For years, we have talked about “trends” in design as if the same colours, materials, aesthetics and ways of living were gradually spreading everywhere. And, in one sense, design has never been more global: we see the same projects online, attend the same international fairs, follow the same designers and brands, and increasingly use the same digital tools to discover what is happening.
But I am starting to question whether this concept of trend is still the right way to describe what is actually happening.
A direction can become visible internationally and still produce completely different results depending on where it lands. This distinction has become increasingly important in my work. My perspective is deliberately Italian: Italy is where I live and work, and its design culture remains the lens through which I look at the industry. But my research has always been international and I continuously look outside Italy to understand how design, interiors and taste are evolving in different places.
And the more international the research becomes, the less convinced I am by the idea of one universal trend landscape.
At the same time, we are living through a strange contradiction: we have access to more information than ever, and AI can give us fast, polished answers about almost anything, yet much of what reaches us has already been filtered, selected and repackaged. Algorithms reinforce what we already follow, and it is increasingly easy to feel globally informed while actually remaining inside a very narrow bubble.
This is why I started LAYERED FUTURES, a new live conversation format by TRENDBARK.
LAYERED FUTURES actually started from an existing format I developed through TRENDBARK: a trend translation workshop for companies, creative teams, schools and institutions, created to move beyond passive trend inspiration and explore how wider directions of change can become relevant to specific products, materials, spaces, markets and design challenges. The live conversations extend the same idea through direct exchange between people working in different contexts.
What is changing in taste? What are clients asking for? Which materials are gaining relevance? What are we noticing in one place that may still be invisible in another?…
I want LAYERED FUTURES to become a way of looking at design through many centres rather than assuming everything begins in the same few places.
It also connects naturally with the rest of my work. Through TRENDBARK Studio, I research emerging directions in interiors, colour, materials and taste for an international community of design professionals and brands. Through my Substack publication Travelling Taste, I look at places, interiors and retail through a more cultural lens, observing how taste changes geographically and what local environments can reveal about wider shifts.
For the first LAYERED FUTURES conversation, I will be speaking with Kim Williams, Founder and Creative Director of Kim Williams Design, connecting perspectives from Italy and Cape Town.
We will compare what we are currently seeing in our respective markets, from changing client expectations and emerging aesthetics to materials, project challenges and the relationship between international influences and local culture.
LAYERED FUTURES: Italy ↔ Cape Town
14 October 2026 · 16:00 CEST
Free to join.
