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FAST FORWARD: HOW DESIGNERS CAN MANAGE INFORMATION OVERLOAD THOUGHT LEADERSHIP SERIES KEY TAKEAWAYS Effective technology helps creative professionals find, capture, store, and share content while enabling them to work the way they want. Curated content and aggregation tools save time while improving content quality. A cloud-based approach greatly simplifies content capture, storage, and use. storage, and use.

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STYLESIGHT WHITE PAPER:FAST FORWARD: HOW DESIGNERS CANMANAGE INFORMATION OVERLOAD

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Page 1: Info Overload (1)

FAST FORWARD: HOW DESIGNERS CAN MANAGE INFORMATION OVERLOAD

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP SERIES

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Effective technology helps creative professionals fi nd, capture, store, and share content while enabling them to work the way they want.

Curated content and aggregation tools save time while improving content quality.

A cloud-based approach greatly simplifi es content capture, storage, and use. storage, and use.

Page 2: Info Overload (1)

Searchable Image Library

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING?

CAPTURE INSPIRATION WITH CURATED CONTENT AND EXPERTISE

The Internet has become a virtually unlimited source of inspiration for creative professionals. With the explosion of websites, messaging, social media, and cloud computing, the amount of available information is staggering. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), the world’s volume of digital content is equal to 2.7 zettabytes—2.7 followed by 21 zeros bytes. Ninety percent of that is unstructured data, such as images, videos, MP3 fi les, and social media.

Rich, yes. Easy to fi nd, retrieve, and manage? Not exactly.

In the past, fashion trade magazines, travel, and library research provided inspiration and industry information. Today, creative professionals have the world at their fi ngertips. They can scour design and celebrity blogs, fashion websites, news sites, e-commerce sites, and social media outlets ranging from Pinterest to Tumblr and Facebook. They can fi nd music, exhibits, fi lms, and openings of stores, hotels, and restaurants. Research on raw materials, scientifi c and technological developments, competitors, retailers, and demographics is much simpler.

Yet, thousands of information sources can create a new problem—too much raw data. With new sites and social media applications appearing (or disconcertingly disappearing) daily, fi nding high-quality, consistent sources of original content is challenging. Traditional Google searches are time-consuming and ineffi cient. Once found, content has been diffi cult to capture, save, and share. Synchronizing fi les between desktop computers, smartphones, laptops, and tablets simply adds to frustration.

No one—from fi rst-time assistants to senior design executives—has time to sift through millions of images and thousands of news articles and then deal with the hassles of keeping good content where it can be used. Creative professionals crave big picture messages, like recaps, must-haves, key colors and items, and editors’ picks, to use as a springboard for a season. They can now benefi t from innovative technology to store, manage, fi nd, and share content while enabling them to work the way they want.

We’re past the initial giddy phase of Internet growth where every new capability was an improvement over old ways of fi nding information. Design professionals today need content distinguished by its professionalism, consistency, and timeliness. Technology tools and curated content puts high-quality sources of inspiration at designers’ fi ngertips.

GET TRUSTED EXPERT PERSPECTIVES Curated content services offer a wealth of relevant, original content for up-to-the-moment sources of inspiration or news. For example, Stylesight’s Sites That Inspire offers a continually curated collection of websites selected for their leading-edge thinking and creativity.

STORE AND MANAGE CREATIVE ASSETS IN THE CLOUD

Cloud-based storage is revolutionizing the way that we store and use creative assets. For example, image libraries with millions of images can be stored and managed cost-effectively. Designers can search items and narrow down selections in seconds, and with a click, they

can view all of their content and projects. Now it takes only minutes to synthesize, edit, and assemble content into mood boards. Designers can also upload images from their mobile devices—anywhere and anytime—and automatically save them to a virtual workspace folder. Once stored, fi les are available for access anytime, anywhere, with any device, without having to worry about translating fi le formats or saving content on external devices.

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THOUGHT LEADERSHIP SERIES

The best sources of curated content are always evolving, often with information updates and images added daily. Designers can count on fresh inspiration each time they visit, and combine curated content with user-generated content, such as Pinterest and Tumblr, with their own favorites for instant portfolios of inspiration. Fast, easy access to superior content streamlines workfl ow to deliver product design that is on-trend for better sell-through and fewer markdowns.

COLLABORATE WITH EASY-TO-USE TOOLS

Stylesight is the industry-leading content and technology solution for professionals in the style, fashion, and design sectors. Our mission is simple—to inspire and enable creativity. The Stylesight platform provides a system for management to inspire creativity with demonstrable cost savings and return on investment. At the same time, it provides creative professionals with unmatched breadth and depth of images, proprietary expert content, curated information, and tools for search, storing, arranging, and sharing ideas and inspiration.

Our 200+ person team combines proven forecasting and trend analysis, the industry’s largest image library, and workfl ow tools to make the creative journey more inspirational, as well as more effi cient and cost-effective. Today, 3000 companies rely on Stylesight every day to be their eyes and ears in the most important fashion cities and to provide the latest trend, business, materials, and sourcing information. Our mission—to inspire and enable—is changing the face of fashion every day.

HOW STYLESIGHT REDUCES INFORMATION OVERLOAD

Sites That Inspire

A similar feature, Retail & Showrooms, enables professionals to easily research the latest products from competitors and aspirational brands. Here, you can quickly skim the six must-know contemporary brands, the most infl uential footwear trends, or see how Le Bon Marche celebrated its 160th anniversary.

Curated content also saves time and highlights important “must-dos” for fashion-related travel. Style Traveler scouts the best offerings from the world’s leading design cities and delivers top picks of places to stay, eat, and drink; refi ned lists of the best local shops sorted by neighborhood; and exhibits, sights to see, museums and ways to relax.

GATHER FRESH CONTENT QUICKLYImage libraries make it possible to pull together ideas in seconds, and curated content targeted to specifi c interests saves hours of time that would otherwise be spent searching across the Internet universe. For example, if your interest is footwear, the most pertinent footwear news, analysis, trend information, and blogger perspectives can be delivered directly to your mailbox or personal workspace.

Retail Analysis

Content in the cloud, curated services, and access to premium content is enhanced with technology tools that support easy sharing and collaboration. Look for a tool that enables designers to view shared folders, instantly send images or content to design colleagues, and edit on the fl y—all with a click.

Global organizations also use private Pinterest, Tumblr, and blog features to easily and effectively communicate across distances and time zones. Other tools that can enhance collaboration include Skype audio and video conferencing and other conferencing solutions such as Go To Meeting and WebEx.

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NEW YORK GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS: +1 212 675 8877 | [email protected]

25 West 39th Street, 14th Floor

New York, NY 10018

Stylesight is the industry-leading content and technology solution for professionals in the style, fashion, and design sectors. Our

mission is simple—to inspire and enable creativity. The Stylesight platform provides a system for management to inspire creativity

with demonstrable cost savings and return on investment. At the same time, it provides creatives with unmatched breadth and depth

of images, proprietary expert content, curated information, and tools for search, storing, arranging, and sharing ideas and inspiration.

LONDON EMEA HEADQUARTERS: +44 (0)20 7613 6280 | [email protected]

Unit 1G | Zetland House, 5-25 Scrutton Street

London, EC2A 4HJ

HONG KONG APAC HEADQUARTERS: +852 2530 0553 | [email protected]

702-703 7/F Winway Bldg. 50 Wellington Street

Central, Hong Kong

STYLESIGHT CHINA in partnership with CTIC:

+86 21 6278 7201 | [email protected]

7F32 ShanghaiMart | 2299 Yan-an-xi-lu

Shanghai, China, 200336

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP SERIES

For more information visit www.stylesight.com