Leading up to the World Future Trends Summit in Miami, we're pleased to run this series from the Pearlfisher Insights program. To view the whole series, click here.
As designers we are in the business of change. And from our point of view, we believe that insight is all about understanding this change to create a rich and stimulating 'big picture' to truly see the change impacting on the future for all brands. Then with this knowledge we can create bespoke insight and new futures for specific brands.
Our previous blogs have focused on the four basis areas - that form our transatlantic Insight Program - and that underline the needs and wants of human behavior and which are therefore most relevant to brands and business: Taste (the future of food and drink), Luxury (the future world of aspiration and its evolving expressions), Body (the future ways in which we will view our bodies) and Connection (the structure and rules that will guide the future of our relationships and way of life).
Pearlfisher Creative Partner, Jonathan Ford, is putting Taste and the future of food and drink branding under the microscope as he looks at Defining the future of healthy eating in Miami on Oct 17th. Ahead of his presentation, we posed some questions to him to get a flavour for the issues he will be discussing on the day.
1) Are we not all generally more aware that we need to be eating more healthily?
Generally, yes. In the past, healthy eating was a compartmentalized rather than an integrated part of our lives. And this monumental shift has come from many different instigators. In recent years, health has become more of a global and public concern with government, business and consumers attempting to create a new world of integrated, healthy lifestyles. But that said, health attitudes are now at another pivotal ' and some would say crucial ' turning point.
2) What is this turning point?
Up until now, virtue and pleasure have polarized the eating spectrum. But, now, healthy eating is ready for renewal. In the future our goal will ultimately be to understand, accept and optimize our health. We will be looking to brands to still deliver what we need but we will also want them to be so versatile that they will fit even the busiest agenda.
3) How can this manifest? What has your Insight shown?
How brands now take food and drink into the future has the power to affect all of us on a personal, social and commercial level. Our Insight has shown that the onus is on us to create a world that makes the best of all the natural goodness and resources available to us and a need to foster and showcase the cultural communal and educative value of food production. But this will also be balanced by just as strong a want to escape through extreme fantasy and use creative direction in food to open up new worlds of delight.
4) What role can design play in creating this change?
Now more than ever - in this age of fragmentation- design remains the constant. It is the best way to express the future desire and create the change that we have gleaned from our Insight. Desirable design can - and does - make an impact on business and peoples' lives for the better. On the 17th, I will talk more about the shifts from our Taste Insight and show the concepts we have created that we believe build a rich picture of the future for brands.
To find out more about Insight at
Pearlfisher please email jessica@pearlfisher.com
Jonathan Ford, Creative Partner, Pearlfisher will be presenting "Pearlfisher Insight: Seeing the Future" at the World Future Trends Summit next week. To learn more about the event, visit the website here. Readers of our blog can save 15% off the registration price with code FT12BLOG.