New! Trending colours, Designs & Fashion

Ever wondered what people will want to buy in autumn 2016 and winter 2017? Here you will find out what colours, clothes and designs will capture your shoppers’ imagination in the colder months to come. After the jump!

Colour

The colour forecast predicted by the Pantone gurus never fails to hit the target, so we’ve listened to what they had to say about upcoming trends for this year’s colder season. It’s a blend of subtle and earthy colours mixed with brash accentuations. There are three main colour directions:

Fade – Light earth tones ranging from brown to light grey and pale rosé make up the basic foundation for the autumn and winter attire of 2016/17.

Discover – Add a layer of brash teal, turquoise, blue and even charcoal as a means of colour accentuation. A T-shirt or just a scarf can be added as a stand-out piece to an otherwise unobtrusive outfit.

Proclaim – Girls in particular will love this one: botanic hues of green, orange and yellow have been spotted on models dressed in flowery designs. Please see our design tips below for more on the same.

Apparel

Hoodies, sweatshirts and longsleeve tops are celebrating a long awaited revival, which is of course great news for Shop Partners asking themselves what to include in their product range. What’s more, the irresistible trend of wearing tops a size or two bigger can be applied here as well, so communicating this fashion fad to your customers comes highly recommended.

Designs

Flowers

Colourful Asian flowers or subtle cherry blossoms – any design mixed with petals, stems and leaves will find its admirers. You can also consider weaving in flowers in your patterns to create designs for smartphone cases, blankets and even sweatshirts. For more inspiration on what colours to include here, please check out the Colour section above.

Tropical (left) by squirrel, and four elements (right) by namo

Asia

If classic design from Asia is your thing, now is a good hour to unleash the Chinese dragon in you. Everything from mythological creatures to classic wave patterns will find its followers this year. Expect gratitude from hipsters, fast-fashion chasers and koi breeders alike.

sakura (left) by squirrel, and China (right) by Saseru

Flat 2.0 – trending patterns

Clean and colourful typography with lots of white space and subtle gradients is about as hip as it gets this year. Inspired by the award-winning indie game hit Monument Valley, surface pattern designs and illustrations mixed with drawn artwork and photography will rule the Marketplace. Interestingly, the trend has recently experienced an additional use of subtle depth, light and shadow as well as motion.

Cuckoo Clock (left) by squirrel, and AD Rhombus (right) by AD Graphic

Bold and playful typography

Fonts can of course be purchased online, but also easily be created by a variety of online apps such as Glyph. Bold slogans designed in playful sans-serif typefaces and stylistic devices of letter stacking, 3D letters and shaky handwriting are the thing to aim for. Find more info in our recent typography post.

Water is a Human Right (left) by zizar, and A journey of a thousand miles (right) by Schoenmacher

Wacky illustrations

It’s all about creating friendly doodles displaying a playful human dimension. Illustrations crafted with sketchy lines and brushstrokes in combination with a digital and analogue flair lend this trend such great appeal. The occasional invention of a superhero won’t hurt either.

iCat (left) by squirrel, and supersadman (right) by jenapaul

Minimalist logotypes

Keep it to the bare essential minimum, and create flat designs with oodles of negative space, subtle gradients and crisp mono line shapes. And if you can create anything that could have made it on the 1960s Enterprise star trek, you’re on for a winner.

sport (left) by squirrel, and Boot-Origami in Kanagawa (right) by oblik

Geometric shapes

Think low-poly effects and 3D landscapes of layered geometries blended with a 1980s feel. ‘nough said!

LowPoly (left) and gopoly (right) by gopoly

Are you aware of any trends that we’ve missed? We’re dying to know! Leave a comment below if you like.