By Katrina Osborne, Creative Director at RPI
Earlier this year, I attended the world's two largest consumer goods shows: Maison & Objet in Paris and Paperworld in Frankfurt. My objective was simple: Gather information to develop the RPI 2014 global trends for personalized print products.
These shows preview and identify mega-trends that help shape the must-have items which fill consumers' environments, influence their tastes, and impact their purchases.
As head of the RPI Creative Services team, it's my job to interpret these trends in creating the standard designs and products that RPI provides as well as to advise our customers on how to develop exclusive offerings that will inspire their end-users and maximize traffic.
Our comprehensive new report, RPI Consumer Trends & Insights | 2014-2015 Preview: Borderless, covers these trends and makes specific recommendations for the personalized print products industry. We break down the trends into four main areas, discuss their origins and suggest ways they can inform printed products, including selections in form, color, covers, binding, imagery, paper and surfaces.
The report's subtitle, "Borderless," references the always-connected, digitally inundated, virtually nomadic world we live in, which in fact is the greatest influence on trends and collections in our industry. (For a free copy of the report, please see below.)
For example, consider the trend we call Oxford. It is characterized by classic forms with a contemporary twist; smart looks with a timeless, vintage and masculine feel. Think tweed, old-style bicycles, embossed paper, leather and calligraphy. In today's world of fleeting digital moments, there is increasing appeal in traditional, handcrafted sensibilities that transport us back to a place and time when life felt more authentic.
The Oxford trend converges beautifully in photo books, where color, forms, images, covers, binding and papers are all informed by this timeless, tactile, luxurious taste. Oxford is where high quality meets high tech to create heirlooms to be passed on and treasured for years to come.
As you think about your customers in the coming months, consider how personalized print products can help them express themselves and their tastes by preserving memories as cherished keepsakes. Consumers want to authenticate and communicate their individual experiences outside technology and off the screen; printed memories enable them to do that.
By understanding these trends and creating ways for your customers to leverage them, we can work together to deliver products that inspire and celebrate their creativity.
For more information on these trends or to receive a complete copy of RPI Consumer Trends & Insights, please contact us. We invite you to experiment with multiple materials and formats from our trend report to create your 20145-15 collection. If you want a little more advice, let us know. We have a broad assortment of on-trend designs in our ready-made catalog and we are passionate about collaborating with our customers on custom projects. Let us travel together on a journey without borders.
www.rpiprint.com