The Danish art of hygge has filtered into our lives, extolling the virtues of cosiness, calmness, simplicity and comfort. PGBuzz.net caught up with Sarah Barker, head of UK creative at IG Design Group on this and other trends coming through.
While there’s no one English word to describe hygge, if you google it several options come up, including cosiness, happiness, security, familiarity, comfort, reassurance and family to name a few. The Danes define hygge as a ‘feeling’ of celebrating a moment, no matter how simple. Perhaps it is this simplicity of celebrating the small things that has really caught on in the UK in a time when our lives are busier and more complicated than ever before.
“This feeling of hygge is one that we are seeing coming through in global design trends with the use of natural materials, muted tones, watercolours and very simple design,” says Sarah Barker, head of UK creative at IG Design Group. “The emphasis is on family and friends and capturing experiences – something we’re bringing through in our product ranges this year, including our seasonal Easter range.”
There’s been a significant shift in Easter greeting cards over the years with single cards now much more prevalent than packs of cards, although the sentiment hasn’t changed much. “There hasn’t been a huge shift in style with religious cards and cute/spring cards still taking the bulk of the market,” says Sarah. “But this year we’re seeing simpler design, bringing in the feeling of hygge with watercolours and natural tones, but also a more editorial approach to design with feel-good quotes such as ‘somebody loves you’.”
Easter decorations are also becoming a ‘thing’ with a growing market for crackers, bunting and small trinkets. “Decorating the home at Easter has always been big in Europe, but not so much in the UK,” says Sarah. “But we are definitely seeing that changing, again there’s a lot of simple design ideas coming through – bunting made from hessian, cello and tissue wrap and homemade crafting. Easter is not just about chocolate now and we can see this in the amount of aisle space in the supermarkets. Yes, there are still a lot of Easter eggs, but there are a lot more products outside of the core offering.”
And as to future trends, Sarah sees that this natural hygge trend will still very much be a focus for 17/18, but there’s also a trend of travel/carnival coming through, with brighter colours and a sense of escapism. “With all that is going on in the world, people are craving the fun side of life,” says Sarah. “We’ve seen a lot of unicorns in general design, but also space travel. It’s all a bit of fun and reminds people that it is not all doom and gloom in the world.”
- IG Design Group’s rebrand won the company a gold award at the Transform Awards Europe recently. IG Design Group picked up an award for excellence in rebranding and brand development in the ‘Best implementation of a brand development project across multiple markets’ category.
