Meet Our Members: Coates Group

We spoke to Henry Hidayat, Design Director, NPX, to find out more about how Coates Group uses its Stylus membership to help forge a better future for the brand.

What stood out to you about Stylus trends and insights?

When Stylus was first introduced to us, I was looking through the platform at all of the trends reports and thought: “Wow!” Prior to becoming a Stylus member, I had to search really wide and spend a lot of time finding all the information I needed, whereas now I can access it all in one central place.

After one of our big projects, we used Stylus retrospectively to go back and make sure that what we were doing was still relevant – as by that point in the project timeline, our initial in-house research was already a year old, and we wanted to verify it. Since becoming a Stylus member, we’ve received quite a lot of comments on our new design direction and visual language.

As a Stylus member, we have access to cross-industry reporting. I enjoy exploring the topics that aren’t directly applicable to us. It’s useful to know where other industries are heading, especially with fashion trends. Looking at the Colour & Materials trends and the way [brands] are thinking about sustainability is important, as I know that eventually they’re going to affect us.

We spoke to Henry Hidayat, Design Director, NPX, to find out more about how Coates Group uses its Stylus membership to help forge a better future for the brand.

What stood out to you about Stylus trends and insights?

When Stylus was first introduced to us, I was looking through the platform at all of the trends reports and thought: “Wow!” Prior to becoming a Stylus member, I had to search really wide and spend a lot of time finding all the information I needed, whereas now I can access it all in one central place.

After one of our big projects, we used Stylus retrospectively to go back and make sure that what we were doing was still relevant – as by that point in the project timeline, our initial in-house research was already a year old, and we wanted to verify it. Since becoming a Stylus member, we’ve received quite a lot of comments on our new design direction and visual language.

As a Stylus member, we have access to cross-industry reporting. I enjoy exploring the topics that aren’t directly applicable to us. It’s useful to know where other industries are heading, especially with fashion trends. Looking at the Colour & Materials trends and the way [brands] are thinking about sustainability is important, as I know that eventually they’re going to affect us.

Henry Hidayat

Design Director, NPX, Coates Group

“It’s useful to know where other industries are heading, especially with Fashion trends – looking at the Colour & Materials trends and the way [brands] are thinking about sustainability is important, as I know that eventually they’re going to affect us."

Henry Hidayat

Design Director, NPX, Coates Group

Stylus reporting covers 20 industries and 10 core directories – each of which falls under our 3 pillars; lifestyle, product and engagement. Which do you find most useful, and why?

I use the Colour & Materials trends quite religiously as they help inform the way I provide a visual language for the product that I’m working on. Other reports I use a lot are those based on consumer, technology, and automotive shows. While we’re not an automotive company, because of the way we work – integrating technology into our solutions – I find us comparable to automotive companies in the way we deliver hardware and software products.

The Consumer of 2040 series has been read quite a lot. We use Stylus reports to inform our user experience and personas – to get an understanding of the metrics and who the users are across industries.

Would you recommend Stylus to other businesses?

One hundred per cent – definitely become a Stylus Member. My partner is an industrial designer working in furniture, and I said to her that she needed to see your reporting from Milan Design Week. It was a penny-drop moment for her. She’d seen various aspects singularly and so had an idea of where design was going, but to see it collated in one format – in one location – was really useful. It validated for her where she saw the trends in the industry going.