How can you use design trends to appeal to a specific audience?

For brands, trend forecasting is about understanding what your customers will love and value in the future. The most successful, relevant brands have a deep understanding of who their community is and what matters to them. As brands design for the future, they should look at the key influences and movements (cultural, political, economical, social, relational...) that are affecting their audience. How will these impact the lifestyles, preferences, and expectations of their consumers? How can the brand continue to evolve alongside and with their community?

Context is king here. Often times working with a specific audience brings with it a specific set of styles commonly used by that group. While this might feel like a predetermined outcome, I've found this to be an advantage. Usually, design trends come with stakeholder opinions, which can be used to help determine what to do next. For example, in the case of Web3, there's a trend to use lots of dark colors with bright gradients and abstract shapes. This offers a consistency to either learn from or position a brand against.

As you work with stakeholders, take advantage of the design trends they may be exposed to to help you make decisions. Find examples of brand references that show options for broad issues like logo or colors, to specific issues like UI elements and interactivity. By offering examples to stakeholders, you'll quickly see their reactions. Don't take them at face value though, the more you show, the more you'll learn about why they may have liked or disliked an idea. From there, it'll be clear which direction or trend to run with.

Consider the scale. If a client or stakeholder gravitates to a trendy look and feel, decide how you'd like to implement aspects of that trend. On the one hand, you could use its colors, style, and typography to inform the project's graphic identity, or on the other hand, you could use something more specific, like the forms, buttons, or other UI elements to better communicate with the target audience. The choice is really about which aspects of the trend you think are valuable and which aspects can be a deviation.

This can be tough in marketing, but if you can find ways to evaluate your choices it'll help structure decisions later down the road. One method is A/B testing. You could setup two landing pages or presentations, one directly on trend and the other deviating. See which works better!

Learning from others doesn't mean stealing, even if the trend has a heavy authorship to it. Take Web3 as an example... most companies in that space have a similar look and feel (lots of dark backgrounds with gradients and reflective blobs, etc). But this doesn't mean they are copying each other, rather, it's the result of signaling to a potential client that they are part of a larger business or cultural trend.