2024 trend report roundup

Fashion, consumer products, food, social media… trends are vital for people working in many industries. And while some industries claim to avoid trends at all costs, if you want to zig while others zag, then you’ll first need to know what others are doing.

Here are our recommended reading for trend reports for 2024. Recently added reports are shown in italics.

Images to accompany this report were generated using Midjourney, in the Frutiger Aero style highlighted as a trend to watch by the Guardian.

Consumer trends

Trends don’t get any bigger than META Trending Trends. This perceptive report from Matt Klein starts out on a sobering note:

Turns out you were better off guessing 50/50 than genuinely attempting to determine if a trend was published in 2018 or 2024

Read Matt’s report for more on this, it doesn’t mean that trend reports are without merit, though it goes to show that tomorrow’s trends are here (somewhere) today.

Being human (this one has been around for a while now), new green realities and positivity in the face of uncertainty from Mintel.

Auto-tainment, catios (look it up) and plant milking (yes you read it right) from WGSN.

Business trends

Accenture highlights lack of trust, stagnating creativity (gulp) and technology which is ever more demanding of our time

“the proportion of popular movies that were sequels, spin-offs or remakes increased from 16% in 1981 to 80% in 2019”

 “Boundary-pushing creativity is being pushed aside in favor of its less talent-led cousin: design by data. Businesses are building what the data says people want, and the data tends to point towards familiarity.”

“A budget for lunacy is critical. Creativity means hands-on time for creatives—time to ideate, experiment, develop and test. Creativity is expensive, and the investment usually pays off in richness of quality in the result.”

Creativity trends

Calming rhythms, wonder, joy and nostalgia from Adobe Stock.

In our favourite trend for 2024, the Guardian recently highlighted Frutiger Aero, a look back to the style of iMacs and Windows screensavers from the 2000s.

Advertising and marketing trends

Gartner turns its all-seeing eye to marketing. It finds content authentification, a decline in social media use and AI search, all driven by the rise in generative AI.

Dentsu highlight subversive self care, joyful surrealism and kidult toys, now you’re talking!

Zendesk’s Customer Experience (CX) report heralds all things AI - generative AI, AI agents, AI transparency and more.

Sport trends

Monetising women’s sport, mega influencers and removing the social from social media with IMG.

Social media trends

TikTok highlights how consumers will be using its platform for learning (yes we’re worried too), and as a source of local culture made global.

According to Instagram, 2024 will be all about buying less new clothes, dressing modestly combined with social media-sourced beauty tips.

What they don’t tell you: the sobering downsides of children increasingly living their lives online can be found on Freya India’s blog.

Colour trends

Pantone announced the 2024 colour of the year back in July 2023. Anyone for a nurturing Peach Fuzz?

And if 2024 trends are already old hat, here and here are some from WGSN taking us through to 2026.

Fashion

While much of their research is behind a paywall, WGSN share useful snippets in their blog.

Branding trends

Tall logos, paper and watercolour effects and Geometry, simplification and more Art Deco from Merehead and DesignMantic.

Going beyond logos, Shakuro look ahead to voice, sonic, experiential and interactive branding for 2024.

Inc. highlights branding with a human touch, nostalgia and a rare thing in the branding world, humour.

Graphic Design trends

Collage, and folk design contrast with the up to the minute and sure to be influential Apple Vision Pro in Envato’s reports here and here.

Street art, weird type and core wave from The Drum.

Typography trends

3d, antique and motion are given shout outs by Creative Bloq.

Characterful sans, funky, chunky and massive x-heights are on the radar of Creative Boom.

Website design trends

Webflow has developed a website trend report for designers and another for marketers, take your pick! We’re excited about the kinetic typography and micro-interaction trends from the design report.

Creative trends from Brand Licensing Europe 2019

Brand Licensing Europe 2019 was full of energy and brightly coloured costume characters as ever, despite being held way out in London’s Docklands on a particularly dismal day when I visited.

Here are some key trends from the show.

Sustainability

With the licensed consumer products industry being responsible for more than its share of plastic and fast fashion items, environmental sustainability is finally on the agenda. The seminar sessions kicked off with a panel discussing sustainability. Ojo makes sustainability its key point of difference, and does so without compromising on the look of its products. And The Natural History Museum is mulling over moving all future apparel development to sustainable fabrics.

Gaming

Gaming properties were prominent at the show, in particular at Powerstation Studios' arcade. Here a selection of retro and current games were showcased in fun ways, from a Mario-themed selfie flip book booth to a 90's-style kid's bedroom complete with Megadrive playing Sonic the Hedgehog. And it wasn’t all about e-sports and video games. Board games, card games and role-playing games such as Monopoly, Magic the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons featured prominently too, this last one surely being helped along by being featured in nostalgia-fest Stranger Things.

International presence

International brand owners and national stands were front and centre at the show, and by this I don’t just mean those from the US. Korea Pavilion showcased a range of content creators, as did the Russian Federation's Ministry of Industry and Trade, including Masha and the Bear creators Animaccord Studio. Meanwhile China’s Fantawild Animation had its own stand again this year. This is a really useful chance to check out design styles from around the world, South Korea in particular has some very strong graphic design. Whether BLE can keep up its international prominence should Brexit go ahead remains to be seen.

The growth of experiential

One category which is growing fast in the world of brand licensing but which receives little attention at BLE is experiential. Peaky Blinders, Stranger Things and Friends, among others, are generating lots of attention with their adult-focussed experiences, and claiming their share of this half-billion pound mega-category.

With its parade of costume characters, celebrity lookalikes wandering the aisles and immersive stands, this trade show is quite an experience in itself and well worth a visit if you are interested in branding and the extremes it can be stretched to. Thank you BLE for another surreal day, I’ll be back next year!