The Face of Interior Design 2008 - Trends

Happy New Year! What will it bring to interior design? There is an abundancy of trendspotting and forecasting articles and many of them contain some common trends - like the announced earlier by Pantone Blue Iris for color of 2008, (Pantone's Color of the Year Is... - New York Times), now added is the yellow featured by International Team of colour experts at ICI Paints as part of the 2008/2009 themes. "These are not the colors the design industry is telling you to use, these are the colors the design industry thinks you subconsciously want to use," writes Susan Fornoff, Chronicle Staff Writer

I think that trends are just floating in the air and it is the creative people like artists and designers that first sense them. Then they incorporate these into their works. What the agencies are doing, is just to report what they have found (or to try to influence the public). Still, most of the trends that appear are connected with the state of our society and the way we think at the moment. That is why these choices of colours for the year 2008 may have their reason - "Yellow has, almost more than any other hue, the ability to convey a mood of warmth, sociability and welcome". But yellow is naturally present in the flower itself and combined with the thoughtfulness, calmness and magic of blue iris it confirms the trend of juxtaposition of warm and cool in search of a relaxing environment.
On the basis of these forecasting articles and my observations on the design trends that appeared in the last years I tried to make this picture of what the face of interior design in 2008 will look like.

The other trends are:

• eco-conscious design - although some forecasters expect a certain tiredness of consumers from the theme of green and eco- I think that it is our role as designers to help customers live better and promote sustainable design. I like the term 'Art eco movement'. According to Design trends on tap for 2008,Chattanooganow, it is "the same sustainable sensibility that draws consumers to solar water heaters, icynene insulation or vegetative roofs also drives interior elements and fixtures that pair ecological efficiency with good looks."
  
• incorporating outdoor spaces with the overall home design


• mellow metallics: metallic finishes and effects will last long into 2008, but mainly the "muted metallics" that have the sophistication of their shinier counterparts, but are much easier to live with


• increased customization and one-of-a-kind elements are taking center stage - through custom-designed furniture or reinventing existing pieces whether they be from clients' own homes or antique fairs, estate sales or flea markets or


• with the help of new technologies that can take any image and translate it into a permanent wall or floor covering


• combining traditional patterns and crafts with new technologies (example: the 'lace trend' as part of the "Figuration in Contemporary Design" - I am using here the title of an interesting exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago


• the interest in crafts, materials and textures will continue


• intelligent appliances
  
  
  Well, that is for the moment, but more and detailed information is available on request.

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