An Imaginary Pop-Up Department Store

Trend forecaster, Lidewij Edelkoort has announced new ways to shop, better ways to serve, creative ways to install and original environments in which to retail. In which we will be lending space to the inner human, making room for intimate well-being, building up a greener society and travelling to a future mentality, as if streaming in a physical way. TrendTablet's Imaginary Pop-Up Department Store is designed to let us dream of different, more courageous and engaging concepts, of another era in store design and packaging, of a consumer-driven environment full of life and wonder.

Top 20 Trends in 2013 - Trend Report from Trend Hunter

Crowdsourced consumer insight about what 2013 will hold:

Vending . Upgraded Ordinary . Dystopia Fascination . Millenial Madness . Modular Retail.  Imposed Interaction . Shoptimization . Sustain Citecture . Deliberate Vintage . Immersive Branding . Wearable Multitasking . Subscription World . Physical Virtual . Benefit Brands . Nostalgic Escape . Crossover Cuisine . Fashionising . Shoppertainment.  Indust-Retail.

Make It Yellow - And follow the trends

Is yellow the new pink? "Yes, as well as Gold. These colors symbolize immateriality and light  - the lightness if being." - Renowned trend forecaster, Li Edelkoort

Update an old accessory with glossy yellow spray paint.

Subjective Creative Thinking

Based in emotion and personal reference, the subjective is instinctive and intuitive. Let your work be informed by your distinct background. Assert your unique quality. Add your individual story. Include your own leitmotifs and personalize your entrepreneurship.

Dedicated to "the eternity of trees" John Houshmand's low organic  table with a glass leg is made from maple. According to the architects the beauty in a single piece of wood facilitates the creation of each individual design.

Make Your Own Air-Dry Clay from Bread & Glue

Apply cold cream to your hands. Remove the crusts from 3 slices of white bread. Tear the bread into small pieces, and place it in a bowl. Add 3 tablespoons of white craft glue and 3 drops of lemon juice, with drops of paint to get the color you like. Then mix it with your hands until it forms a workable ball. And shape. Form. Fashion. Make. Mold. Model and sculpt it. Then combine it with something complimentary, contrasting, or extraordinary and carve and whittle it to perfection.

Los Angeles based Avesha Michael's ceramic design's are  assembled with as much organic, sustainable materials as she can get her hands on. Her hand sculpted spoons are delicate partially glazed collector's items.

Lateral Thinking - A Test

Scroll down slowly.
Think creatively.
Think differently.
Think outside the box.
And be honest.

Man
1. ------------
Board

Answer = Man Overboard

Okay, let's see if you've got the hang of it.

stand
2. ------------
i

Answer = I Understand

OK . . .Got the drift?

Let's try a few now and see how you fare?

3. /r/e/a/d/i/n/g/

Answer = Reading Between the Lines

4.   r
road
a
d

Answer = Cross Road

Not having a good day now, are you?

Redeem yourself.

5.     Cycle
Cycle
Cycle

Answer = Tricycle

Easy to figure that one out ha!

0
6. ------------
M.D.
Ph.D.

Answer = Two Degrees below Zero

C'mon give it a little thought!

knee
7. ------------
light

Answer = Neon Light (knee-on-light)

You can prove you're smart by getting this one.

ground
8       ---------------
feet feet feet feet feet feet

Answer = Six Feet Underground

Oh no, not again!

9. He's X himself

Answer = He's by Himself

Now you're messing up big time.

10. ecnalg

Answer = Backward Glance

Not even close!

11. Death ..... Life

Answer = Life after Death

Okay last chance . . .

12. THINK

Answer = Think Big !

And the last one is real fun - - -

13. ababaaabbbbaaaabbbbababaabbaaabbbb . . .

Answer = Long Time No 'C'


Apply some lateral thinking to your creative process. Solve your problems through an indirect and creative approach. Involve ideas that that may not be obtainable using only taditional step-by-step logic, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious.

Lateral thinking test courtesy of Stories And Facts, Tips and Tricks & Black Banana Kitchen Chalkboard. Part of the funny home decor. Or gag gift range by Cathy of LayOffTheBooks.

Design Tips - Cubes, Spheres, Cylinders & Cones

Draw a square with four equal straight sides and four right angles. Turn it into a cube:  a symmetrical, three-dimensional shape contained by six equal squares. Then sketch a circle with it's circumference equidistant from a central point. Modify it to make a sphere with the shape of a ball or a globe. Outline a rectangle with unequal adjacent sides. Alter it to make a cylinder with parallel sides and a circular opening. Then trace a triangle with its three straight sides and three angles and have it mutate into a cone that tapers from a circular base to a point.

Shapes are the building blocks of objects and design. Take a square. Add some circles. Attach a cylinder. Or more. And include a cone. Put them together. Turn them over. Attach. Subtract. And transform them until they become something unexpectedly gorgeous.

Like Diamond Ring by SeldaOkutan on Etsy

Copy a Child

Child's Own Studio celebrates children’s art with hand-crafted softies and give young people a sense of the power of their imagination. From bunnies to self-portraits, mermaids to monsters and more, Child’s Own Studio, has custom made hundreds of personal soft toys from children’s drawings.

Take your lead from a child and interpret a drawing. Listen to the lines. Be true to the story. Incorporate embroidery. Add a stripe.  Knit it a scarf and leave some trim work undone in line with contemporary trends.

Be Whimsical With a Sense of Play

A whimsical sense of play is exemplified by Katy Hackney's flower brooch. The London based artist's work is hugely material driven. Working with woods, plastics, precious and non precious metals, found objects, formica, paint & enamel; her pieces are influenced by vintage toys and folk art.

Take some time to forage around toys. Wallow in kids. Remind yourself to be playful or perhaps even quaint. Add a dash of fanciful. Mix in something mischievous. Explore all that is curious. Embrace the quirks of the world around you. And express it in your work.

Dine on Living Ideas

The mind lives and grows when fed living ideas, not just dry facts. The difference between living ideas and dry facts is the difference between memorizing the premise of Surrealism in order to pass a test versus having dinner with Salvador Dali himself.  Take a moment to put yourself in the living-idea side of scenarios. Picture yourself in it for a moment. What are you doing? And perhaps more importantly, what is happening in your mind?

If this living idea is touching your emotions and firing your imagination, as it should be, your mind will be making mental connections with other experiences you've had or read about. It might not happen immediately, but even after you move on to something else, a part of your mind will notice any other tidbit that is in any way related to that recent living idea. And that's when life becomes personal and real.

So read an autobiography. Spent time with monkeys. Or find a way to put yourself in some other shoes but explore living ideas on which your mind can live and thrive.

Salvador Dali Art Print, Antique Dictionary Art Print on 115 Year Old Page, Wall Art by reimagination prints

Flush it Out

A spot of aimless doodling can lead to some really innovate ideas. Mirroring the subconscious, doodling uproots ideas, lying dormant in the imagination. So draw casually. Fiddle. Putter. Scribble. Tinker. And trifle your best ideas to the surface.

A Colorful Doodle of the Mind by carolynphelan on Etsy

Add a Touch of Green to Your Interior

Find the Work You Can't Not Do?

I highly recommend you watch this TEDx talk from Scott Dinsmore for some inspiration to believe in yourself … it’s the best 18 minutes you could invest in your life right now.

Scott Dinsmore's mission is to change the world by helping people find what excites them and build a career around the work only they are capable of doing. He is a career change strategist whose demoralizing experience at a Fortune 500 job launched his quest to understand why 80% of adults hate the work they do, and more importantly, to identify what the other 20% were doing differently. His research led to experiences with thousands of employees and entrepreneurs from 158 countries. Scott distilled the results down to his Passionate Work Framework - three surprisingly simple practices for finding and doing work you love, that all happen to be completely within our control. He makes his career tools available free to the public through his community at http://LiveYourLegend.net

Do, Yield, Be

Yin & Yang,  represents the ancient Chinese understanding of how things work. The outer circle reveals everything. The black & white shapes in the circle symbolize the interaction of two energies, which cause everything to happen. Interdependent, Yin, is the passive and sustaining female principle, associated with earth: dark, downward, cold, contracting and weak. Yang, the active male principle is creative, bright, upward, hot, expanding and strong, associated with heaven and light. These two energies are in continual movement. Yin to yang. And yang to yin. Causing everything to happen. A countering weight or force, asking us to trust its motion. To yield with Yin. And do with Yang.

Yin Yang New Skeep Tee OSFA by FloozeesDoozees on Etsy