Trendspotting in Nashville

Earlier this month, I was invited, along with eight other Interior Designers from all over the country, to attend the 1st annual “Wilsonart Design Evolution Workshop” in Nashville, TN. The event allowed our group of creatives to participate in the trend research that will influence the development of future Wilsonart products!

To prepare for the workshop, we were tasked with gathering inspiration boards based on recent trends. We prepared narratives about each of the trends, illustrated by personal photography and images gathered from other resources. I brought four boards, based on the following trends: Public Art, Vintage Paris, Geometry and Color. 

Public Art

1. Public Art/Graffiti; 2. Work by Banksy; 3. Indoor Graffiti; 4. Photograph by Amber Ghory, Hong Kong; 5. Public Art/Graffiti

Vintage Paris

1. Vintage Typography; 2. Washroom; 3. Kitchen Space; 4. Settee; 5. Storefront with Vintage Typography; 6. Photograph by Amber Ghory, Paris, France

Geometry

1. Light Fixture; 2. Wallpaper; 3. Light Fixtures; 4. Seating System; Hexagonal Ceramic Floor Tiles; 6. Hexagonal Wool Wall Tiles

Color

1. Peruvian Exteriors; 2. Interior Display; 3. Striped Upholstery; 4. Painting by Amber Ghory, With Each Passing Day; 5. Installation by Markus Linnenbrink, Dusseldorf, Germany

On our first full day, we were divided into teams and set out on a trendspotting mission to document inspirational trends that we observed around the city. We were then asked to group our discoveries into themes, which we placed into Powerpoint presentations that we shared with the other teams. My team alone gathered over 1200 images! We were given about five hours to put our presentations together, which seemed like a lot of time at first, but we were scrambling to wrap up our presentations! Here are some of the images I captured around Nashville:

Overall, it was a truly rewarding experience, and I really enjoyed collaborating with other creative designers from all over the country. I hope Wilsonart continues to hold this annual event for other designers to participate in.

“Change the way you see things, and the things you see will change.” —Will Dyer