JKR

The lifestyle and homeware brands which dictate/reflect our tastes have a big influence on design in general, including branding (only last week we got a brief requiring a move of an FMCG snack “from Fortnum and Mason to Harvey Nics”). So the opening of US homewares store Anthropologie in London is not insignificant. Everything in the store has a one-off artistic quality, but it’s a chain store with chain store prices. As you can see above, it fits the “pinnie porn” fanciful make do and mend pigeon-hole (indeed, the rolling pin would be my nomination for the design artefact which sums up 2009).

I think its got a lot of appeal – it conjures up in my mind a car boot sale entirely of Peter Blake’s cast offs, and I mean this as a compliment to both the artist and the store. But I think it’s also indicative of the way the de-mac, hand whittled trend is moving, from a resurgence in the use of drawing, to a kind of faux folk decorative feel. There has been so much written this year about consumers seeking comfort from famous homely brands in the downturn, but I think there is just as much evidence that at a boutique level things are becoming more decorative, offering a warmer alternative to designer minimalism. The evidence that much the same is happening in food packaging can be seen with a two minute scroll through packaging blog The Dieline (examples below), and I predict it won’t be long before this style infuses more mainstream FMCG packaging. If one were looking for a hot design recruit right now, perhaps Ukrainian grandmothers would be a good place to start.