Photography Consumer Insights

Implications - Nefariously skewed photographs using digital manipulation have fueled a lot of online schadenfreude. People’s engagement in creating and sharing these images alludes to a low societal self-esteem and the desire to improve feelings of self worth through defamatory products or services.

Implications - In 2007 street style blogs emerged as go-to guides for fashion inspiration. In 2008, spotting real-life outfits on global streets evolved, with sites now spotting style on subways, events and university campuses. “Real style” also featured in high fashion magazines and touched new markets this year, such as video games.

Implications - The economic crisis has shaken many people from idyllic lifestyles, revealing that life isn’t a fairytale. While some consumers wish to stay disillusioned, others want to face reality and are flocking to that which they perceive as honesty. These consumers don’t want us to hide from their troubles, they want to face or embrace them.

Implications - Fashion is more up in the air than ever and surrealist, fantasy imagery is appealing to those looking to escape tedium and fly free. In the fashion industry, weight has always been an issue, but editorials and advertisements that feature seemingly weightless, floating and flying models are gaining popularity.

Implications - Media outlets have adopted an au naturale attitude to address the ever-expanding gap between pin-thin celebrities and the overweight North American masses. This public humanization of celebrities reflects the guerrilla one we saw in 2008 as avid Photoshop users uglified famous faces on their own.

Implications - As people move to the city, nature--especially the deep forest--holds more appeal as it becomes a more foreign place. Advertisers and fashion designers are capitalizing on this intrigue by using the forest as a backdrop to produce photoshoots, editorials and campaigns with a woodland theme.

Implications - Fantasy has become a unique way to appeal to the consumer subconscious and the underwater environment in particular lends itself to fantastical reverie. Applied especially to fashion photography, the use of a submerged subject allows for a dreamlike setting that may impart an enchanted element to seemingly ordinary designs.

Implications - Consumers are no longer attracted to purely "pretty" items. The incorporation of optical illusions into products coincides with the desire for items that make people think, use their imagination, while at the same time escaping from the banality of everyday life. From home design to fashion prints, things are not always what they seem.

Implications - Showing off legs with vibrant microminis is rampant this season. What’s more, these California-inspired microminis take the form of eccentric and colorful patterns in order to turn as many heads as possible. Post-recession, industries are doing anything to stand out—and what better way than exposing seductive stems?

Implications - The popularity of vampires has been holding strong, but that trend is now stripped down to the most simplistic and gruesome commodity--blood. Pop culture, marketing, business and art are looking within the human anatomy for inspiration for their products, advertisements and editorials.