
“Trend” is such a ubiquitous word that I bet you either roll your eyes at it or you’ve checked out of keeping up with trends entirely. This is not the part when I tell you to fight that instinct and pay attention because “as a marketer you need to be on top of trend analysis and forecasting.”
Colors come and go, in-vogue styles come and go, and this week’s popular TikTok/Reel format will come and go. Things move fast in 2025 and they’re moving faster and on a smaller scale. The days of enjoying a pop culture that is woven into our collective consciousness are over. Therefore it is more important to understand what’s happening in consumer behavior and cultural movements that cause certain trends to rise to the surface.
There are also things we refer to as trends that aren’t actually trends. For example, things like sustainability and minimalism exist year over year. Instead of being fleeting trends, it’s more a matter of how they will be expressed in a given year. Neither of these things are new, they aren’t going anywhere, and they don’t exist in a vacuum. Instead, they are influenced by all of the other things we experience, enjoy, and exhaust, and will simply continue to morph over time in how we translate them.
After reading reports and analyzing what is trending across disciplines, we’re seeing three main movements, directly related to technology and our relationship with it. They also, of course, have to do with the continuing effects of the pandemic. (I’m not going to describe that experience – we were all there and we all read the same news reports about increasing loneliness, for example, that still continue today.)
Our relationship with technology is up-and-down, complicated, and necessary, and with that comes three reactions (or movements):
In response to the slick, slippery part of our lives that is the digital realm, people are craving texture – literally and figuratively. As Accenture puts it in their 2025 Life Trends report, “People are seeking depth, authenticity, and sensory richness in their experiences. They want to engage with the world in meaningful ways, finding textural experiences that connect them with their environment and each other.”
This doesn’t mean that we reject tech entirely, rather it’s the when, where, and how much it integrates with our lives that is under renovation.
This is a no-brainer. Nostalgia has been in every trend report over the last few years and even before then, our fickle human psychology was no match for the alluring lore of yesteryears. Here’s how it’s showing up in 2025:
A yearning and curiosity for times before tech
Those who lived through the 1970s, 1990s, and/or Y2K are drawn to the memories of simpler times, but so are Gen Z and Gen Alpha. They are enthralled with the idea of a life unhooked from the digital sphere and are adopting products, technology, and styles from those times and applying them to their lives now.
Fun for fun’s sake
“In response to a period of uncertainty and crisis fatigue, many adults are choosing joy and prioritizing play as a means of escapism…A nostalgia for childhood joys is at the heart of this kidult movement.” (TrendBible)
Playfulness is back! Exuberance and a sense of play are especially highlighted in brands that use a quirky character or personality, designs exploding in dopamine, maximalism, punchy pastels, and more.
Not only that, but adults are spending more and more on toys or throw-back items for themselves and their children, as evidenced by notable re-releases of the beloved Furby and Tamagotchi toys.
This is more than just that feeling at the end of the day when you move from the big screen at your desk to the little screen in your hand while lounging on the couch. Or when your eyeballs have turned into dry, shriveled raisins after a day of Zoom calls and you go outside for 30 seconds for a breath of fresh air.
Our desire for a break from tech is especially obvious in how we’re decorating our homes. We’re not kicking Alexa to the curb, but we’re adding more warmth, earthy-ness, and tactile texture to complement and balance the technology in our lives.
(Re-)Discovering Nature
The days of stark white and grey are gone, and in its place are warm neutrals, earthy decor elements, soft stone, muddy tones, and biophilic design that brings the natural world into our living spaces.
Comfort and harmony
Pantone captured it perfectly in their announcement of the 2025 Color of the Year when they said we’re experiencing “a global mood of connection, comfort, and harmony.” We want our homes to feel safe, cozy, and soft through pastels, rounded shapes, single or double color drenching, and spaces that have been designated for wellness activities and self care.
Sensory experiences
More texture is showing up everywhere from throw pillows to walls and ceilings to even 2D design. After days spent on flat devices with super-smooth scrolling and AI filters, we desire actual, real texture to provide a grounding, sensory-led experience.
Speaking of AI filters, we’re tired of perfection! Instagram Face and Instagram Aesthetic have turned everything we look at into boring homogeneity and ruined the unique joy of humanity – namely, that we aren’t perfect, nothing we make is perfect, and asymmetry may be more beautiful (and certainly more interesting) than symmetry.
Human touches
Human-looking touches in design are back through doodles and a handmade aesthetic while appreciation for craftsmanship (have you noticed all the cedar shingles taking over your neighborhood?) has returned.
Color
First, color explosions have returned after years of millennial minimalism and second, the only rule about color that exists currently is that there are no rules. Color pairings that wouldn’t have sold in years past are not only selling but are welcomed.
“It’s a little bit of chaos…We’re not looking to anyone for permission on how we use color anymore.” - Sue Wadden, Color Marketing Director at Sherwin-Williams
Now, all respect to Sue, but if your friendly creative team at CID told you how to use color in your brand guide, you better listen (or else)! Kidding, of course. We’ve always approached color in a bespoke way for the brands we build and sometimes that means using color in an unexpected way by going against “traditional” color rules.
As a marketer, we know you spend a lot of time wondering, “How can I make my brand more authentic?” But how can we possibly be authentic and true to our brand identity if we’re blindly following trends without knowing why the trend is popular? Understanding the driving force behind the trend is what will make it possible for you to decide:
(1) if the cultural movement is something that makes sense for your brand to be a part of and
(2) if yes, then how does it make the most sense to translate it to your brand specifically.
Because, listen, the last thing you want to do is turn your brand palette to mocha brown simply because you heard it was “in.” This seems ridiculous, of course, when I describe it that way, but how many times have we as marketers tried on a trend only to find 6 months later that it didn’t work and, actually, it may have done more damage than good? Perhaps you fell victim to the horizontally-scrolling website trend of the early 2010s or {INSERT OTHER RIDICULOUS MARKETING TREND YOU FELL FOR HERE}.
In other words, just because everyone else is ditching skinny jeans, doesn’t mean it’s right for you and your personality to follow along. (I mean, you do you, but the brand you work for deserves better.)
If you’d like help making your brand more authentic, captivating, and relevant, reach out. Our brand strategists will help you navigate the marketplace and make you stand out (for the right reasons).