Trend Abuse (and Why Principles Win Every Time)
Pity, trends, chased here and there, near and far, smooshed into odd shapes, interpreted badly, made to serve masters and mistresses without a care for their sensibilities. It’s a sad world, but you wouldn’t know it.
Trends seem to be the great engine of design, inspiring creations meant to tap into the zeitgeist, to capture the wants and desires of the buying classes, to fill pages of magazines and Instagram screens. And, that’s fine, of course. But all too often, trends are treated as the sin qua non of the design world. They’re important, but they’re not—cannot be the end-all-and-be-all of design. Because while trends are great at telling us what lots of people think they want, they aren’t the sole (also, soul) vehicle for our work if what you want to do is help people live better lives. And funnily enough (although not really), that’s what lots and lots and lots of agencies, studios, and companies say they want to do.
There’s another way of course, and it’s the antithesis of trend-dependent design. Instead, it focuses on principles and fundamentals, taking as its starting point the question of what’s really important, really impactful, really essential for those for whom you’re designing and then—and only then—inquiring as to what sort of design best responds to that. It may be deeply trend-responsive, or not at all. It’s putting the cart back in its rightful place.
Obviously, at PARE, we’re principal-driven design thinkers. We believe in, and advocate for, the importance of human experience, of emotional resonance, of a discernable past, present, and future, of an intentional engagement with the world. And when you start to look at problems from that perspective, the resulting work will be fundamentally different from almost anything else. And isn’t that the point? Don’t we want to do work that works, and that is a unique creative expression of interaction between clients and designers? A singular solution for a singular problem? I mean, isn’t it?
The lenses we employ alongside our principles, to see the world more clearly, more advantageously—Respite, Legacy, and Journey—do more than offer categorical niceties in a pitch deck. They shape our thinking, our process, and of course, our results. Because when you look at the world through those lenses what you see is the panoply of human experience, and with that you gain a vocabulary that is at once universal and particular.
The current sturm und drang about where we’re all going post (or intra) pandemic is giving birth to all sorts of trend thinking, most of it depressingly predictable or uncreative. And even worse, ahistorical. Because the message of this period cannot be that we’re facing something we’ve never seen, or that eight months of poorly reported disaster is creating some sort of disease aesthetic that will shape markets for years to come. Rather, that if we’re looking to imagine what might come next, we have to recognize, in the marrow of our work, that what humans do is recover and forget (or persevere and progress if you prefer).
Design antiseptic hotel rooms, or bacillophobic coverings if you must, but ultimately your clients, and ours, are going to want, really want, design that is about them, their experiences (past, present, and future), and that inspires in them not fear or caution, but joy and comfort and hope. And the only way to get there—and stay there—is by paying attention to what matters, and has always mattered. Stay loyal to your principles, to the way you wish to see the world, and your right clients will find you. And keep you. Regardless.
—Peter
