An introduction to Design | Intution

Design | Intuition & Katie Hatch [Design]

For years my approach to product development has been a multi-step approach which begins with an in depth competitive market analysis. Armed with the results of that research I develop a trend presentation for the next season with a focus on the specific retailer, consumer, and manufacture for each project. In the past those presentations have been proprietary specific in their focus. However recently I have received several requests for my opinions on design, retail, business, and industry trends and so I have been sending out e-mail replies, having long telephone chats, and pinning reference images to my moodboards on Pinterest. Mid-year 2011 a few clients asked me to formalize my thoughts into a comprehensive Trend Presentation for 2012. And so, Design | Intuition was formally born. 

However now that 2012 is here, I'm have begun sharing excerpts of my 84 section, 400+ page presentation on Slideshare with my Linked-In community with links to 17,000+ reference images and articles via my Pinterest boards. I invite you to follow me on Linked-In, join in on the group conversations, and check out my Pinterest boards and follow the ones that might interest you. If you aren't on Pinterest yet, you need to be! (read this)  If you need an invite you can e-mail me or just leave a comment with your e-mail address and I'll send out an invitation.


I am still doing product design with a focus on furniture and home decor, however I have also branched out recently into gift, spa, warming therapy, and travel accessory products. I am also consulting for a fashion accessory and shoe company.


The company name, Design | Intuition is actually a response to a common question I receive when presenting trends to retail buyers. They ask " How do you come up with your trends?" I wanted to respond 'intuition' because that was always how I felt, but it seemed like it could be perceived as an insult, or on the other hand as a reflection that I didn't do any work, the ideas just popped into my mind. However, after years in the business I finally decided to research the idea of 'intuition' and have come to the conclusion that in fact, yes, that is how trends start. However intuition is a complex thing. It is a mix of subconsciously absorbed ideas, consciously observed and studied information, and a mindset that allows one to make connections between multiple events, ideas, styles, topics, and industries that are normally not associated. 


Intuition Quotations
Following are few quotations on the topic of intuition that capture the essence of intuition that I always felt but could not put into words.

“Intuition is a combination of historical (empirical) data, deep and heightened observation, and an ability to cut through the thickness of surface reality. 

Intuition is like a slow motion machine that captures data

 instantaneously and hits you like a ton of bricks. 

Intuition is a knowing, a sensing that is beyond the

conscious understanding — a gut feeling. 

Intuition is not pseudo-science.”  Abella Arthur  

“The fact that modern physics, 

the manifestation of an extreme specialization of the rational mind, 

is now making contact with mysticism, 

the essence of religion and manifestation 

of an extreme specialization of the intuitive mind,

 shows very beautifully the unity and complementary 

nature of the rational and intuitive modes 

of consciousness; of the yang and the yin.” 

 Fritjof Capra (Austrian born American Physicist and Authorb.1939) 

"All perceiving is also thinking, all reasoning is also intuition, 

all observation is also invention." Rudolf Arnheim 

"Good design begins with honesty, 

asks tough questions,

comes from collaboration,

and from trusting your intuition." 

Freedman Thomas 

"Intuition and concepts constitute... 

the elements of all our knowledge, 

so that neither concepts without an intuition 

in some way corresponding to them, 

nor intuition without concepts, can yield knowledge."

Immanuel Kant

"Intuition becomes increasingly valuable in the new information society precisely because there is so much data." John Naisbitt

"Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next." Jonas Salk

"It is always with excitement 

that I wake up in the morning 

wondering what my intuition will toss up to me,

 like gifts from the sea. 

I work with it and rely on it. It's my partner."

Jonas Salk , Developed the Polio vaccine

"It is through science that we prove, 

but through intuition that we discover". 

Henri Poincare 

"Listen to your intuition. 

It will tell you everything you need to know." 

Anthony J. D'Angelo 

"Intuition comes very close to clairvoyance;

 it appears to be the extrasensory perception of reality." 

Alexis Carrel 

"Intuition is the clear conception of the whole at once." 

Johann Kaspar Lavater 

"Intuition makes much of it; 

I mean by this the faculty of seeing a connection 

between things that in appearance are completely different;

 it does not fail to lead us astray quite often." 

Andre Weil

"Nobody taught Picasso how to paint - he learned for himself. 

And nobody can teach you to be a producer. 

You can learn the mechanics, but you can't learn what's right

about a script or a director or an actor. 

That comes from instinct and intuition.

 It comes from inside you." 

Dino De Laurentiis 

"The two operations of our understanding, 

intuition and deduction, 

on which alone we have said we must rely

 in the acquisition of knowledge."

Rene Descartes 

"There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. 

There is only the way of intuition,

which is helped by a feeling for the order

 lying behind the appearance."

Albert Einstein