Welcome, Future!

Doneger poms
Doneger color standards for Spring/Summer 2017

First of all, apologies to our loyal readers.  This was the first week of school for our students, and there were a lot of tasks to manage.  As you can see, that delayed our posts a bit.

Here at FIT, we are very much about the future. The industries we train for here depend upon educated guesses about what consumers will want in six, or eight, or twelve months.  Therefore the Gladys Marcus Library buys several major forecasting company products.  Because I’m currently processing the newest season of these materials, this post is about them.

Most of what we purchase focuses on fashion, as you can see here.

All Forecasts
The new forecasts are in!

In this image, you can see one of Doneger’s two color predictions, a women’s wear update from Peclers Paris, the new Futur(s) book, also from Peclers, and the InMouv Activewear forecast.  These are all being put out for Spring/Summer 2017.  Unfortunately, these materials are only available to current FIT students because of the arrangements we have with the services providers.  The current two seasons are restricted to students, but older seasons are soon going to be available to the community at large.  That is a post for the future, though.

As you can see from this research guide, the restricted forecasts are not the only materials we have available for you to do research. We also have tons of magazines, from all sorts of industries, that offer you a glimpse into current trends and ideas about future ones.  You can take a look at that complete listing here:

FIT Library: Trend Forecasting

display titles
These are just some of the many awesome titles we subscribe to for your use!

The bad news is that these materials are mostly hard copies. In order to look through them, you’d have to be here in the library, physically looking through them. We do make appointments available to researchers with genuine need of these, and you can apply for said appointment here:

Visit the Library

pantone neon
Pantone’s book of neon hues, which you can find at the PERS desk on the 6th floor

Forecasting  color and themes is important for nearly all industries, and we have multiple color services to assist your design works.  I wrote more about them a few months ago, and you can read that here:

What Color Was That?

Another terrific resource, no matter what kind of development you are programming, is the Peclers Futur(s) book.  Peclers bills this as its “universal design” book.  It is essentially an annual window into the minds of their creative directors.  It covers every observed and heard trend these people came across in the past year.  From nearly every form of media and from all over the world.  It includes some of their in-house projections for designed objects of any sort, from transit forms to mall furniture to musical instruments and technological breakthroughs.  It is a great book to flip through if you need some inspiration.

There are a lot of ways to look at forecasting.  Probably as many as there are creative people looking at the world.  In case you’re stuck in your approach, we put together a research guide to get you started:

FIT Library: Trend Forecasting

Last but not least, we also have a great set of online resources that provide similar information.  These again are only available to current students, but they can reach these materials from anywhere (like 3am from your apartment, while in your jammies, am I right?), as long as they go through the FIT proxy server, which authenticates them as party to FIT’s subscription.  You can find those all listed out here:

Databases

Welcome back!