Following their presentation to a Heimtextil audience, Paul Farley chats to the experts at leading design house FranklinTill – Kate Franklin and Caroline Till – to explore the relevance and worth of trend forecasting to the furnishings industry –
From manic patterns written by computer algorithm to plants genetically altered to yield new textiles, the contents of this year’s Heimtextil Trend Book are some of the most challenging to date.
The publication – a projection of future trends, created by a team of international designers and forecasters – accompanied the Trend Show, a key feature of the home textile exhibition that took place in Frankfurt in January. It encourages the furnishing industry to look at the wider world – not simply product design, but areas such as science, fashion and nature – for product inspiration and guidance.
Shepherding the project this year was FranklinTill, a London-based design house comprising Kate Franklin and Caroline Till, established in 2010. As the editor/curator of this year’s edition of the Heimtextil Trend Book, it was FranklinTill’s turn to set the themes and communicate them to the fair’s visitors.
“Kate and I both originally trained as textile designers – Kate in weave and myself in printed textiles – so we both had experience in designing textile and textile products for the commercial and high-end markets before we moved into trend forecasting,” says Caroline Till. “Our particular area of expertise is textile colour and material, so, in a way, Heimtextil is the ideal client for us. We’ve worked with the show for the last four years, but being in charge of the Trend Book this year was a fantastic opportunity for us.”
Kate Franklin adds: “We felt very confident that we could deliver something that excites the audience as much as in previous years.”
This is an excerpt of an article published in Hospitality Interiors March/April, which can also be found in our sister magazine, Furniture News. Read the full interview here.
