1. Well & Good: Alt-Health Activations for Better Living

Channelling the enduring post-pandemic fetishisation of health (the wellness market worldwide is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.3%, reaching $8.99tn by 2028), many furniture, finance and beauty brands adopted fresh wellness credentials. Projects centring (ice)-bathing, breathwork and sleep reflect the rising pursuit of anxiety alleviation, pre-emptive health and everyday joy.

2. Kidulting, Culture Trips & AI-to-IRL Dreamscapes

Also countering the contemporary joy deficit, several brands and artists leant into the dream of carefree, unbridled pleasure and play – riffing on both traditional tropes and cutting-edge (AI) tech to embrace the stress-evading, healing-connected nostalgia-fuelled mentality of kidulting. It’s a pervasive albeit not new trend: Pinterest’s 2025 Trends Predictions report, based on 2024’s soaring search terms, includes Primary Play.

3. Bio Belonging: Multisensory Environmentalism

Echoing the section Campaigns Igniting Interconnectedness in Eco Comms: Winter 2024, numerous groups advocated for art-powered environmental activism via an inspiring mix of cultural innovation and eco-stewardship. Uniting nature, science, humanity, art and tourism, they navigated both restoring loss and the visionary design needed to handle an ecologically changed future.

4. Culture Travellers: Retro Reverie, Heritage & Nostalgia

Other installations mixed art, food, music and design in intriguing expressions of nostalgia – showcasing longing for design heritage, culture and community, and the simple self-soothing allure of channelling decades gone by (see also Holiday ‘Nostalgia-tising’s’ Comforting Balm in Holiday Retail 2024). The aesthetics strayed from subtle to exuberant, retro-futuristic to period correct.