seeped into all aspects of our lives.

In his book, ‘The Impulse Society’, Paul Roberts writes that ‘our entire consumer culture has elevated immediate gratification to life’s primary goal”. This is further proved by Kissmetrics statistics on ‘How Loading Time Affects Your Bottom Line’, revealing that 47% of consumers expect a website to load in 2 seconds or less.

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What Is Your Brand Saying?

Jonathan Adler NYC

These days, digital elements and social media touch points in brick & mortar retail environments are as essential as the interior finishes, and should be just as fully integrated. There’s no such thing as offline anymore, and shopping has become a bit of information overload, but it raises another issue for retailers—many seem to be a step behind on the actual digital content and messages they deliver. With digital’s constantly moving imagery providing a platform for multiple messages to be broadcast over a single spot, it becomes a rather tall order to maintain the content and keep it fresh. This is often more than some brands can afford in their operations budgets, especially after they’ve just spent large sums for the hardware and software in the first place.

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The Set List: Trends and Insights for 2017 and Beyond

Image © Gensler

Editor’s note: this blog is the first in a series discussing trends and insights into the world around us.

“The future is already here, it is just unevenly distributed.” – William Gibson

As William Gibson rightly pointed out, no one knows exactly how the world will develop in the coming years. What we do know is that the world is evolving—and rapidly at that.

As designers who plan cities, build towers, design environments, create experiences, optimise interactions and evoke brands, it’s important to us to study people behaviours and decode the trends that will reshape the future. We are a group of people who are curious about the world around us and understand that trends are of course not limited to just one industry but bleed into all sectors of business and society.

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