LSN : Daily Signals : 24 : 04 : 26

Aesop translates its brand philosophy into domestic objects at Milan Design Week

The Factory of Light by Aesop, Milan Design Week 2026, Italy

Milan – At The Factory of Light installation at Milan Design Week, skincare brand Aesop unveiled its first-ever lighting designs.

Set within a 15th-century cloister in Brera, the immersive installation reimagines Milan through printed scaffolding and four rooms dedicated to light, a concept central to the brand’s philosophy of ‘illuminating the skin’.

The first three rooms are dedicated to the making of the lamps and feature a display table constructed from 16,000 Aesop glass bottles. The final room introduces the Aposē lamps, a limited-edition collection of 500 table, pendant and floor lamps informed by the shape of Aesop’s signature hand balm tubes.

Developed in collaboration with lighting brand Flos and crafted from glass and brass in Italy and Germany, the pieces extend the brand’s sensorial identity into the home.

The activation signals growing consumer appetite for brand worlds that translate into collectible domestic objects, and for retail environments that take customers on a storified journey, as explored in our Culture-coded Retail macrotrend report.

Strategic opportunity

Consumers are looking for inspiration and entertainment from brand spaces. Take them on narrative-led journeys that move beyond display and into cultural immersion, and build emotional resonance and meaningful connection with the end product

Foresight Friday: Rose Coffey, senior foresight analyst

AI imagery by The Future Laboratory, UK

Every Friday, we offer an end-of-week wrap-up of the topics, issues, ideas and virals we’re all talking about. This week, senior foresight analyst Rose Coffey explores dreaming as cultural practice.

: Throughout my childhood and early teens, I experienced petit mal seizures – a type of epilepsy characterised by staring spells and lapses in awareness. My absences were often mistaken for daydreams and in an attempt to de-pathologise my condition, I coined the seizures my ‘dreams’.

: This week, at Milan Design Week 2026, Designboom presents Room for Dreams at ME Milan Il Duca Hotel, ‘a series of dreamstates’ in the venue.

The activation combines spatial installations, conversations and screenings to explore dreaming as a deliberate form of social and cultural transformation. Each space within the hotel corresponds to a different phase of dreaming.

To dream is a contemplative practice, one long explored in religious scriptures and philosophy. Room for Dreams expands this idea, framing dreaming as a shared cultural act.

: Increasingly, technologies designed to capture and extend dreaming are emerging. In June 2025, we analysed Dutch design studio Modem’s Dream Recorder, an AI-powered device that transforms spoken memories into cinematic sequences. Alongside AI dream journals such as Intrasleep, Dreaming Atlas and Dust, these tools suggest dreaming is moving from a subconscious event to participatory cultural practice.

: As digital culture compresses time into an always-on present, dreaming emerges as a counterforce. As we explore in our New Ways of Seeing 2025: Embracing Multiplicity in Modern Creativity report, this new experience of time reframes memory as a creative medium.

With temporal boundaries continuing to blur, dreaming shifts from interior experience to cultural infrastructure – shaping how we remember, interpret and make sense of an increasingly nonlinear world.

Explore how fragmented timelines and perpetual media exposure will redefine how people process culture, memory and meaning in our upcoming Future of Discovery macrotrend report.

Quote of the Week

‘In today’s world, continuing to create imaginaries, joy, and new possibilities feels more necessary than ever’

Christopher Dessus, founder, Paf Atelier via Instagram

Stat: Britain’s diet shift set to reshape food service

Photography by Mike Jones

Global – Nearly half (45%) of British adults are now following high-protein, low-calorie diets, rising to 60% among Gen Z and younger Millennials, signalling a shift in how people are engaging with food-service venues, reports Circana.

Beverage-only trips account for 14% of visits to food-service venues in Europe and 9% in Britain, compared to 45% in the US. This is partly because of the use of GLP-1 medications.

Consumers are increasingly seeking venues that offer premium coffee, functional drinks or and low- or no-alcohol options, as well as portion-controlled and protein-focused menu items, with 23% of people in Britain saying that they are switching dining venues due to a lack of suitable choices.

Restaurants are responding with offerings, but innovation gaps remain. ‘The sector should look at how revamping menus will help tap into new consumption patterns in a way that feels locally relevant for the consumption occasion and channel. Those who can strike that balance will be best positioned to win in the next phase of foodservice growth,’ says Edurne Uranga, VP Foodservice Europe at Circana.

Explore our newly released report Liquid Intentions to uncover emerging opportunities in the drinks industry, from customised drinks in quick-service restaurants to coffee shops hosting social events.

Strategic opportunity

Look to more mature markets, such as the US, while Europe and Britain are still emerging. Create beverage-led occasions, featuring functional, personalised and low-or no-alcohol product ranges.