By the time most of us see a trend on our feed, it s already "dead." Using it makes you look out of touch. But as a founder/small team, you don't have 8 hours a day to rot on TikTok or $10k for a trend consultant

How I try to stay ahead (the manual way):

• Ignore brands, follow creators: I track specific photographers/creative directors. They are the ones actually creating the aesthetic everyone else will copy in 6 months.

• Deep-dive guides & niche resources: Using things like the Reddit 2026 Seasonal Moments map to prep months in advance.

AI visuals are suddenly everywhere and much easier to make. I m curious what s been the real impact for makers .

Has it actually affected your team and budget? Did you hire fewer designers, work with freelancers less, or did it mostly just speed up and improve the same process?