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iF Design Trend Report 2026

The iF Design Trend Report 2026 is now available! Use the form below to download your free copy.

iF Design Trend Report 2026

Ready to explore what's next? 70 days free starting 28 April! We are continuing this tradition for the fifth year in a row. Simply fill out the form to receive your free copy.

Today, we know the future isn’t shaped by just a few major trends. It actually develops in the tension between trends and their countertrends. Spanning over 300 pages, the report helps designers to deepen their understanding of transformative trends.

This is the fifth collaboration with The Future:Project, which connects cross-disciplinary design trends with key technological and social developments. Uwe Cremering, CEO of iF Design, explains the goal of this initiative: "The iF Design Trend Report 2026 is intended as a source of orientation, reflection, and inspiration. It invites designers, companies, and institutions to discover new approaches for creating future-oriented solutions, because design today is not only about shaping products and services — it is about shaping relationships, systems, and possibilities".


USEFUL LINKS

iF Design Trend Conference
Find out about the keynotes at the 2026 conference

iF Design Trend Report 2026

Here's what you'll find inside in the iF Design Trend Report:

  • Focus on four key trend and countertrend pairs and their influence on design:

    1_ Age of Average | Recoupling Design

    2_ Convenience Culture | Skillization

    3_ Next Nature | Human Enhancement

    4_ Unfolding Cities | Urban Villages

  • Challenges and solutions for designers and companies.

  • Interviews and insights from international design experts.

  • Statistics and best practice examples of award-winning products, projects and services.

Age of Average | Recoupling Design

As AI integrates into nearly every product and design process, a new Age of Average emerges. Algorithms replicate the most probable and familiar solutions, accelerating sameness across domains.

Recoupling responds by breaking with algorithmic logic and rediscovering distinctive, pre-digital and attitude-driven design approaches.

Convenience Culture | Skillization

The pillars of the Convenience Culture are low effort, immediate availability and ease of use. Design principles such as reducing friction, snackification and modularity create the most convenience for users.

Skillization is the conscious counterpoint to this: Learning and maximizing one’s potential provides a sense of self-efficacy and control. Design can enhance the learning experience and create communities of capability.

Next Nature | Human Enhancement

As technology accelerates and ecological crises deepen, new worldviews emerge. Next Nature reframes nature and technology as interconnected.

Human Enhancement explores how bodies and health evolve through science and design. Design connects nature, technology and culture to create integrated, regenerative futures.

Unfolding Cities | Urban Villages

Cities are constantly changing: They unfold by using existing spaces and structures in new ways, by creating hybrid spaces and by using targeted design and mobility offerings to create connections rather than division.

Urban Villages show how community and neighborhoods are designed in cities: Districts become lively quarters, non-places become meeting places. Design plays an important role in balancing and
meeting current and future needs in cities.

iF Design Trend Report 2026

Published by: iF International Forum Design GmbH, Hannover
Date of publication: 28 April 2026
Language: English
Pages: 309 Pages
Edited by: The Future:Project AG
Layout: Melville Brand Design
Format: Digital, landscape format 16:9
PDF File Size: 74 MB
Price: Free Download by 7 July (EUR 299,00 incl. VAT from 8 July 2026)

CONTACT

iF Design Trend Report
Rylana Kossol
Bahnhofstrasse 8
30159 Hannover
Germany

+49.511.54224-206
Email