Trend Forecasting at Oltmans van Niekerk
After graduating from textile design and moving to the Netherlands I was drawn to Studio Oltmans van Niekerk as I knew them for their pattern design and aspired to join their team. The studio took me in, but their focus had meanwhile shifted to trend analysis and forecasting. OvN publishes annually two trend books focusing two years ahead. Trend forecast book Vision 20/20 offers a clear overview of world wide cultural, technological, economic and social trends. Colour Flow relates directly to the long-term trends that are identified in the annual lifestyle book Vision 2020.
These give insights into the changing needs and values of the future consumer and guide the designers in their work. Main clients for these books are clients from fashion, interior, electronics, and automobile industries.
Project length
3 months
It all starts with research
Trend forecasting is a process that involves a lot of research and the information is gathered from all around – newspaper articles, lectures, places visited, quotes from people, certain words that keep coming back, a picture, a colour, and many other things. It differs from regular research processes as it is guided by the professional knowledge of previous trends, general societal movements, and intuition.
Imagining the materials of the future
Creating material samples for Colour Flow requires a thorough understanding of the trends and developments. The main purpose is to illustrate and materialise the trends and inspire the designers.
In the creation of the materials, all the experimental textile techniques were put to use. Among else, I found myself altering clear plastic into bubbly surfaces, deforming light-weight fabrics and charring veneer over a gas burner.
Conclusion
At Oltmans van Niekerk I started to understand the immense power research holds — foretelling the future relies on research and adept synthesis of it. Looking back, now that the trends I worked on at OvN have passed, it is even clearer.
The skill, I know I’m the most thankful for, that I learned working at Oltmans van Niekerk must be project management under tight deadlines. The two annual report books could swallow immense project hours, yet the clever project management techniques they have in use assured that no deadline was ever crossed.