By: Lipsum123
For lots of designers keeping up with trends is super important. Most people buy new things regularly because they want to keep up with what’s hot right now, i.e. keeping up with trends as a designer means increasing sales. But is this really true?
Being a designer is about expressing your own creativity, so if you just try to copy the trends it’s no longer about your style, but more about someone else’s. In addition to that, what usually happens when you are on trend is that you just hang on by a thread and never really know when the trends shift. You’ll always be a couple of steps behind, desperate to keep up – instead of choosing your own direction.
Looking at it differently, keeping up with trends could be a positive thing and also lead to increased popularity. Take the Holzweiler siblings as an example – They built a brand focusing on art, culture and sustainability. In addition to lots of collaborations, they also have their own signature patterns – most known the symbol of a clothes hanger on the chest.
Sustainability is a huge “trend” today – people are constantly growing more aware of the environment and searching for more environmentally friendly options. Because of this the responsibility that comes with being a designer has grown a lot. By focusing on sustainable materials Holzweiler is following a big trend, but by also focusing their own design they kind of get the best of both worlds.
A big competitor is Acne Studios, who also focus on sustainable production and high-quality, minimalistic, timeless designs. Based on designs, and core thoughts the two companies are pretty similar. But according to proff.no, Holzweiler has a better turnover than Acne Studios – there could be a million reasons for this difference.
Going back to the main topic of this text – Holzweiler is constantly working on making the production more sustainable. They’re doing this mainly by replacing plastic packaging with bioplastic, which is 100% biodegradable. Also, they use a lot of fair-trade cotton and non-toxic dyes. Thereby following the sustainability-trend, but still making their own designs and not just following in other designers’ footsteps.
Sources:
https://m.signalvnoise.com/why-i-ignore-the-design-industry-on-purpose/
https://www.holzweiler.no/about
https://www.holzweiler.no/about/sustainability
https://www.acnestudios.com/fi/en/about/csr.html
https://www.proff.no/selskap/acne-studios/oslo/klær/IGDAGGB08XE-1/
https://www.proff.no/selskap/holzweiler-items-as/lysaker/klær/IF4ABWF08XE/
Making sense of art and design industries 