Global Design Trends Set by Decor and You

August 19, 2008 // Franchising.com // - Quality, diversity, higher standards and globalization are the top design trends driving industry professionals according to international design legend Mary Gilliatt of Decor&You who was a featured speaker at the July World Market Center in the Las Vegas, the largest gathering of design professionals from around the world.

Decor&You, one of the nation's largest interior design franchises, hosted its annual conference celebrating ten years in business with more than 100 franchisees from North America in attendance. Mary Gilliatt, a journalist, author of 48 books on design, and a septuagenarian who circles the globe several times each year for research offers insights on the features of design trends currently influencing manufacturers and suppliers. Here are Gilliatt's top four observations on global design trends:

1. Universal Excellence The trend that defines global design today is universal excellence. The US has the lead in so many things, followed in design at least, by Italy, Japan and sometimes the UK. Now good designs in furniture, fabrics and interiors are bursting out from Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, Africa, Brazil, China, The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Spain.
2. Diversity Despite global supply chains and overseas sourcing, diversity in design continues to flourish. The rise of the global design marketplace is producing more variety, paradoxically, because so many countries are able to contribute their own ''take" on styles. Climate, terrain, customs, and history are all added to the mix, so that whatever their same roots, we continue to see endless variations on themes.
3. Higher Standards Competition is inherent in globalization and will naturally produce higher standards in product quality. Although there are always much cheaper 'high street' copies, quality has a habit of surviving. With so many countries now competing and contributing to the design world, higher standards will continue to prevail.
4. Globalization Affects Use of Materials Design will always recycle ideas from the past, but globalization will introduce different materials used in different ways. The broad range of countries now contributing the cultural wares using natural resources will provide the consumer more interesting choices of products. Quick changes in style driven by manufacturers are of necessity, commercially driven and generally take ages to filter down through the various markets.

Established in 1998, Decor&You®, Inc. furnishes and refines America's residential and commercial interiors via a nationwide network of professional interior decorators, and makes it easy for people to achieve comfort, style, and enhanced value in their homes and businesses.

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