Lately, there has been a lot of debate over the future of retail. Where will consumers spend most of their money, online or in a brick-and-mortar store? Are the days of in-person shopping truly passed? A recent survey from ICSC says that Gen Z enjoys both. About 97% prefer in-person shopping compared to 95% who […]
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When researching 2024 pattern trends, a common thread ran through everyone’s predictions: personalized style. Sure, there were other styles and motifs mentioned, which we’ll discuss, but the overarching theme was: Whatever you like, that’s what’s in. It seems like a lot of people are growing bored with the social-media-ready rooms that fit neatly into a […]
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Over the past few years, trends in commercial interiors have seen a variety of changes. Interior designers and architects are making intentional design choices to meet the changing needs of various workforces. Although it might not be the first thing you think of, flooring plays an incredibly important role when considering both the aesthetic and […]
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We have been singing the praises of digital printing for years now. Although it took hold in the interior design market slower than in the apparel industry, seeing more digitally printed products available to interior designers is exciting. According to Texintel, several factors contribute to this growth, including a broad shift in consumer opinion of […]
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Back in September, Kristin Crane highlighted the design and color trends that made an appearance in Fall 2023. Some key trends she noticed included cozy colors, lush textures, and the return of “art prints” on the runways. These trends have influenced interiors over the past few months – with a few additional trends also popping […]
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For BDNY 2023, our team attended and walked the exhibition hall rather than exhibit. Even though it was just a day trip, we packed a lot in (including a visit to the Cooper Hewitt) and left feeling inspired. In addition to having lots of productive conversations with people in the industry, we also paid attention […]
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A variety of sounds surrounds us in our everyday environments. We experience sound at home, running errands, in healthcare settings, at work, and more. Though it might not be the first thing that comes to mind, the importance of acoustic design in your interior design process is imperative. Noisy environments or poor sound quality can […]
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Fall has officially arrived in the northern hemisphere. That means it’s time to break out the sweaters, scarves, and boots and switch from iced coffee to hot. It’s also time to pore over the Fall 2023 collections to see what’s trending on the runways. In particular, what colors are trending, and how will they eventually […]
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In a world transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic, employee health and workplace wellness are getting more attention than ever. According to a 2021 study by McKinsey & Company, one in three workers said returning to in-office work negatively impacted their mental health. With such a high number of employees preferring to work from home, companies […]
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Well-designed spaces in healthcare environments have been known to have a positive impact on patient outcomes. Similarly, educational spaces with well-designed spaces promote positive outcomes for students. At this particular moment in time, many educational spaces are rethinking their environments. As we’ve seen in most public spaces such as hotels and restaurants, COVID forced […]
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Walking the floors of the Mart this year, we weren’t stuck by any overwhelming new color trend. In fact, NeoCon 2023 color trends didn’t feel like a huge departure from the colors we saw trending in 2022. Instead, they felt like more of a continuation and expansion of that palette. There were still a lot […]
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NeoCon 2023 was energized and exciting this year, with even more people attending than in 2021 or 2022. We spent most of our time in the booth but made time to get out and explore The Mart and see what was trending at NeoCon 2023. We noticed three main trends. Trending at NeoCon 2023 […]
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The concept of a space connecting the indoors and outdoors is not new to commercial interiors. Indoor/outdoor spaces take many forms, including restaurant patios, open-air hotel lobbies, corporate workspaces, and recreation areas in healthcare settings. These types of spaces are incredibly flexible and vary depending on each designer’s vision. However, the desire for spaces to […]
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Sustainability is no longer a trend; it’s a priority for designers in every industry. It’s a priority for consumers too. Consumers are educated, suspicious of greenwashing, and willing to pay more for products made sustainably. The interior design community is responding to this consumer demand. In honor of Earth Day, we researched how designers are […]
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Step aboard a cruise ship and you’re stepping aboard a floating city. Like any city, these cities need to function independently at a high level and look good while doing it. We recently sat down with interior designer My Nguyen, who specializes in designing for cruise ships, to learn what it’s like and what trends […]
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Spring 2023 runways are serving the spring vibes everyone craves after a few unpredictable years. Collections this season were overtly optimistic and joyful, full of feminine touches. After an incredibly stressful three years, designers are asking us to find beauty and joy again, even in a still stressful world. There were lots of springy, feminine […]
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Maximalism is coming back, and one place getting a makeover first is the walls. Saturated colors, bold patterns, and layered textures are slowly taking over sleek, gray minimalism. In residential interiors, adding or changing wallpaper can boost a room and make it feel refreshed. It’s also an easy place to showcase your personality. In commercial […]
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In this month’s trend letter, we’re talking all about layered, chunky textures. After years of grey, sleek minimalism, maximalism is making a comeback, and it feels cozy. People spent a lot of time at home during the pandemic, and those homes needed to offer a sense of safety and security, as well as comfort. Many […]
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Education is constantly evolving. That goes for the spaces people learn in as well as how and what they learn. The COVID pandemic had a profound impact on education. As people head back to the classroom, they see it also impacted how educational spaces function. These changes are leading to new trends for interior design […]
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Looking at the analytics for this blog, it’s easy to see that you all love color, trends, and textile design as much as we do. All our most-read posts fall into one of these categories. As we plan out our editorial calendar for next year, we will definitely be devoting a lot of space to […]
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As we unpack from the last of our 2022 trade shows, we always tack stock of what we learned at each show. This year, Design Pool exhibited at NeoCon for the second year. In addition, we also exhibited at Boutique Design Magazine’s BDNY. Whenever we exhibit at a show, we’re there for two reasons. First, […]
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This month at BDNY in New York City, we introduced the hospitality community to Design Pool. This was our last big event of 2022, and it felt great to be back in New York, talking with old friends and colleagues and meeting new people. As we always do at the shows, we also took time […]
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Hospitality was hit hard by the global pandemic. Like restaurants, hotels were forced to adapt quickly and make big changes in how they operate. As we all settle into a new normal, many of the changes hotels had to make are permanent expectations from guests. These expectations are leading some of the interior design trends […]
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In 2020, the pandemic through a massive wrench into the hospitality industry. Many restaurants had to pivot quickly just to keep their doors open and their staff employed. Restauranteurs adapted to the demands of outdoor dining, social distancing, and increased take-out. For many, the changes they made as a way to survive have become permanent […]
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One of the challenges, and opportunities, in healthcare design, is that more and more people are using healthcare facilities. The population is aging, people’s health is improving and they are living longer, and our healthcare system has become more accessible to traditionally underserved populations. More people put more demands on our healthcare workers and facilities. […]
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Twice a year, we spend time poring over the latest runway shots of designers’ collections. Why? Because fashion plays a huge role in setting trends for industries way beyond the runways. Trending colors may not always make their way directly into residential or commercial interiors. Yet, being aware of what is happening in fashion gives […]
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When discussing the hottest trends in outdoor living, Japandi kept popping up. Japandi isn’t brand new. It’s a trend that has been gaining popularity inside for the last couple of years. Recently, it’s starting to migrate outside into our outdoor spaces. So, what exactly is it? Japandi is a cross between Scandinavian and Japanese […]
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During the summer of 2020, people invested heavily in their outdoor spaces. With nowhere else to go, people nested and made their outdoor spaces feel comfortable, functional, and fun. Two summers later, people are enjoying their rejuvenated outdoor spaces and are continuing to make improvements. Our outdoor spaces have become about more than just spending […]
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Trends impact every aspect of our lives. At Design Pool, we are endlessly fascinated by them and their impact on the culture at large. Yet, as the speed of our daily lives has gotten faster, trends seem to be cycling faster too. It got us thinking, how much energy do we need to put into […]
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Walking the floors of theMART at NeoCon, we are keeping our eyes peeled for overarching trends in the industry. This year we saw four major trends: Acoustics, Biophilia, Transparency in Manufacturing, and the Experiential Office. In addition, we also pay attention to what colors are trending. For NeoCon color trends this year, we saw a […]
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NeoCon 2022 was a vibrant and fun show. After the quiet halls of 2021, it was a welcome and energizing change of pace. Though we spent a lot of time in Booth 7–3050, we did manage to escape to the other floors of theMART to do some trendspotting at NeoCon. What did we see trendspotting […]
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Every year, spring marks a time of awakening. Flowers bloom, birds sing, trees grow leaves. Humans and animals emerge from the dark days of winter. It’s a season of rebirth, renewal, and hope. As we pored through photos from the Spring 2022 Ready-to-Wear collections, there was a noticeable feeling of hope and optimism. Two years […]
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Each month we send a trend letter out to our subscribers highlighting a trend we’re spotting. Have you subscribed yet? Some months we talk about a major trend, like all the colors we’re seeing on the runways and sometimes we highlight a fun trend we’re spotting going about our lives. Whatever we talk about, it’s […]
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This fall Team Design Pool did a lot of traveling. First, we headed to Chicago for NeoCon 2021. Then it was over to Cleveland for HCD Expo + Conference. Between both of us (Kristen & Kristin), we traveled through six different airports: Providence, Boston, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland. After a long break from traveling, it […]
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Last month we exhibited at the HCD Expo + Conference in Cleveland, Ohio. It was Design Pool’s first time at this show and we had a great time. We loved interacting with people in person and introducing The Cryptology Collection to a whole new audience. In particular, we designed the R&R group especially with the […]
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2021 was definitely an unusual NeoCon. For starters, there were fewer exhibitors and crowds were smaller. This had some benefits, like no lines for the elevators (or bathrooms!) and more time to spend with attendees in our booth. Though there were some exciting new products, it also seemed like a lot of the product launches […]
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When people think of fashion designers, one might think of an eccentric genius commandeering an entire fashion house, cigarette in hand. Yet that is just a tiny slice of the picture and leaves out legions of incredibly talented fashion designers designing collections for brands we all love, own, and wear. Koskia Bello is one such […]
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This month, as we move from spring to summer, we’re emerging from a stressful and isolated year. Looking at this moment from the perspective of summer trends, it’s interesting to see what people are gravitating toward as life slowly begins to feel familiar again.Not surprisingly, one of the biggest trends we see is people looking for […]
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Our March Trend Letter was all about trends we spotted while poring through the look books from the 2021 Ready-To-Wear shows. As designers created yet another collection in various stages of pandemic lockdown, collections were quite different from each other. However, an overarching theme did emerge: texture. Huge knits, pleats, leather, satin, faux fur. These […]
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In this month’s trend letter, we’re talking all about the trends we see on the Fall 2021 Ready-to-Wear runways. (Are you subscribed? If not, do it today!) We pored through designer look books and watched films created in place of traditional runway shows, it was clear that this season’s overarching theme is coming out of […]
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Kate Huot Bruzzi is a graphic designer based in East Providence, Rhode Island. Throughout her career, she has designed for companies with a focus on branding and marketing. She has skills in packaging design and most recently works building digital marketing packages for businesses. When she’s not working at her day job (or running a […]
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“Trends don’t happen in a vacuum,” Kerry Rowe told me as we started talking about the work she does as a color, materials, and finish design consultant. When Kerry tells people what she does for a living, people are often confused. Color, materials, and finish design consultant, what’s that? Yet once she explains it, a […]
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This month we’ve been poring over the 2021 Spring Ready-to-Wear collections looking for inspiration and trends to share. This year was particularly interesting given the collections were all created in the early days of the pandemic and there were few traditional runway shows. Designers responded creatively in both their collections and how they presented them […]
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After graduating with a degree in textiles from the Rhode Island School of Design, Cathy Wilkerson spent the early part of her career as a designer and then Design Director at Robert Allen. Each season she worked on their ubiquitous color books. This work kept her intimately in tune with current trends in the textile […]
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At Design Pool, we’re a little obsessed with trends. It’s why we send out a monthly trend letter and started this talking trends series. For our entire career, trends evolved in a recognizable cycle. But, like everything else, that’s not the case in 2020. Trends that had been developing for years stopped in their tracks. […]
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We’re always on the lookout for beautiful colors, color combinations and color trends. Even though Neocon was canceled this year, we still found inspiration following along with their virtual event, Neoconnect. We already talked about the 5 big trends we saw in terms of product and manufacturing. Now we’re looking at Neoconnect Color Trends Color […]
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“We believe we are setting the taste of our time,” said Amy Frascella, Director of Colour & Material Design at Jaguar/Land Rover, reflecting on how trend research has changed over the course of her career. Rather than looking outward toward other industries for trends, Amy and her team now look inward. They want to set […]
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I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling like June just wasn’t the same without NeoCon. To try and fill the void, organizers produced a month full of virtual content and events called NeoConnect. We attended a few of the seminars and followed along on social media. While it wasn’t the same as being there in […]
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In our series Talking Trends, we talk to designers in a range of industries, from contract textiles to finishes, to laminates. It’s fascinating to hear their perspective on what is trending, while at the same time, they are keenly aware of what’s a fad. That got us thinking about the difference between a trend and a […]
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Next in our series Talking Trends, Kristen sat down with Mark Denecour, Director of Design, Wovens, at P/Kaufmann Contract. Mark has worked in the industry for over 30 years, most of those years in contract. He and Kristen spent some of those years working together back in their mill days. It was a treat to […]
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Team Design Pool was already working remotely from our homes in East Hampstead, New Hampshire, and Providence, Rhode Island when stay-at-home directives were issued. BUT….our husbands hadn’t been. It was fun to watch them create workable spots in our homes. And then, over the weeks, to see how they’ve adapted to remote working. How did […]
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In our March trend letter, we talked all about color and design trends from the Fall 2020 Ready-To-Wear Runways. In addition to vibrant, saturated colors and oversized silhouettes, a major theme emerged about sustainable textiles and manufacturing practices. Consumers are aware of the toll fast fashion is having on the planet and, as a result, […]
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Do you subscribe to our newsletter? You should! Each month we send out a monthly trend letter full of exclusive content about material, pattern, color trends we’re seeing in different industries and links to some of our recent blog posts. Occasionally we send out other newsletters full of interesting news about what we’ve got going […]
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If you are a subscriber to our monthly trend letter, you have already seen our round-up of the biggest trends from the Fall 2020 Ready-to-Wear runways. (Not a subscriber? Subscribe today and you’ll receive our most recent trend letter.) After poring through photos of fashion, it got us wondering which trends seem ready to start […]
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This month we are talking trends with Kathy Phillips, Vice President Design/Trend/Curator at Springs Creative. Kathy oversees the creative process for all printed fabrics by the yard for stores that cater to home sewers, quilters, and makers, as well as the home furnishings market. She is also a talented and creative woman who has a […]
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At Design Pool, we love tracking trends, and color is one of our favorite trends to track. Color is such an integral part of our day to day business and color trends are constantly providing direction and inspiration to our designers as they color designs for the market’s end-use. Over the years, we have learned […]
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In the latest in our series Talking Trends, Kristen chatted with Wendy Noory, Director of Design for Panolam Surface Systems. Panolam has been in business for over 70 years and offers one of the largest selections of surface options and designs for interior designers and architects. Wendy has a keen eye for design and upcoming […]
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At Design Pool, we know how important it is to stay on top of industry trends. With that in mind, we’re launching a new blog series Talking Trends to give us an excuse to talk to talented artists and designers about what they’re seeing. We’re kicking things off with a conversation with Kerry Rowe of Kerry Rowe […]
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Overview It was another fun June in Chicago! Neocon 2019 was my 20th, so I probably need to stop counting. No matter how many times I’ve been, I’m always inspired and I truly believe the show is still the best way to see all the latest products in one location while packing in as many […]
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