Megatrends that Matter: iF Design’s 3rd Annual Trend Report Released
In Austin, Texas, last month, tens of thousands of creatively minded humans from around the world convened for the annual SXSW festival. iF Design was also there, addressing an over-capacity crowd during a panel that explored ‘The Future of Design’.
It’s no surprise that demand for this subject was high. While AI was clearly the festival’s subject du jour, there was also enormous discussion around sustainability, wellbeing, today’s worker satisfaction, and of course, design in all its forms.
In our panel which I had the privilege to moderate, we covered all of this and more.
Predicated on iF Design’s 3rd annual Trend Report- IDEO creative technologist Zoey Zhu, award-winning furniture designer Brad Ascalon, and iF Design’s global CEO Uwe Cremering, addressed many of the challenges and opportunities unveiled in the report (which is being released this Tuesday, April 30th in parallel with the first-ever iF Design Trend Conference hosted at the spectacular Frank Gehry-designed AXIOS building in Berlin, Germany).
Among top highlights the panelists shared were the need for design (and designers) to:
Help optimize the workplace of tomorrow (think embedded technology, flex workspaces, offices that feel like homes, etc.)
Make decisions with climate change in mind (afterall, sustainability and the protection of our planet is EVERYONE’s responsibility)
Acknowledge that UX (user experience) is fundamentally an interdisciplinary practice
Ensure diverse voices are involved in decision-making (this is especially important for people who might not already be in the room!)
Learn to partner with machines as tools, versus being afraid of them!
It’s not news that we live in an era of unprecedented change and transformation. Yet at a time when the worlds of business, creativity, technology, nature, and policy are all converging, iF Design feels that we must ask -- what is the role of design in shaping our future?
It’s exactly as iFDA Juror Patrizio Cionfoli recently said, and I quoted on-stage in March: “Design’s goal is to make us feel better in the future than today; it’s a result of a desire for an ever-better world.”
Learn more about iF Design, download the 3rd annual iF Design Trend Report, enter the iF DESIGN AWARD 2025, and explore winners from the past 70 years at www.ifdesign.com.
About iF Design:
iF (International Forum) Design is headquartered in Hannover, Germany, and hosts the prestigious international iF DESIGN AWARD. Committed to excellence, objectivity, transparency, and impact though design since 1953, iF Design is an active member of the global design community. The award’s only shareholder is the nonprofit iF Design Foundation, dedicated to design research and education. The organization also hosts the iF DESIGN STUDENT DESIGN AWARD and iF DESIGN SOCIAL IMPACT PRIZE who award 150,000 Euros in annual prize money to winners whose projects best attend to one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.