It’s an online learning environment that features a Foundation course, where you can learn how to spot short, medium and long term trends, interpret change, practice coolhunting and originate ideas. All materials and research activities are managed by the Future Concept Lab team.
The complete Foundation training is outlined in 4 sections, each section dedicated to 4 main socio-dynamic forces. Students will be introduced to consumer insights and attitudes, on global and local level, trend tools and exercises, coolhunting research techniques, and suggestions for trends application. Through the 35 lessons, participants will become aware of the main aspects of socio-cultural change: Talent & Personalization, Sustainability & Simplification, Sensoriality & Exploration, and Sharing and Sociability. Participants may however opt for a Part-training having access to only 1 section, or the Full-training, having access to all 4 sections, exercises and materials. The first TrendsGymnasium training programme is now available.
Internships to top score students for on-the-job training will be offered in Milan by Future Concept Lab, after the successful completion of the Full-training course.
What’s a trend?
Trends are “social facts”, as Emile Durkheim, the father of empirical sociology, claimed. In short, they are all those phenomena that, no matter of how rapidly and in which context they evolve, give tangible evidence to social, relational and cultural phenomena of change. Trends have a complex lifecycle and evolution, ranging from Microtrends and Macrotrends to Collective Imagination, each one of these categories containing different strata of phenomena which evolve at different speeds. Their interpretation could be sometimes counterintuitive: for example, only ten years ago diet food was a Microtrend that quickly spread from a small niche of people through different levels of society. Only few people would have guessed, however, the emergence of the opposite phenomenon (countertrend): “indulgence food”, grounded on taste and on traditional ways of cooking and capable to connect the sensorial experience with a healthy promise.
Working on trends
The abilities of observation, curiosity and a good dose of intuition could seem to be enough when working on trends analysis, but the reality is very different and complex. It is necessary to distrust the many professional figures (experts in trends, cool-hunters, futurologists) who boast this ability only because they are young, informed or stylish. There is always a great risk of becoming enthusiastic over one trend, ignoring the other emerging trends. Trends need to be placed within a scenario: as within the TrendsGymnasium learning environment. A single discipline, or a point of view, is not enough to construct a trends scenario over time. In this profession approximation of results does not exist: if the trend that one identifies does not survive and does not become stronger it means that the direction was wrong.
Coolhunting, is neither a job-title-coined in the mid nineties- nor a new professional figure. Future Concept Lab launched coolhunting in 1992 – the first institute in the world – as an innovative alternative to existing research methods. The coolhunting activity interpreted clearly the need to face, in a spontaneous manner and without much theory, change: the elastic mind and job role of researchers, managers and designers.
Coolhunters are young creative people, usually freelancers, gather and report all those interesting (cool) expressions emerging in the urban and domestic reality of a specific city, where they live and work, giving photographic and written evidence. Their wide Microtrends observation includes how people dress, which are their cultural or consumption preferences, which are the new city venues.
Cultsearchers are, usually older and more experienced than the coolhunters, young researchers who do not only gather information, but have got the ability and expertise to manage Microtrends and Macrotrends and turn their findings into ideas generating new projects.
Methodology
During this learning experience, Future Concept Lab will guide you, through 7 progressive training modules, on how to spot and understand the differences between short, medium and long term trends, Macrotrends, Microtrends, local and global trends, making full use of the Institute’s research tools for understanding society and market evolution. Students will be also introduced to the coolhunting and cultsearching techniques, alternative research activities that can enhance one’s ability to observe reality and generate ideas.
Microtrends, niche phenomena regarding consumer behaviours, attitudes, styles and expressions, are growing at speed around us. The media (newspapers, magazines, blogs…) present eye-catching information and interesting facts on a daily basis. Nevertheless, the impact and analysis of this data is a difficult task for the untrained mind and eyes. The MicroFraming module, the starting point for the seven months training, is decisive in order to understand the relationship between the small-scale expressions of change and their influence (weak or strong) in the global market. Giving an interpretation regarding their relevance on a global and local level that can be misleading without a constant and 360° degrees observation of the local and global realities.
Microtrends may often inspire and stimulate new ideas, but their role can become strategic by fully understand their relevance and relation to the different strata of trends (micro, macro, local, global…).
Macrotrends, are those sociocultural phenomena that tackle themes of universal relevance that represent society’s big changes. Their expressions are all around us, embodied by new social practices, different attitudes that people have towards change, innovative products and services that in different market sectors give a tangible evidence of the encounter between global values and local behaviours. Anything, from new forms of interaction, to the way people express themselves through shopping, traveling, eating, partying, and new products that in different market sectors gain universal recognition in different countries, conveys those emerging sensibilities that are highly visible, even if uncommon for the majority. Macrotrends, or long term trends, represent for companies and professionals low risk solutions when working on innovation: since they embody strong insights that are highly visible in the market, the chance that your project meets the publics’ expectations is high, if following the macrotrends direction. In this case, you will not necessarily produce innovation. However, macrotrends evolve: by tracing their evolution and their different expressions in the different market sectors you can adopt advanced innovative solutions based on advanced sensibilities, less visible and consequently with a higher risk content. Yet, by anticipating the underlying needs of people, you may produce innovation.
The Mindstyles program is the result of the constant monitoring of the cultural currents linked to the collective imaginary and based on the analysis of the contents proposed by the mass media and by the abilities of the opinion leaders of the different sectors, to orientate peoples values, tastes and styles. The research deals with all of the more vital areas of creativity, ranging from music to literature, from art to communication, from fashion to design without forgetting the lateral forms of expression that are not structured according to precise sector-based standards. The concepts and trends of the imaginary, understood as new attractors for the market of the future, have in fact gained universal and recognised importance. Processes linked to projects, production and consumption no longer produce final statements of form and language, products and services, but instead produce new potential in terms of experience and knowledge. To explore the emerging Mindstyles in this way becomes a new work methodology, based on the ability to relate with the context through an interface that is sensitive and active, to find the instruments of comparison with a market that has become an open and problematic system. Therefore the Mindstyles build a system that produces "conceptual" information and services, develops new links and filters new relations, without depicting a complete scenario, but by providing a large number of paths and scenarios which become islands of senses within the complexity of the system. In this complex scenario the values, the behaviours and the languages overlap and mix, supplying layers of indications on the directions of an advanced present that is ever more difficult to foresee.
The knowledge of the Genius Loci - "the talent of the place" - permits you to enter into the spirit of a place, a country, a city, a specific culture, gathering all that is identified as the essence of its character, of the elements linked to the historic roots connected to the graphical location, up until the more recent experiences equiped with a “global overview”. To understand the Genius Loci of a Country means to take into account the aspects that are closely linked to its tradition up to more recent and innovative projects, to arrive to a common point; means to seize all that is unique and, at the same time, universal of a culture, from its everyday life and its products. Means, in short, to single out the "consolidated talents", as well as the latent capabilities: elements to be discovered and promoted from the point of view of values and behaviours, of ways of living and of thinking, in the search for products and innovation. To talk of talent and personalisation can also be very different depending on if it is discussed in Italy or China, with an Italian or a Chinese: for this to have an in depth knowledge of ones "homeland", to increase and consolidate talent becomes fundamental for the understanding of the same talent. In this section the student will be presented with the Genius Loci vision and the approach in research, the related methodology and the practical applications, or rather the identification and the explanation of case histories (companies, but not only) that are interpreted according to the values and behaviours of the geographical, social and cultural context in which they were produced. Constantly putting into relation the global and local concepts, talking about specificity, of icons as the effect of the culture of a place, of stereotypes as the crystallisation of elements of reality, but also of similarities, analogies and points of contact between realities that can be very distant and different, with a tradition and a history that often brings them to be considered antithetic, almost "in conflict" between them. A "local" that remains an added value to achieve and emphasise, without forgetting the globalisation that brings together and links the various Genius Loci.
Future Concept Lab launched coolhunting in 1992 – the first research institute in the world – as an innovative alternative to existing research methods. Coolhunting is neither a job-title-coined in the mid nineties, nor a new professional figure. Coolhunting interprets the need to face change, in a spontaneous manner and without much theory. People who practise coolhunting, gather and report all those interesting (cool) expressions emerging in the urban and domestic reality of a specific city, giving photographic and written evidence, similarly to an ethnographic observation. Their wide observation includes information, on how people dress, their cultural or consumption preferences, new city venues etc., without however interpreting the impact of their findings on global and local level. Nevertheless, the Future Concept Lab has in the past years experimented a more systematic way of practising coolhunting, offering to the deployed young researchers of the international network not only training on alternative ethnographic methodologies but also a strong theoretical background.
Coolhunting is not enough for a complete research study that leads to innovative projects. People practising cultsearching activity are more experienced than coolhunters, are creative professionals but also young researchers who do not only gather information, but turn their findings into sociological insights. The cultsearching activity helps professionals enrich the interpretation of findings by the experimentation and integration of different methodologies, such as anthropology, ethnography, design research, using however sociological imagination. Future Concept Lab has been developing methodical techniques for practising cultsearching, by integrating a number of diverse research methodologies, such as semiotic studies, anthropology, ethnography, design research, crossing over often the worlds of research, management and creativity.
4P Development
Change is evident at different levels. One one side, macrotrends, microtrends, local and global trends become strategic tools for understanding market evolution, on the other, coolhunting and cultsearching are new ways to empower one’s ability of observing reality and gathering information. But in order to turn insights and learnings into projects, it is important not only inspiration that often arises from interdisciplinary fields of knowledge, but also specific project development techniques. The Institute has been implementing integrated research projects based on specific methodologies that lead to the definition of sector-related scenarios, through consultancy and training services, in order to enable its clients to effectively deal with both advanced and emerging markets. Professionals working on innovation can generate creative projects for the future and develop hypothesis that reflect society, by using the 4P business development model, a valuable method employed for the definition of a great deal of corporate strategies and scenarios for products, communication and distribution.
Mission
Since the success of a project often depends on the ability to integrate a number of disciplines, such as marketing, design, ethno-anthropology, psychology. The course proposes a mix between creativity, intuition and research methodology. Therefore during the Trendsgymnasium learning experience, learn how to integrate trend findings giving social interpretation, as well as coolhunting and cultsearching activities together with systematic interpretative tools, part of Future Concept Lab research methodology.
Materials
The course materials include research reports, research briefs, indications on coolhunting and cultsearching, as well as video and audio files, questionnaires, book suggestions and press materials.
Extras
Full-training course participants can attend a one-day seminar of the Future Vision Workshop in Milan.
Duration
• Full-training course : 11 months 8 months of trend analysis + 2 months of “on-the-spot” observation + 1 month of project development.
• Part-training course : 3 months 2 months of trend analysis + 1 month of “on-the-spot” observation.
Sections & Costs
The complete training is structured in 4 sections, each dedicated to 4 main socio-dynamic forces. Through the 35 lessons, participants will become aware of the main aspects of socio-cultural change: Talent & Personalization, Sustainability & Simplification, Sensoriality & Exploration, and Sharing and Sociability. Participants may however opt for a Part-training having access to only 1 section, or the Full-training, having access to all 4 sections, exercises and materials. The first TrendsGymnasium training programme is now available. Full-training: 2500 Euro (4 sections, 35 lessons) Part-training: 1000 Euro (1 section, 9 lessons)
For whom
Creative people, designers, researchers, marketing specialists, with any cultural and academic background interested to trends research, business innovation and coolhunting can apply. The training program has been designed so that one has enough time between lessons to study and carry out assigned tasks, fit even for busy professionals.
Certificate
Future Concept Lab will certify that the participant has successfully completed the TrendsGymnasium training after the evaluation of the final assignment in each of the 4 proposed sections.
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