Product design is influenced by trends coming out of Europe, fashion and home decor. Coming to a Post-it® Note, iPad case and throw pillow near you, here is a sampling of what we will see in 2011:

Garden Party
There are a few events in England that will influence the world in 2011, including the royal wedding and the premiere of the final Harry Potter film. We’ll see florals and lace with muted tones and a vintage feel. This Garden Party trend is romantic with a sense of tradition and formality, but with a playful and younger touch — think Kate Middleton.

Greige Glamour
Greige Glamour is a structured look that is a combination of grays and beiges with minimalistic shapes and patterns. There is a high sense of sophistication to this trend. The neutral tones of greige will take center stage this year.

Global Bazaar
Consumers will look to new color combinations from foreign lands based on their desire to escape their everyday challenges. Global Bazaar is bright with saturated hues and bold patterns inspired by nature, travel and exploration. This trend is influenced by Turkey, Africa and India with tapestry-like patterns and traditional tribal design elements and color, as well as natural materials.

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I am such a strong proponent of “visual methods.” If you want to grow your business, spearhead an initiative or gain a new audience, it is critical that you clearly communicate your position. Far and away the best way to do that is through visual methods.

Visual methods are proven practices that leverage visual fluency. Some examples of visual methods include infographics, 3D renderings, rich media demos, visual storyboards and process flow diagrams. Visual fluency, a facility with imagery, maps, charts, icons, symbols and space, is increasingly in demand because of the immediacy of its impact. Visual fluency is the mainstay of design. It is the language of the 21st century and we leverage our fluency through our core visual methods. An ability to create visual methods that tell your business story means you communicate to the right side of your audience’s brain. The right brain demands context, emotional expression and synthesis, all of which can be immediately communicated by the visual methods.

Visual methods leverage the power of the image to tell your story in the most impactful way possible. With visual methods you can evoke emotional or abstract ideas, differentiate between items and engage the viewer on multiple levels.

At Go East, we use visual methods every day to help our clients launch new products, envision new tactics and see possibilities. Brands demand visual fluency. Today’s audiences have sophisticated visual palettes and they make instant associations based on imagery, graphics, style and color. We understand those associations and are fluent in the visual language needed to make those connections.

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This infographic is speeding around the Net because it is a brilliant example of how visualization changes beliefs.

How could I have lived 47 years and not know how huge Africa is? Because of my own shortsightedness and cultural bias. In a quick second, all of these preconceptions tumble because of Kai Krause’s awesome work. Great job.

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Ever wonder what your home state would look like if it was made out of food? Me neither. But illustrator John Holcomb obviously did and created prints for each state. All are for sale in a variety of sizes. These fun, colorful illustrations use everything from frothy beer (Minnesota) to cheese (nope, not Wisconsin). I’m a fan. Because anyone who can make the state of Iowa out of a pack a Twinkies is impressive to me.

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The New York Times recently ran an interesting — and kind of funny — article about consumer “wrap rage.“ Apparently, Amazon has spent two years trying to get the folks who sell products on its site NOT to use clamshell packaging.

What is wrap rage? Anyone who has suffered the humiliation, frustration and, yes, uncontrollable anger, that comes with trying to open a plastic-clamshell encased product knows wrap rage. A person shouldn’t have to wield a knife to gain access to a product they have lawfully purchased.

Amazon.com users agree; packaging is the number one source of angry customer feedback. So the company has asked its partners to rethink their packaging and offer a frustration-free option for consumers.

The article reads a bit like a case study on why companies should solicit feedback and how they can put the resulting data to work for them. In this case, consumers weren’t shooting down stars over service or quality, just the packaging — that’s both good to know and fixable … with the help of a good designer.

Frustration-free packaging (Photo courtesy of Amazon)

Of the companies that took Amazon’s plea seriously, many  found that their new packaging cost them less, was more environmentally friendly and, perhaps more to the immediate point, on average reduced negative feedback by a whopping 73 percent.

And, in a time when consumers increasingly look to each other for purchasing advice, that’s some powerful PR.

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The fine folks over at Visual Literacy created the above Periodic Table of Visualization Methods. Their e-learning site focuses on “the ability to evaluate, apply, or create conceptual visual representations.”

This is just the kind of parsed out pattern-finding that designers love. Whether you are looking for metaphors or trying to convey information, the periodic table is a great starting point for developing visual language. Add a little atomic creativity and — boom! You’ve got all the elements of a successful visualization.

Image courtesy of Visual Imagery

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Today marks the beginning of Fashion Week in New York and Pantone has just released their Fashion Color Report for Spring 2011. Fashion colors dictate future color trends in marketing and design, but today I’ve got clothes on my mind. By the looks of things, get ready to sashay down the office hallway in punchy, complementary warm and cool color tones.

My read on this palette is that as we slowly dig ourselves out from this depressing recession, consumers will want cheery, optimistic colors to liven up existing pieces in their closets. Retailers know that consumers can’t afford to buy all new wardrobes each season, but they will want a few new things. I’ve got my eye on corals and lavenders to transition my favorite fall color, olive, into spring. Happy shopping!

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The problem is that we attempt to solve the simplest questions
cleverly, thereby rendering them unusually complex.
One should seek the simple solution. –Anton Chekhov

Perhaps it is human nature to overcomplicate things. As we consider all the causes, influences and relationships inherent in any problem we often get overwhelmed and paralyzed. Communication, branding or marketing problems are especially complicated by distribution, product, political and cultural issues that make clarity difficult.

Luckily, design is always beneficial when a problem is so complicated or intricate that it is hard to understand. Designers and writers find patterns, craft structures, define the ambiguous and sort through the details for insights and opportunities that solve problems. They find order and order leads to understanding.

Tell me what you see

One of our strongest tools for problem solving is visualization. For years we have been using our visual communication skills to outline complex problems and gain insights from responses. We visualize and let the user come to her own conclusions.

Visualization helps us see patterns in masses of data. The best infographics simplify information to inspire conversation and action. Design encourages interaction with data through visualization, which in turn encourages problem solving, finding opportunities and better communication.

Systematic methodologies, business processes and other heady aspects of marketing, like brand architecture models, are also critical paths that are best expressed visually. We will create everything from full-blown concept models to simple diagrams to communicate the problem that needs to be solved. Sometimes those visualizations are so successful that the visual ends up in the final product.

In every case, leveraging visuals and language to define the problem helps all stakeholders come to agreement. And agreement at the beginning of a problem-solving endeavor is a great place to start.

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