France

One of the key influences for 2008 is to be responsible consumers. The Observatoire notes in its “Inspirations” trend notes that the time has come to “consume usefully”; we can't go on exploiting the planet's resources to the point of exhaustion. To find better ways to produce, we're creating new behaviors: We retrieve, recycle and find new ways to use materials. And while better design reduces the amount of material used, art turns rubbish into gold. At the vanguard of this new responsible attitude, the art of living re-establishes a better world where the useful chases out the useless.

Expanding upon and supporting these notions are the following observations by contributors to the “Inspirations” presentation.

According to Vincent Gregoire of The NellyRodi Agency, an international trend forecasting service, now is the time to “rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle.” The urgency of the ecological situation imposes new protocols on manufacturers. The eco-citizen strives to reduce waste but not pleasure. It is time for an “ecosophy” of useful glamour, which gives a new lease on life to objects and materials. There is an optimistic and cheerful, yet virtuous, approach expressed in the desire to embellish the home while respecting the planet.

• Alternative watchwords: Avoid throwing away, save, filter, return to the notion of seasons, move from disposable to durable, be respectful and responsible.

Francois Bernard, of the Croisement Agency, sees a new human-scale luxury based on good sense and know-how. This approach contrasts with hyper-consumption and overproduction, the cold and trivializing mechanization of mass-produced consumer goods.

This ethic focuses on the emotional appeal of objects made in micro-production, where the touch of the human hand is more valuable than the machine process; where there is an ideal beauty in the unique object, which is a throwback to the Arts & Crafts movement.

• Artsy-Craftsy watchwords: limited edition, micro-production, know-how, indispensable fantasy, quality and exception, color and light, original materials, being a player in decoration, mixing genres and spectacular effects, genealogy of styles, traceability of products.

Elizabeth Leriche displays an art of waste that shows how useless throwaways can be turned into gold. Following the practices of recovery and deviation, artists glean the rejects of everyday life and gracefully metamorphose this raw material into new forms; they reappraise and transform a common object from its original function.

It is a lesson in original and interactive things, like the metaphor of an era balanced between the fear of the eco-disaster and the desire to see the birth of a new world.

• Scrap watchwords: materials/rejects, art and waste, bulky useless objects, refuse, rubbish, residue, over-production, packaging, retrieval, transformation.

Next fair: Maison & Objet — Paris, January 25–29, 2008.