NeoCon 2025 Trends, a Snapshot

The Design Pool team was not at NeoCon this year. We were, however, following along on Instagram, reading the Dailies, and seeking out blog posts by people sharing their experiences. Thank you to everyone who shared what you were seeing! We enjoyed living vicariously through you as you roamed the halls of The Mart. Even though we weren’t there, it gave us a snapshot of the NeoCon 2025 trends.

As I’ve pored over everyone’s content, four NeoCon 2025 trends stood out to me.

The Evolving Office
When the pandemic hit, everyone wondered if the office experience was over. Then companies tried to woo workers back to the office. Five years on, it’s clear that the idea of the office is constantly evolving. There is no right answer for every person or every company. Companies and the designers creating their spaces are embracing this evolution and realizing that spaces need to be adaptable. Likewise, companies and their employees need to be fluid.

We saw this trend expressed particularly in modular pieces that are moveable and easily adaptable. Also, the integration of technology continues to expand to accommodate people working remotely or in the office.

Texture
Speaking of technology, it’s safe to say that we all spend way too much time on our screens, limiting our tactile experiences. Yet, feeling the world around us is one of the ways we understand it. Anni Albers famously wrote in her essay Tactile Sensibility, “We touch things to assure ourselves of reality. We touch the objects of our love. We touch the things we form. Our tactile experiences are elemental. If we reduce their range, as we do when we reduce the necessity to form things ourselves, we grow lopsided.”

Companies seem to be tapping into our cultural lopsidedness and general desire for textures beyond the smoothness of our keyboards and our screens. Highly textured boucle and chenille upholstery fabrics were in many showrooms, as well as richly textured carpets and flooring such as those by Mohawk. Natural materials were also a part of this category, adding the feel of the natural world to our environments.

Acoustic Décor
Each year, products in the acoustic category get better and better looking. In 2021, it felt like this category was all just felt walls. Now, people are making acoustic solutions look more stylish and sophisticated. For example, the Carnegie Cumulus 3D Clouds are so charming you’d never know their real purpose was to soften the sound.

Biodegradable Vinyl
In recent years, there have been an increasing number of examples of manufacturers paying attention to the entire life cycle of a product. This year, companies such as Mayer and Pallas were both using a biodegradable vinyl, Hyphyn, in their collections. This product is made with a proprietary enzyme system that makes the vinyl degrade 90% within 2 months in a landfill. This material promises the same performance and durability as other vinyls and can be printed with patterns so that no one needs to sacrifice on aesthetics.

How does the Design Pool Pattern Library fit in with these trends?

The Design Pool pattern library is full of hundreds of designs, all created with the interior design market in mind. Designers have licensed our patterns to print on a range of products, including acoustic panels and PVC-free vinyls. In addition, many of our patterns contain our signature texture to add visual texture to materials that need to be smooth, such as upholstery for healthcare facilities.

Get started today searching our library and choose your favorite pattern to license today.