The brief to address trendtalk #7 at the Plascon Auditorium last week led to three speakers in the Cape Town design industry approach design trendspotting from three very different perspectives, addressing  the theme of  ‘Reflections on the Future’.   Attending the Bloggers’ evening at the new I ♥ my Laundry branch on Bree Street last night, I saw how their bold use of orange is spot on trend, a colour they already chose when they opened on Buitengracht Street 19 months ago. Orange was described as a bright and cheerful colour which does not overwhelm and which works well in ‘dark moody spaces’.

#trendtalk was conceptualised by Lauren Shantall of Inhouse Brand Architects, and four design and decor trend talks are held in the Cape Town city centre per year.

1.  Laurence Brick, co-founder of Loads of Living, spoke mainly about trends in interior home design, reflecting that consumers evolve, and feed each other with creative ideas, mainly seen on Social Media:

*   The kitchen is the new lounge, where one entertains friends and gathers as a family.  The design of the kitchen matches the artisanal fresh food which is on trend.

*   Textiles chosen for interiors have texture, and reflect honesty and integrity in how they are made.

*   Lighting has become very industrial and sculptural, ‘as good as art‘, with bare lightbulbs for example.

*  There are open wall-less spaces in homes, yet there are ‘sections with intimacy‘

*  Raised surfaces are created on walls of all rooms, and geometric textures as well as designs are very trendy.

*   Neon highlighters add a modern touch to traditional objects, and so they can be woven into baskets, bowls, and added to tables.  This makes everyday objects more exciting.   This can be incorporated into chair design as well, as John Vogel has done with his Stitch chair for Ellerman House.  Woven baskets with neon tape can become lampshades.

*   There is a move away from steel, with surfaces being warmer, including wood, and brass, which changes its patina over time. The Ellerman House cellar is being done in brass and bronze, creating a continuously changing colour.

*   In addition to orange, pastels are making a comeback, no longer seen to be old fashioned, and being light, embracing, soft, and simple.   The 2014 Plascon colour palette includes pastels, used in a contemporary way.  Colours can be merged, and should not be ‘siloed’.   

*   Styling is less repetitive, balance in having a number of the same items on a table or on a shelf no longer important.  The challenge is for the decorator to combine random items and create harmony and to express one’s own individuality with them. Painting on cupboard doors is the new art, it no longer having to be in a frame to be enjoyed and displayed.  Books are no longer neatly stacked on coffee tables, but spread out on the table, looking like ‘organised chaos’.  

*   Tiles are geometric for flooring, and Tashas coffee shops’ floor tiles are a unique design that create a homeliness, changing in colour on the floor from pale blue to pale pink. The flooring has become a trademark design for the coffee shops, yet the other elements give the decor of each branch individuality.

*   Kitchens become ‘laboratories‘, spaces in which one grows plants or hangs those from Opus, giving meaning to one’s life and interior.  ‘Guerilla gardening’ is an interesting concept, an example being a Dublin restaurant having contracted with run down houses in its street to grow vegetables and herbs on its behalf; Tasha contracting with a car guard at Constantia Village, who has turned an open field near the shopping centre into a vegetable and herb garden; and the by now well-known Oranjezicht city farm.   Food is more wood-fired, and more honest, less structured, and comes from neighbourhood markets which are growing in number in Cape Town in particular, showing that consumers want to make a difference  and that they worry about the world.  Food styling is more loose and honest.

2.  Cara Siegers from Inhouse Brand Architects, whose design of Orphanage Bar led to an award by Conde Nast Traveler as one of the best in the world, shared impressions from a recent trip to London and New York.  She identified the following trends:

*   3D printing, allowing one to print on any surface at home, it not being difficult to use the technology.  A 3D house has even been designed in Amsterdam.

*   Timber is reinvented solid pieces, and a bench created with a look of deep button cushions, for example.  Hard surfaces are softened, and plywood is woven into chairs.

*   Innovative products are being created, and we were shown a keyboard hand crafted from wood, each key working perfectly, with the mouse made from wood too.  The old is being reinvented for new uses.

*   Playful design, the shadow chair illustrating this trend, being a solid moulded piece with a stainless steel ‘shadow‘ to create balance.

*   Creative parks in a social context, the Chelsea Highline park in New York being an example of how city residents go there to draw, read, sit, reflect, and to enjoy the coffee shops, beer gardens, and restaurants, similar to our Woodstock.

3.   Lianne Burton, a past editor of Elle Decoration, and is now an ‘accidental curator of words, images and ideas’, she says of herself.   She is a very keen Pinterest fan, and uses the collection of pictures to identify trends, which she says come ‘from the streets’, and are spread virally:

*   She shared the story of Zombie Boy, a tattooed cancer sufferer, who became a cult model, and launched beauty products and energy drinks in his name.

*   We are from the ‘Urban Millenium’, having grown up from cities. We are integrating Human Nature with Urban Nature.  She shared the London Underground map in the shape of a skeleton, giving a feeling of mortality, life passing by so quickly.

*   Crystals are big, reflected in architecture, in bold public art, and in jewellery. They can also be seen in the fragility of public art, as an ice structure.  Crystalline and hexagonal forms lead.  Geometrics will not go away.  Coal will become the new diamonds, as it become scarcer.

*   Graffiti and street art will be incorporated into fashion.

*   Carpets are being designed with deliberate glitches woven into them.

Design is poignant and poetic, we were told in conclusion.   Given Cape Town’s status as World Design Capital 2014 we are no doubt in for a feast of design inspiration in the next year.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: WhaleCottage