toy,
market and trend research in furniture is a little trickier than most other areas of design. there are specific markets, age groups, styles, and trends you are always trying to appeal to. you live in the mid-west, which is where i’m from and i understand your plight. middle america is the profit honey-pit for most furniture manufacturers. appeal to the masses, you hit the sales bell curve, so to speak. in terms of the furniture you are looking at, think of them as camrys, accord, and tauruses: they don’t do anything particularly well, but they are comfortable, relatively moderately priced, and don’t offend in appearance. that’s what sells to the market (in north america).
the key to a sucessful furniture design, in my experience, is hitting the target function. after that, the segment of the market, then cost. the company i work with has no marketing department, so i partially rely on their sales statistics to see what is successful for us. this is NOT the only indicator, tho. i have to rely on my experience with branding, segment research, consumer perception, and design skill to MAKE my concepts stick.
for trends, i look all over. i watch all consumer markets. my main feelers are on electronics, automotive, fashion, home and garden, and architecture. fashion and color is among the most important to me. materials, fabrics, color trends, etc. can really sell a concept i have or kick it to the curb for future consideration. i have a co worker that maintains our materials library. i listen to her input and new findings. you can find similar information by attending seminars by major fabric or materials suppliers (like dupont, for instance). colors and color trends are easy to pick up on if you are perceptive to them. magazines and advertisements are on top of them. you just need to pick up some magazines that appeal to the market you are attempting to design for. a while back, i was designing a desk for children 7-16. the best trend information i found was buying magazines that were targeted to male and females of that age. as insipid as some of these were, i was able to pickup on fashion trends, color trends, and lifestyle. of course, it’s a generalization, but it helps to get you into the head of the end-user.
as for books, i suggest you start with Robyn Waters’ books. search her on amazon or at your library. she writes excellent, easy to understand books about trends, trend forcast, and market analysis. from there, good data can be found in American Demographics Magazine, Fast Company, and so forth.
Designing for furniture, you rarely get to design for yourself, so you have to be unselfish in your concepts. Don’t be afraid to go out and look for help. A lot of industry magazines are free (Furniture today), and offer online subscriptions. a lot of their information is dry, but occassionally, a nuggeet of information appears and you can run with it.
Lastly, i can’t tell you how important trade shows are. you can get a year’s worth of information and inspiration from one good show (like NEOCON, for example). interacting with other designers casually is also a huge help to me. don’t be afraid to admit your ignorance to others in these aspects. it helps create new avenues of thinking and information sharing.
i hope this helps a little. feel free to pm me and we can discuss it over email if i missed some points.