Hospitality Design - January/February 2011 - 45

trends: what’s next

perspectives
By Stacy Shoemaker Rauen

great expectations
With the new decade upon us, we asked three futurists: what’s next?
Turbulent Teens Tom Savigar of the Future Laboratory calls the years to come “the turbulent teens.” “It’s about the nature of dealing with turbulence and how the hospitality and leisure industry will be very well suited in place to be more ﬂexible and adaptable and intuitive—all of the traits that are needed to handle the pressures the next 10 years faces. A big subject matter is around digital and how that is impacting service and preempting consumer needs. The blur between business and leisure continues, and we are getting used to not switching off. What’s interesting about the nature of the industry, from the consumer perspective, the one thing they really prioritize now and I am guessing they will for the next 10 years even more so, has to do with service. The nature of no-frills and stripping back the experience. Not making it austere but really meaningful. “In the turbulent teens there will be a lot of ﬁnancial crises, a prolonged period of sobriety and pragmatism in economics. From the consumer perspective, the value for money equation becomes quite interesting. And there are big generational changes going on. When the baby boomers retire, they won’t disappear, but the focus will shift to Gen Y and Gen X. What they have with them is a whole different set of values, and that is the big shift—more neoconservative, ethical, environmentally friendly, digital. They are radically different in what they think is value for money. What does unite them is that sense of experience they are both demanding. Fifty-ﬁve-somethings carry a lot of design values with them because they’ve grown up in a world of lifestyle brands. That sense of old-world luxury, I don’t think applies.” Designing Connections “There’s a new marketplace that we are designing to,” says Jody Turner of CultureofFuture.com. “We have been playing with the ideas of change for several years and all of a sudden we realize this is a very different landscape today. We are in a time of ﬂux and it will be staying with us for some time: A ﬂux economy and a challenging environmental landscape is our norm today. How then do we design with resilience and restoration in mind? It is the question of the day and many pathways are emerging. The marketplace has shifted from post-industrial to socially crafted—the social connect or community connection is of utmost importance today. This humanized movement brings forward an empathy focus in design: how can design serve us better? How can design bring us together to work on this thing we need to work on and need support within? [The answer is] 360-degree design. We are evolving from designing experiences • Interactive Retail: “Maximizing a customer’s hands-on experience in a retail environment” • Wearable Tech: Spiral earring phones; a gloved mouse. “Designers are trying to merge fashion and function.” • Brand Reversion: “Being yesterday’s long-established brand may prove more beneﬁcial in today’s crowded marketplace” • Real-Timing: “Consumers desire instant gratiﬁcation from both information and products” • Modern Cubism: “A natural representation of the minimalist tendency that is becoming prevalent in consumers’ minds” • Rockstar Self-Expressionism: “The glamorous life and hard attitude of rock ‘n’ roll is revived through ripped jeans and studded jackets, and rock-themed accommodations, events, and artwork” • Luxury Lives On: “Some airlines are transforming their highclass cabins to include extremely extravagant services” • Geriatric Couture: Crochet, embroidery, madcap prints. “Seniors become the anti-fashion inspiration for young people.” • Perpetual Adaptation: “Consumers still place tremendous importance on aesthetics” • Projected Publicity: “Large-scale projections on buildings take centerstage within the marketing realm.” to full on social innovation connectedness and contribution. ‘If my town does well, I do well.’ Town can mean many things—your family, your neighborhood, your business, your country, and your industry. Examples include the radical shifts we see with companies such as Pepsi who claims personal and communal wellness as their driving force (Pepsi Refresh). “The important people in our world scenario are the developing people within the developed and developing worlds—they are evolving the game. Typically the developing world yearns for our infrastructure. We in the ‘developed’ worlds yearn for the soulfulness of a craft culture. The space between is the thriving place, a place where we learn from each other. Looking at how hospitality engages local culture and invites contribution in sustainable ways that grows us, feeds them, grows them, feeds us is dynamic. We are ﬁnding that ‘mutually created’ is the most interesting story today.”

Trending Now
Jeremy Gutsche shares some of the top trends from trendhunter.com

www.hospitalitydesign.com

January/February 2011

http://www.trendhunter.com http://www.CultureofFuture.com http://www.hospitalitydesign.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - January/February 2011