Welcome to Radar - Autumn 2015, the design trends magazine curated by the ever-curious at Echo Brand Design. Each quarter, Radar explores a fresh macro-trend and how it is manifesting across different brand categories and touch-points, considering what it might mean for your brand.

This autumn, we take a look at the macro theme The Human Touch and assess the ways in which brands are reconnecting with consumers in today’s online world. The convenience of the digital world should not eliminate the warmth, values and connections that humans innately desire. We explore three areas that are putting warmth back into the digital world:

1. The Art of Conversation: How brands talk to consumers is vital; we are all now looking for a more human, two-way relationship with our brands. We explore challenger brands breaking the norm with conversational branding and pack designs and we summarise the key take-outs from this micro-trend to keep you on top of the competition. 

2. Craft of Authenticity: Appetities are skewing towards more real, quality and honest products. It's about products that illustrate trust which ladders back up to create brand love through a human connection.

3. Emotional Bonds: We've already embraced the convenience of the digital shopping experience. We look into the opportunity for brands to build deeper, more human connections with new distribution models.

Radar is a printed publication but can be read online here.