The Trend Forecaster’s Handbook is a sharp, in-depth and highly visual textbook and teaching aid for students and tutors keen to know more about the world of trends, trend forecasting and consumer-insight techniques.

Trends are a fundamental part of our emotional, physical and psychological landscape, and by forecasting trends, or using them to anticipate what is new and next in the world, we can begin to understand what drives and motivates consumers. This in turn can help to make the difference between a product or design that sells and one that languishes on the shelf.

This ‘how to’ book provides design students with skills to understand and track trends and use them to inform their research, design and product development. Highly visual, the book takes us through the world of trend forecasting and consumer insight in a step-by-step way, with quotes from, interviews with and case studies of key players. Each chapter concludes with a lesson plan, or summary panel, which reviews the key issues covered and describes a course of action or a project-based activity that allows students to experience the techniques or methodologies explored.

Martin Raymond is a co-founder of The Future Laboratory, a consumer-insight, trend-forecasting and brand-strategy agency whose clients include American Express, Louis Vuitton, Laurent-Perrier, Absolut, BMW, Lamborghini and Condé Nast. He is a regular media commentator on trends and business for the BBC. He maintains a busy schedule of lecturing at over 12 colleges and universities. He is also a contributing editor for Wired UK, and a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. Martin has written several books including CrEATe and The Tomorrow People: Future Consumers and How to Read Them