2025 Baby & Toddler Design Trends with Madeleine Ritchie

Child-centered design will be essential for 2025. A rejection of the ‘beigeification’ of childhood sees products no longer being created to fit their parents’ world; instead, playful, messy, creatively rebellious interiors and products are embraced by the whole family.

Exploring Rebellious Creativity at Kind + Jugend 2024.

This year at Kind + Jugend, our Visual Trend Editor, Madeleine Ritchie, will take the stage at the Trend Forum to share her expertise on future trends impacting the baby and kids industry. Madeleine’s presentation will explore ‘Rebellious Creativity,’ a trend set to influence 2025 baby and toddler design trends, providing a forward view into the trends reshaping the industry.

In anticipation of her talk, Madeleine shares how the baby and kids industry can navigate current challenges and seize emerging opportunities. From addressing sustainability to harnessing the power of hyper-personalisation, Madeleine will offer trend insights on how brands and retailers can stay ahead in an evolving market.

What are some of today’s challenges and opportunities within the baby and toddler industry? 

Sustainability and environmental concerns are increasingly at the forefront of caregivers’ minds, and this is pushing brands to navigate a balance between innovating and doing good and managing higher production costs. There is a growing consumer demand for authenticity and personalisation in design, and there are plenty of opportunities for brands to tap into this. They want great design that feels unique. Ultimately, caregivers today are highly informed and expect high standards when it comes to quality, safety, and design.

Tell us what you will be speaking about in your live sessions at Kind + Jugend?

I’ll be speaking about ‘Rebellious Creativity’; exploring a colourful shift that will propel children’s innate curiosity and imaginations to new heights, unleashing a kid-centric revolution centred around boundless fun, creativity and self-expression.

What does ‘rebellious creativity’ mean for baby and toddler product and design trends? 

In essence, this trend is about moving away from superficial standards, excessive parental involvement, and the beigeification of childhood. Instead, it embraces hyper-personalisation, imperfection, colour and abundance in design.

Why is this topic important for the Kind + Jugend community?

We’re seeing that families are tired of homogeneity and are instead opting to ‘do things their own way’. We’re also seeing a maturing awareness and understanding of neurodiversity, leaving the door open for the creation of more inclusive solutions – something that I think will resonate with a lot of caregivers and brands.

This is your first time attending the Kind + Jugend. What are you most looking forward to?

Between talks, I’ll be exploring the show on the hunt for newness and emerging trends. I love talking to designers and brands about their products – there’s just no better way to gain insight into the design process and a brand’s ethos than hearing about it first-hand.

Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do at TrendBible.

I predominantly work on our trend forecasts by researching the things that are influencing design, both visually and culturally, as well as how trends make consumers feel, and my role encompasses working across all of our design trends; from Baby & Kids and Home & Interiors, to Gift & Greetings. I’ve been with TrendBible for coming up to two years, and before my current role, I was a Senior Designer for a UK-based e-learning brand. I was in that field for about 10 years and gained lots of experience in children’s learning styles, as well as international curriculums and teaching resources within the education system.

What’s the most exciting part of your job?  

The learning never stops. Learning is a continuous journey here. While it’s often easy to become detached from your core products as you climb the career ladder, that’s not the case with TrendBible. At every level, we collaborate and experiment with new ideas to drive innovation. There’s a strong desire to deeply understand the forces shaping current trends, making it an incredibly stimulating environment to work in. The research aspect of my job ensures that I’m always moving forward, never standing still.

See you at Kind + Jugend in September!

You can attend Madeleine’s presentation on 2025 Baby & Toddler Design Trends Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th September at the Trend Forum at Kind + Jugend in Cologne. For more information on the trade fair visit kindundjugend.com.