Trend information

How do you keep up with trends in your design business?

As small or single proprietor businesses it can be expensive to access trend information that will help you create designs for future seasons. To help, I have put together this list of websites that offer free trend information as well as offer occasional trend webinars to help you design for upcoming seasons. While many of these companies keep most of their trend information behind paywalls for subscribers, it is possible to access some free reports that can help you as you plan designs for upcoming seasons.

Here are a few sites that I use to keep track of trends and help me focus on colors/moods in the next 6-18 months.

WGSN – WGSN is a consumer trend forecasting company. Sign up for monthly emails that highlight fashion, interior and beauty trends.

VML (formerly Wunderman Thompson) – This company is more of a brand/advertising agency but their Future 100 report on trends published yearly is a great resource for understanding emerging trends in 10 sectors including tech, beauty and culture.

Coloro – Coloro developed a color system to help professionals work with color. Many of their resources are subscription based or pay to read but they offer free webinars periodically. Coloro has an on-demand webinar highlighting key colors for S/S26 here.

TrendBible – TrendBible is a global future trends agency with a specialty in home trends. Their reports are expensive but this is a good all-around site that has a lot of information on the process of researching trends. You can sign up for a free basic subscription to access limited content.

Li Edelkoort Trend Union– The trend reports here are expensive but a browse through the site is always a good idea.

Spoonflower– Spoonflower has trend reports on their blog periodically – always a good idea to check this site to see what buyers are liking.

Trend Watching – a consumer trend firm. Lots of great free content on their site, but a subscription is necessary to get access to their trend platform.

Pinterest has information on what is popular on the site.

Patternbank - offers information on trends in print, pattern and fashion.

Scarlet Opus provides trend and foresight intelligence. Their trend hub is subscription based but it is very reasonably priced. 

Some paint companies also have information on color trends:

Benjamin Moore  issues yearly color trends. 2024 color trends can be found here.

Sherwin Williams issues a Colormix forecast each year.

Behr has a Color + Trends section.

If there is a site you use let me know and I will add it to the list.