A Little Project...

For one of our recent briefs, we were set the task of researching and designing a fragrance trend booklet, predicting the trends we thought would most dominate the fragrance market in 2015. The snag was having to design and produce the whole thing in indesign. Indesign is as alien to me as well, aliens. And being a total technophobe anyway the prospect of having to somehow learn more software skills was pretty daunting. But I gave it my best shot, and while it wasn't the most inspiring thing ever, I thought it was alright for a first attempt.

From a list of categories I chose to go with trend relating to Model & Casting, Location & Place, Historical Reference & Era and Bottle Silhouette & Shape. 

The introduction to my booklet was centred around discussing the macro trends that were having an influence on on the trends within the perfume industry. 

A list to Z list, the exploration of Hollywood A listers being used to endorse fragrance ads and the evolution we are likely to see towards more everyday, girl next door, unphotoshopped models considering the publics disdain and disenchantment with the beauty/fashion industry's attitude towards normal women, i.e. theirs no such thing in their eyes, they must all be images of perfection. The response to this is a reaction to the wider trend of female empowerment and a new wave of feminism trying to repair the damage to the word 'feminist'.

Moving forward from the predictable and frankly quite tacky world of the clear blue sea, French Riviera location, we're coming to the far more mysterious and darker water based locations. Black lagoons and Amazonian adventures are the centre of the future of fragrance ads, taking inspiration from the nomadic, hence 'No man's land'. It's time to dip a toe into much more exotic and cloudy waters. 

Technology is where society is at, plain and simple. While the trends I featured in my booklet were all about looking back and taking inspiration from goddesses and myths & legends, the trends we are looking forward to are going to be all about leaving the past behind and focusing on the future and the new era. It's time to get a little space agey and delve into the cyber sphere.

Androgynous fashion is something that has been around for a few years now, and something that has filtered down into the fragrance industry. The shape and silhouette of the bottles are reflective of that, being very geometrical, simple and almost quite masculine in their brick like design. However as the rising trends in healthy lifestyles grows and the introduction of the EU's regulations on allergens, people are becoming more concerned with the actual chemical content of their products. This has reflected the designs of fragrance bottles, seeing them now referencing those that you would find in victorian apothecary or health store. This gives the appearance that the ingredients in the bottle are all naturally sourced and almost give the impression of the perfumes being home made and therefore likely to be very natural.

Doing this little project allowed me to understand and see first hand how wider macro trends can impact into so many different industry sectors, including fragrance. I think hopefully it will encourage me to stop taking for granted activities in the wider social, cultural, economic and political worlds, and realise that their knock on affects could have consequences on much smaller aspects of my own life.