"All trends start as new ideas then become old ideas, so I have a love/hate relationship with them! If you follow a trend you get left behind. I prefer a trend before it has happened, when its embryo state is far more interesting than when fully grown or in full flow state.

Of course the biggest flattery for a designer is to be identified with starting a trend, but the designer needs to swiftly move on to a new idea otherwise you get left behind and become boring.

The recent trend of bling came from the mood for showing off your success, being boastful, full of pride, at a moment of financial excess. This is fine if done well – with care, pride and taste, but for the most part when it was in full sail on the high street or in the hands of people appealing to those with more money than taste, it became vulgar.

Thank goodness there has been a reaction to this, and now the trend for more humble, modest and less glitzy is more the flavour, with natural, softer colours, and smaller patterns on fabrics and wallpapers. Designs are increasingly looking hand drawn or painted even though they might have been printed digitally. Digital printing is great for replicating the many tones of watercolour and shading and has enabled the ikat batik look to flourish as a trend on locally produced fabrics.

I feel that the more we get involved in a virtual world, via computer screens, the more we feel like touching a tree, looking at a painting... the more painterly the better. This backlash against the impersonal side of technology is being felt in a distancing of some people from social networking and is also being felt in emerging design trends. We are beginning to feel more like meeting with people in the flesh once again, rather than discussing over an email, and, in parallel, like drawing or using a paintbrush. With this comes the re-emergence of crafts, happening alongside a new desire to watch the processes – to be at the printer or mill, or next to the potter's wheel.

Ironically CAD, (computer aided design), is a wonderful aid for this, as it can produce options very quickly, freeing designers up to think more deeply... though it is of course no substitute for freehand drawing. For example, CAD allows us to see surface pattern on a product template; this works especially well on small products like mugs and greeting cards where designs can be seen life sized on the screen. This allows for seeing various options before committing to a layout and can mean that art and craft can more seamlessly be 'built in' to design.

The calming down of bling is also ushering in good quality materials in all products. People want to invest in something that lasts from the point of view of physical durability but also visually. This is bringing with it a trend for buying more art work to give us more of a sense of the personal stamp in our houses.

Fundamentally, we want things that are easy to live with, with a more domestic, fresh and joyful feel, as opposed to the moody boutique hotel night club vibe of recent years. I certainly felt at this January's Maison et Objet show that this freshness was coming through, with softer, brighter, cleaner colours and a lot of folklore inspired designs."