In some research (poking around on the Web) I was doing today, I came across this page from TextileInfo.com. Be aware of the basic research and technologies (in this case nanotechnology) that are occurring...which will undoubtedly alter or profoundly change the way you manufacture home furnishings.

Here's a blurb from the site:

Teijin Fibers Ltd. has been the first in the world to trial the production of luminescent polyester. The polyester core is covered with approximately 60 layers of nylon and polyester that have different refractive indices for light, with provisions made for red, green, blue and violet. In the case of violet, the thickness of one layer measures only 69 nanometers. This creates a mystical hue that changes according to both how light strikes the fabric and the angle from which the fabric is viewed. Only reflecting light of a specific wavelength, this structure effectively brings out color.

Last night ours became a foster home for Lucy, a seven-year-old Bichon Frise. Lucy temporarily joins Winston, our wonder-pet, also a Bichon, who we adopted from a Twin Cities rescue agency less than two years ago.

My husband and I told our two children from the beginning that we are not adopting Lucy. I thought we were clear. But as soon as our 16 year-old daughter and 10 year-old son picked her up from the rescue agency’s vet, they fell hard for Lucy. Our daughter took her to PetSmart for a bath. Then she bought Lucy a new collar, a bed and a couple of sweaters. Today, the kids will buy her some toys.

Our children are not alone in their willingness to spend both time and money on a pet.

According to Mindbranch®, U.S. consumers spent $18.9 billion on pet products in 2003. But there is more. Forbes magazine says that pet owners are spending “serious money” on nutrition and medications meant to increase life span or improve our pet's quality of life.

What drives these sales? The Ledger puts their finger on it in an on-line article called Sales of Pet Products Are Going One Way: Up.The reason: pets are considered members of the family. In our case,they become family even when they are staying just a little while.

At the Gift Fairs in Los Angeles and New York this past summer, vastarrays of pet products were on-show. Carriers topped the list, but itwas easy to find collar and leash wardrobes, as well as jackets andsweaters made from materials that ranged from pedestrian to luxury.

Portraits and feeding dishes were everywhere. Pajamas decorated withdogs or cats made it clear that our penchant for pets is more than apassing fancy. This is an important and mainstream category.

All this means that the opportunity to increase sales of petproducts through trend is as great as it is for any other niche. Thisis already happening to some degree, however, the big shift from autility to a fashion point of view that keys into color and designtrends has only begun. It has not achieved the widespread status thatis possible. When that happens, watch out. Sales will skyrocket onceagain.   

A magazine called  Inspired House has become a favorite of mine over the past year, and I highly recommended it. So you might wonder why it took me until December 27 to read this month’s issue. It’s all because of the vast numbers of books, magazines and catalogs that we receive and read at The Trend Curve™. There are so many that even our favorites sometimes have to wait!

In the December issue of Inspired House, an eight-page feature called How to Choose a Wood Floor caught my attention. It is one of the best all-round primers on the subject that I have seen anywhere. Written by Josh Garskof, this article covers solid, engineered, exotic and reclaimed options as well as laminates that look like wood in an easy-to-understand overview that includes the pros, cons and cost of each.

This month’s issue also contains an article by Nan Chase about leather furniture that provides lots of need-to-know details (Hide...and Seek. What to look for in Today's Colorful and Versatile Leather Furniture). This piece features a leather glossary and a full page devoted to showing and explaining today’s leather looks (wovens, metallics, etc.).

These two articles, intelligently written and packed with usable information, are excellent examples of how consumers can be educated with essential category information. These are tools that can be used to create a comfort level with purchasing decisions.

Another request arrived today. It came via email in the form of a question. Does The Trend Curve™ have a color forecast targeted to the Hispanic/Latino market?

I had a similar question while working with clients last week and another over the phone from a long-time client and subscriber in September. Before that, it had been nearly six months since another subscriber broached the subject of a palette for Hispanic consumers. I took notice of four requests in a year when none had come in the five years prior.

Perhaps it is time to consider developing a color forecast for this niche?

I have resisted doing so for some time. Why? Because I believe that there are colors within the hues and personalities of The Trend Curve Colors™that work for a broad range of consumers, Latinos included. I alsosensed that creating a color forecast for the Latino market, theAfrican American market, etc. would be a statement that all Latinos arethe same, all African Americans are the same, and so on. They are not.

While it is true that some cultures, Latino among them, aretypically more comfortable with color than Americans have been in thepast, it is also true that Americans are now more comfortable withcolor than ever before. This does not apply only to the use of color;it also applies to the saturation and intensity of color.

My friend and colleague Erika Woelfel of Colwell General¹s ColorStudio tells me that just a few short years ago, consumers selectedvalues of paint represented by the lightest two colors on a stripecard. Today they are more likely to pick the darkest two on that samecard. This is happening across the country.

Withthe use of color now so prevalent, is there a need for a separatepalette for the Latino market? We already have niche palettes forChristmas ('Tis The Season™ Colors) and new neutrals (Skin-Tone Neutrals™ 2006 - 2007) Weigh in with your thoughts and ideas by leaving a Comment below or by sending me an email.

While leafing through the December 6, 2004 issue of Business Week, I stopped short at a full page Samsung ad. The top third of page 19 showed a Black and White image of a residential city street, where trash sat waiting for collection on the sidewalk. Along with the bag of trash in front of one home stood a beautiful, traditionally styled, wood armoire. The bottom two thirds of the page shifted to full color. It was a contemporary living room scene with a Samsung 32-inch LCD TV hanging on the wall.

This ad reminded me of a piece I wrote for the December, 1999 issue ofThe Trend Curve™, an issue that was devoted to a number of predictionsfor the decade ahead. Among them was the forecast that flat panel TV’swould make entertainment centers obsolete.

In that piece, I suggested that the entertainment centers and armoiresthat have sold so well in the past ten years would be unnecessary bythe end of the ten years to come. That’s because their role as ahousing unit for TV’s would no longer be required. I also suggestedthat these pieces would forever be associated with the 1990’s.

I remember how much our subscribers enjoyed that issue. I also rememberhow many people thought I was way off base predicting the demise ofoversized entertainment furniture only a few years into the future.They were wrong.

After a slow start, sales of flat screen TV’s are racing ahead rightnow. This fall in particular, prices have dropped significantly on allof the types (plasma, LCD). The Consumer Electronics Associationexpects that retailers will sell twice as many plasma TV’s and threetimes as many LCD TV’s this year. Still, the market has still notarrived at the convergence of decreasing price and rising quality thatresults in a gigantic rush of mainstream sales. That will likely comeat the end of 2005.

What will everyone do with their armoire then?

Today’s armoires and entertainment centers are unnecessarily deep forflat panel TV’s; just switching from old to new technology (andreplacing your furniture) can loosen a room up by 10 inches or more.Not only that, but armoires are the wrong shape: the sleek new TV’s arewider to accommodate a letterbox aspect ratio, which is optimal formovie watching. So unless you have a few extra sweaters to store,keeping an armoire in your bedroom will begin to feel like a waste ofspace. It will also begin to feel like a visual barrier when comparedwith the low and shallow pieces that work for flat panel TV’s.

I stand by my prediction that entertainment centers and armoires willgo the way of the console TV by the end of this decade. Samsung’s adsuggests that I am no longer in the minority with this view.

It was nearly 10 years ago that my business partner and co-founder of Marketing Directions, Inc., Steve Borsch, first suggested that The Trend Curve™ needed a web presence. I told him I thought the Company had much more pressing needs and offered to list them all to make my point. He said nothing, but simply went on to create trendcurve.com on his own. Although the ecommerce piece of our web identity changed about five years ago, the basic concept of service to our subscribers that Steve put in place has remained.

Similarly, Steve came to me a year ago to say it was time for me to blog. This blog would not be an extension of The Trend Curve, but would be more personal. It would have my voice and would consist of anything from a quick quip about a great item at a trade show to random musings about concepts, colors, design directions or art. It might feel more like a diary than a publication.

I was intrigued by the idea, but just as I was a decade ago, too busywith the activities of running a trend forecasting business. 2004, Ifelt, was the wrong year to launch a blog. During that year I wouldlaunch two new color forecasts ('Tis The Season™ Colors and The Trend Curve Colors™ KIDS, which will debut later this month) and a new TrendAlbum™ (Ten Top Trends), as well as return FutureHome™ to the manysubscribers who missed it and asked for it again (watch for thatrelease at the end of December). No, a blog was not in the picture.

Steve accepted my answer for several months. Then, two weeks ago, hedecided to take the same approach he had taken 10 years ago. Stevepresented my blog to me, named and ready to go. I couldn’t be moreexcited about the potential to write about things I feel are worthdiscussing in the world of trend, but in a more personal way than isappropriate to The Trend Curve.

I like the name Connecting the Dots™. For years, Steve and I have talkedabout the fact that trend forecasting is all about doing just that. Welook at a myriad of topics, including lifestyle influences,demographics, world politics, retail and trade shows, then project theconnections and how they will play out into the future.

By the way, Steve’s own site, also playing on the Connecting the Dotstheme, deals with technology. You can find Steve's version of Connecting the Dots here. Itis well worth the visit!

So welcome to a blog that has been a year in the making. You can visitas often as you like, make comments on my topics when the spirit movesyou and find in-context links when available.

I hope that each of you will enjoy Connecting the Dots as much as you enjoy The Trend Curve.

Michelle