TREND WORK-OUT: CREATE YOUR TREND OVERVIEW

The Trend Work-out: flex your muscles to train your inner trend researcher. In the following months I, trend intern Sanne, will be your trend fitness instructor and give you tips and tricks on practicing trend research. This week I will help you to create your trend overview. Read more and get started right away!

​Hello again! Are you excited to see how your findings are shaped into trends more every week? Good! Because today we will make a step into creating a trend overview, which shows your trend clusters in an organised and concise way. This will be your starting point during the next phase, where you will decide which trends are most relevant for a specific case or project.

One step further
​Last time we made trend clusters based on the key values and needs. That was the start, now you are going to give your clusters a name, an icon or visual that represents your trend cluster and a short description of the key values and needs. What is the trend about? 

It's all in the name
​Ok, maybe not all, but a name says a lot about the content of your trend. So choose your name wisely and make it catchy. Try your trend names out with people around you, does it explain and match the trend you want to communicate? It is ok to look around how other trend researchers (agencies, students) call their trends to dig up some inspiration.

Learn, grow, become a pro
Let’s take one of the trend books I made with a team of students as an example. We made clusters, just as you did, focused on values and needs. One of the upcoming trends we saw at that moment was the implementation of technology in a life upgrading way.
For example one of the manifestations was a chip that could upload the brain to help people with dementia (you can read more about it in the Dutch Design Week Trendbook). So we wondered, what if people without this disease would implement this chip, upgrade themselves to become a sort of superhumans? That’s how we came up with the name: Supermanification. It’s ok to play a little with the names before you find the ‘right’ one. 

How to describe the trend?
You have already written down what the core values and needs are of your trend in words. Now try to capture the essence of your trend in a couple of sentences, so when people read this they will know what this trend is about. Asking yourself why it is happening, can also help you write your description.

How do you decide what visual suits the trend?
Try to find or even better, create an image, that shows the core of your trend. You could choose abstract visual or more literal ones, depending on your trend and style of communication. 

Communication of your trend is something we will work on next time. For now I hope you are exciting to go play with trend names and descriptions for your clusters. Don’t forget to ask others if they understand your cluster, this can help you grow and become even better!