LSN : News : Need to Know 04 : 01 : 18

1. Jewellery brand Van Cleef & Arpels employs a playful aesthetic

Van Cleef & Arpels campaign by Santi Zoraidez

France – Luxury jewellery brand Van Cleef & Arpels has enlisted digital designer Santi Zoraidez to create its latest campaign in which the brand’s rings float through a surrealist landscape of bubbles, suspended mirrors and pendulum swings. ‘The golden beads of the Perlée collection are an invitation to play and I wanted my creations to add a pinch of magic and fantasy to these sophisticated pieces,’ explains Zoraidez.

The heritage brand, which was founded in 1896, is diverging from clichéd visual codes around luxury advertising and, in line with our Virtual Baroque microtrend, is instead offering a new digitalised luxury aesthetic that appeals to a younger demographic.

2. Happy Not Perfect democratises cognitive behavioural therapy

Happy Not Perfect by Poppy Jamie

UK – Entrepreneur and influencer Poppy Jamie is launching a new smartphone app, Happy Not Perfect, which aims to help Generation Z deal with everyday anxieties. Unlike the abundance of stress-relief apps currently on the market, which employ techniques like mindfulness to help combat anxiety, Jamie has developed the app in conjunction with psychologists, neuroscientists and breathing specialists who use scientifically-backed cognitive behavioural therapy principles.

‘In the same way we care for our bodies by exercising, our mind also needs to be looked after. Instead of waiting to hit rock bottom, what can we be doing regularly to help us have a more balanced emotional and mental wellbeing?’ explains Jamie on the app’s website. As explained in our Mental Health Market, with cases of anxiety and depression on the rise, brands are stepping into this space to help increase access to therapeutic treatment that has traditionally been largely unaffordable.

3. Carlsberg employs artificial intelligence to speed up R&D

Carlsberg

Denmark – Beer brand Carlsberg has partnered with computer giant Microsoft and Aarhus University on a new research project that aims to bring new flavour flavour profiles to market much more rapidly than has previously been possible.

In order to bring a new drink to market, brewers currently have to rely on human input alongside chromatography (a process that separates liquids into its component parts) and spectrometry (a method that identifies the amount and type of chemicals present in a liquid), which can take between eight and 24 months in total to complete. Using a combination of sensors and artificial intelligence (AI), Carlsberg is hoping to cut this development time by around 30%.

As Hew Leith, co-founder of brewing start-up IntelligentX, explained in an interview with LS:N Global, AI should be used co-operatively to enhance, rather than replace, a master brewer's capabilities.

4. Prose haircare fosters a partnership between customer and stylist

Prose products are co-created with professionals to assess damage from pollution, UV and humidity

Prose, US

New York – Founded by a team of former L’Oréal and Phyto haircare specialists, Prose is a new haircare brand that allows customers to co-create their own hair products to meet their scalp needs and haircare goals.

Offering bespoke shampoos, conditioners and hair masks, which are freshly made to order, Prose customers can either visit one of the brand's recommended salons for an in-person hair diagnosis or complete an online questionnaire assisted by one of the brand's own professionals.

‘We’re reinventing the way that stylists retail products by enabling them to co-create the unique hair care solutions that their clients need,’ says Arnaud Plas, co-founder and CEO of Prose. Discover more of the most forward-thinking ideas within the haircare sector in our Beauty Futures Report 2017.

5. Consumers subscribe to loyalty schemes but fail to use them

As explored in our Loyalty Market, as consumer choice improves there has been a widespread decline in loyalty as people choose to shop around rather than remaining faithful to a particular brand. While the number of consumers signing up to these rewards programmes is on the rise, the challenge for brands is in maintaining engagement beyond the initial subscription, something that forward-thinking brands are addressing with more personalised iterations of the traditional loyalty scheme.

6. Thought-starter: Is wellness architecture the next big growth area?

Hallmark House by David Adjaye, Johannesburg

As health and wellness becomes entrenched as a mainstream mindset, creative researcher Jess Smith examines how it is expanding into real estate.

Traditionally, health and wellness has been restricted to venues such as gyms, leisure centres and hotels but as wellness becomes more ubiquitous, consumers are increasingly demanding that the architecture of a broad range of public spaces, from hotels to hospitals and airports, includes wellness as a key design parameter.

‘We’re at the beginning of a new movement in home and community design that tackles our uniquely modern problems: sedentary lives, unhealthy diets, stress, social isolation, pollution and nature deprivation,’ says Katherine Johnston, senior research fellow at the Global Wellness Institute.

In the past few years a lot of research has been done into the relationship between spatial design and its effect on the human brain. Now scientifically led research is taking this one step further. Rather than just simply adding greenery to optimise a visitor’s wellbeing, architects are considering how neuroscience can play a pivotal role in shaping human behaviour through various neuro-architectural principles.

To find out more, read the full Market here.