Design Trends: good or bad?

F

Flora Manson

New Member
Hi all,

I'm currently exploring topics to write my dissertation on, and kinda testing the waters for the various ideas that I have, one of which is the why design trends are follow and if they are a good or a bad thing. I'd be really interested to hear what your views are on in relation to why you think design trends begin, why they're followed, if they can enhance or hinder design etc. One main point of discussion within this topic is why design trends occur when there is such a focus on creating branding that is timeless, when design trends come and go out of fashion?

Would really appreciate your feedback - thank you in advance!
 
Design has always been heavily influenced by fashion and trends as in the most part it serves both.
Giving the customer what they want.

Trends and fashion are just part of human nature.
They start out by someone wanting to be different until everyone jumps on the band wagon and then everyone is the same... In a trendy way. ;)

Some trends are engineered to create the 'new thing'.
Trends (by their nature) come and go and quite often come back again when people forgot about the first time or just want to be retro.

For example. There was the 80's revival trend.
Thankfully this didn't last too long once all the sheep realised it was shite the first time around.

On the other hand there's the current retro trend which has almost evolved into a style rather than a trend.
If you go on design portals and back track through the posts you'll see that it's been around for years and doesn't show any signs of slowing or fading.

I feel this came about as a reaction to all the tech that we are constantly bombarded with as people craved the 'hand made' and human side of things.
A kind of counter trend if you like.

As well as design following trends there are also trends within design itself.
These can be brought about by all sorts of things.
This could be a new effect, font or tool in a software package that someone uses or uses in a different way or whatever.
There's always a spark.

In branding, or at least for bigger companies I think it's important to ignore trends all together.
Otherwise in a year the brand would be dated.
This is why most of the big fish's branding may seem fairly safe and generic and they pay a lot of money for it to look that way.

Trend spotting/hunting is an art in itself as it dictates almost everything.
The way people think, act, and most importantly how they spend their money.

(IMO) ;)
 
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Blindly following trends is a bad thing, and often the sign of a lazy or inexperienced designer. I see a lot of work where I suspect the designer has tried to replicate a style or another site they've seen, but for whatever reason, it doesn't quite work because they don't understand why that style or trend works in the first place.

It's hard not to be influenced by what others are doing and what's popular. I like to think I try and avoid design trends but I'm sure there are traces of trends throughout my work that I'm subconsciously not even aware of.
 
I just do the same old thing. Every now and then I come back into fashion.
Usually coincides with the appearance of Halley's Comet. ;)
 
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