What Design of Yesterday Tells Us About Tomorrow
by Laura Gemperline - Senior Product Designer
Which way is the design pendulum swinging? That’s always the question. Every designer asks that, and the answer isn’t always clear. Although design can change due to dramatic events (think COVID), an overall direction will inevitably emerge. Sometimes we aren’t sure it’s real until it happens.
Years of watching that design pendulum swing and learning the nuances helped me become a bit better at forecasting. We see design reinvent themes of the past, never returning in quite the same way, taking the best parts and reimagining what they could be. Imagery, textures, and colors all build and expand on history.
What I thought before attending Neocon: I had ideas about where design and color might be going. I was pleasantly surprised to see some of what I had foretold show up on the showroom floors this year. Here is what I found:
My Prediction
2025 Outcome
1. The most recent iteration, mid-century modern, is driven forward and buoyed by many high-end retailers. Will we see an evolution to the 80s?
➤ We’re already starting to see it peek into view, with new forms emerging with nods to 80s-style furnishings.
2. More browns and beiges will make it back into the palette. Look for a warming.
➤ There’s a lot less cool gray on the horizon. The resurgence of reds, crimson, and burgundy is appearing in upholstery and is peppered into flooring.
3. Can mauve be far behind?
➤ It won’t be mauve this time, but you see hints of it with the uptick in soft purples and pinks. That means teal will be back. Not as teal, but perhaps emerald or ocean?
4. In design, we see the reemergence of structured textiles, built from menswear (hello, Jhane Barnes) and Chanel's nubby multi-colored textures.
➤ There were plenty of nubby-textured fabrics and carpets at NeoCon.
5. Look for more geometric-driven patterns.
➤ It is not quite the same as the 80s, but companies are using tech to create reenvisioned versions.
6. You can also see details echoing the Memphis movement with stacked and bold colors and shapes.
➤ Seeing the soft shapes of recent days evolving into more amorphic ones. Could that possibly lead to more structured and angular silhouettes (a new prediction), but perhaps with a bit more comfort built in, thanks to material advances?
7. Will the Mackintosh chair and the Tizio lamp make their re-debut to a new generation of designers who have never seen them before?
➤ Only time will tell.
In the design world, change is constant; trends evolve and can shift in the blink of an eye. Predicting future design trends can feel like astrology. Sometimes designers don’t always get it right. When you find agreement amongst your peers, it’s reassuring to know that you’re not crazy after all. Perhaps next year will bring many surprises none of us have thought of.
By: Laura Gemperline - Senior Product Designer