Week 7: Themes

My group agreed that the main points of Chapter 2 in the Trend Forecaster's Handbook are as follows:

- Brailling
- Cross cultural analysis
- Deep diving
- Idea dens and evidence walls

Topics of secondary importance are stuff, deep diving into areas of concern and the 3 times rule.

I think that an underlying theme to all the aforementioned is the importance of being physical. Idea dens and evidence walls are physical workspaces with printed photographs and notes of the area you are researching into. In this age, we could easily create an "evidence wall" online with Photoshop. A good forecaster would not only rely on the internet, however, and utilize journals, magazines and other materials. Having physical surroundings compared to a digital space removes the feeling of being confined or restricted, and liberates you. As you are physically surrounded by all these ideas, you will become more productive.

Brailing is an important way of analysis. It is about being extremely observant of the "bumps" in the culture. Besides looking for stuff within or between cultures, we should also look for what is missing, what is there, and what is beginning. The 3 times rule states that if you see the same trend in 3 areas not related, a trend is forming!

My value judgments for this chapter are that we learnt proper procedures to conduct trend research and the different techniques to do so. This new information gleaned is very important and gave us insight into the trend forecaster's world.