Working With Trends
- Feb 11
- 4 min read
Designing for long-term relevance, not short-term impact
Design trends move quickly, while buildings are expected to last. In multifamily and hospitality work, interiors need to perform over long periods of time, across many users, and within real operational constraints. Part of our role as designers is to make sense of this landscape for our clients. We track trends, study how they show up in built work, and evaluate what they offer beyond appearance. Clients often come to us wanting spaces that feel current, but they also expect those spaces to remain functional, relevant, and appealing long after opening.
Our responsibility is to sift through what’s new and recommend what will work best for a specific project. That means understanding where trends align with function, durability, and long-term use, and where they fall short. We always aim to meet our clients’ goals and create spaces they’re excited about, while applying the experience and judgment that come from working across many projects and conditions.
To explain how this thinking shows up in practice, we asked our Creative Lead Dylan, a few questions about how trends factor into our work.
Q: How do you think about trends when starting a project?
A: I’m less interested in the trend itself and more interested in why it’s happening. When a particular color palette, material, or design move starts circulating widely, I try to understand what cultural or emotional need it’s responding to. Color drenching, for example, often signals fatigue with overly neutral or noncommittal spaces, while the return of layered patterns and textures can feel like a reaction to minimalism becoming emotionally sterile.
Design tends to move in cycles, reacting to what came before it. When you understand a trend as a response rather than a directive, it becomes a useful insight instead of something to copy. This perspective helps us design spaces that feel timely but not tethered to a single moment.
Q: What's the risk of following trends too closely in multifamily work?
A: THEME! In multifamily design, trends can quickly tip from relevance into caricatures. When trends are relied on too heavily, spaces risk feeling performative or overly literal, they are visually compelling at first but lacking authenticity or staying power. I like to call this the "Disneyland Effect", where there can be obvious and thoughtful decision making that results in beautiful work, but the message is too overt. I think of it as the difference between a space that’s designed to photograph well and one that’s designed to be lived in.
Multifamily environments serve people with a wide range of backgrounds, routines, and relationships to design for. There’s often pressure to make amenity spaces feel “universal,” but I don’t believe neutrality automatically equals inclusive. Some of our most successful projects are the ones where we’ve taken a clear, thoughtful position by balancing boldness with comfort trusting that authenticity resonates more deeply than trying to please everyone equally.
That said, this approach only works when it’s grounded in empathy, collaboration, and an understanding of operational realities and developer needs. The goal isn’t provocation for its own sake, but creating places that feel nurturing, secure, and meaningfully distinct.
Q: How do you decide whether a trend is worth incorporating?
A: I always come back to intent. Am I responding to something because it’s highly visible right now, or because it genuinely supports the project’s narrative? Many so-called trends are just long-standing design tools resurfacing: color drenching and wallcoverings are good examples. They’re not new ideas, but they continue to be powerful ways to create mood, intimacy, and identity.
When we consider incorporating something “trendy,” we ask what it’s communicating. What emotion does it evoke? What story does it help tell? Trends tend to operate like fashion, just on a slower timeline and shaped by nostalgia, cultural shifts, and the realities of how long it takes to bring spaces to life. Understanding that context allows us to use these elements thoughtfully rather than reactively.
Q: What do trends overlook when it comes to how spaces are lived in?
A: Trends often prioritize visual impact over long-term experience. The most important thing to remember when designing multifamily projects is that real people live there. It sounds funny and obvious to say out loud. The design has to react and engage differently than if it were a retail space, entertainment venue, or a hotel. These are spaces that people don't just visit, they inhabit, so understanding how the design will need to be maintained, wear over time, or adapt to residents' own lives is vital.
Lived-in spaces are sensory and layered: they involve sound, light, routine, wear, and personalization. When design decisions are driven primarily by trend, those nuances can get lost, and tenants can feel like they weren't thought of. We try to anticipate how a space will feel six months or five years in, not just on opening day.
5.What carries more weight for you than trends when designing a space?
A: Narrative always carries more weight. A strong story gives design decisions, context, and clarity as it creates a framework that guides everything from material selection to value engineering. Instead of asking whether others will like a particular choice, the question becomes whether it serves the larger concept.
Trends often offer singular solutions, while narrative provides a roadmap. There are countless ways to tell a spatial story, and that flexibility allows a project to evolve while remaining cohesive. For me, that’s where the most meaningful and enduring design lives.
Trend awareness is part of being informed and discernment is what allows design decisions to hold up over time.
Our goal is to create environments that support daily use, feel appropriate for their context, and remain relevant as needs shift. That often means using trends quietly, selectively, or not at all. The result is work that feels considered rather than reactive, and spaces that continue to work well long after the trend cycle moves on.
That judgment is a large part of what clients rely on us for, and it’s something we bring to every project.
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