I just spent the last twelve weeks traveling to various cities to explore patterns and uncover insights related to the future of brick and mortar for a new business venture. In the spirit of giving it away, I have decided to share some of the key patterns I noticed. I am in the process of packaging these trends into a sort of “trend book” that I am planning to use in client workshops to trigger new thinking and bold ideas (p.s. shameless plug: i’m offering workshops again; for those interested, let’s talk!).
My travels included explorations in New York, Atlanta, Miami, Austin, Chicago, Denver, Madrid, and Paris. My research focused primarily upon five types of businesses: food and beverage, hospitality, personal care, coworking and retail. Of course, a few unexpected inspirations found their way into the mix as i’m a huge believer in following serendipitous instincts.
Why Trends?
Trendhunting is an important element of the design process, as new forms are almost always reinterpretations of what already is. The designer doesn’t create ex nihilo; he leverages patterns from the existing world to create new ones. If you want to learn more about the power of patterns in design, I highly recommend Christopher Alexander’s book A Pattern Language.
When I worked as a corporate service designer, I used trends frequently to foster fresh thinking in cross-functional brainstorming sessions and shift colleagues away from the most obvious solutions. In building a new venture, I know how important trends are for driving disruptive innovations and that even just one trend can push a good concept to become a breakthrough one. Trends have inspired so many successful startups, among them: SweetGreen (built on the “music festival as marketing vehicle” trend and the farm to table trend), Glossier (built on the influencer marketing trend and the “return to authenticity” trend), and Deliveroo (built on the online marketplace trend).
Two keys to leveraging trends effectively are figuring out which ones are most appropriate for your industry and discerning where you can truly be ahead of the coming wave, rather than just reacting to it.
On to the Trends
Without further ado, I’d like to introduce the four trends I am most curious about after my travels. These trends are the ones that I think are most important for brick and mortar businesses to consider as they evolve with the changing, and increasingly digital business landscape. For each trend, I’ll share a description, an example, and a provocative question for how you might use it for inspiration in your own organization.
Neighborhood Cafe
What would a version of a “neighborhood cafe” feel like for your brand and how might you share that environment with customers? The Neighborhood Cafe trend is a way for companies to highlight their ethos in a dedicated and highly designed space that is not focused on delivering their core offering. These environments provide a sense of hospitality and personality that communicates a brand’s identity. Notably the aim of these spaces is to promote lingering and relationship-building, not to drive immediate sales. I saw this trend applied by several brands during my travels, including Capital One, Merci, Sept Cinq, Maison Kitsune, and most-notably C&I Studios.
I have chosen the Next Door at C&I space in Fort Lauderdale, FL to highlight the Neighborhood Cafe trend. C&I Studios is a branding and design agency that created a performance and cafe space adjoining its workspace to offer public events, performances, and host patrons even during hours that their studio isn’t open. This space helps C&I gain broad exposure and set the tone for how the public thinks about their brand.
Provocation for applying this trend: As consumers are becoming increasingly discerning and locally-oriented in the way they transact, how might you create a local outpouring of your brand that evokes the comfort and care of a family room?
Digital-Physical World
If the last ten years were about the rise of digital, then the next ten will be about the rise of digital meets physical experience. Digital-physical worlds differ from omnichannel ones in that the objective isn’t about switching between digital and physical channels, but rather merging the two channels together into one, seamless experience. This trend has long been a hallmark of themeparks, entertainment facilities, and gaming centers but has only recently made its way into more “traditional” industries like retail and fitness. I believe we will see some of the most unique applications of this trend in the hospitality, luxury retail, and food and beverage sectors in the next few years.
One of the best digital-physical worlds I experienced in my travels was, somewhat ironically, the Dior exhibit at Les Arts Decoratifs. The exhibit was truly immersive, and the experience felt like a transport into a sort of alternate reality that included sketches, photos, 3d and 2d representations, numerous props, and visual and auditory enhancements. Technology was used in a very clever fashion, to enhance, not replace the physical experience. My favorite application of technology happened near the end of the exhibition, where visitors were able to view bedazzled garments up close in an expansive room with lights on a timer, patterned after some of Dior’s Hall of Mirrors shows. I have included a quick video above to showcase this bit of the space.
Provocation for applying this trend: How might you curate a multi-modal demo of your product or service in a setting that feels more like a fashion show than a showroom?
Mixed Genres
Mixed Genres is about two (or more) brands combining forces to deliver a mixed concept that is more powerful than standalone offerings. I first experienced this trend during my August travels in Atlanta. I went for coffee at a place called Octane Coffee Bar in Grant Park and discovered that the coffee shop also had a bakery housed in its midst. The result was a packed space, and a concept that allowed both the coffee brewer and the baker to focus on what they were best at, while reaping the benefits of their neighbor’s traffic (coffee tastes great with pastries, and vice versa). Later this fall I then saw this trend all over Paris, especially in concept stores and I feel confident we will increasingly see its application in retail, hospitality and food and beverage.
Provocation for applying this trend: How might we elevate our customer’s experience, and extend their stay, in our physical environment by partnering with a complementary product and/or service provider who excels at something we don’t?
Urban Extender
The last, and probably least-obvious, trend I observed was about using architecture to create a unified environment and consistent physical narrative that energizes visitors and promotes movement from place to place. I saw this trend in many places, but best applied in three specific locales: The Domain in Austin, Westside Provisions in Atlanta, and Confluence Park in Denver. This trend is best deployed in mixed-use settings that involve multiple players, rather than simply executed by a single brand. It is about blurring the lines of where one space begins and another ends, and making a constructed environment feel larger than life by thoughtfully integrating the natural and manmade assets of the surrounding landscape into the design of the built environment. Urban Extender is not for the faint of heart, and requires an incredible amount of discipline and collective effort to pull off. But when it is properly applied, it will cause an entire development to feel electric. Think about what the High Line did for Chelsea property values; that’s the kind of impact Urban Extender can have for tenants and neighbors.
To show how this trend can be applied at smaller scale, I am sharing several photos from the Denver brand Vert below. Vert owns a coffee shop called Overt and small cafe called Vert Kitchen near Washington Park. The two spaces share a kitchen and are on the same block, but they are not immediate next door neighbors. However, that didn’t stop Vert from figuring out a way to unify the two environments in a clever way. Vert’s designers created a courtyard behind each property that allows visitors to visually wander from one space to the next. The courtyards integrate design elements from the surrouding buildings: such as wood shingles, raw wood planters and mixed-level landscaping. Both courtyards “bring in” the features of the surrounding buildings abutting Vert’s properties, not all of which are leased by Vert, through clever architectural features like a graphic wall, string lights, and box planters. The vibe of both courtyards floats into the interiors of each building, which have a sort of down-to-earth, almost French feel to them: Overt with a simple galley style prep counter and minimalist interior; and Vert Kitchen with a counter service kitchen, limited but cozy interior seating, and cutesy DIY-style decor.
Provocation for applying this trend: How might you unify your built environment with that of your neighbors and your natural surroundings through visual cues that expand the periphery of consumers to incorporate a more 360 physical experience?