Marita Wesely-Clough

Trend Spotter

Keeping an Eye on Trends

Marita Wesely-Clough, trends expert at Hallmark Cards, Inc., monitors the social milieu to spot trends as they emerge and track existing trends as they climb, peak and wane. She synthesizes her observations, expertise and experience to evaluate the strength and importance of cultural movement.

Wesely-Clough reads virtually every new book and article on social change. Then she tries to refute it or take it to the next level in her own mind. She visits leading metropolitan areas for hands-on research and scrutinizes language, dress, color preferences, and media to add to her repertoire of filters. Her qualitative research helps Hallmark ensure that its products are timely and on trend.

Wesely-Clough presents to a wide variety of business, product and creative groups at Hallmark, helping the company and creative community stay abreast of social and cultural change, and how those changes might influence consumers.

American Demographics designated Wesely-Clough as one of the top five trendspotters/futurists in the nation in the April 2003 edition of the magazine. A major feature article about Wesely-Clough and her trends research appeared on the front-page of the "Life" section of USA Today in 2001.

Wesely-Clough's trend predictions have been featured in The New York Times, as well as The Business Journal of Kansas City, and she has been quoted in American Demographics, USA Today, Fortune, US News & World Report, and Time. Her predictions were featured in The Wall Street Journal Almanac – 1999.

Wesely-Clough presents to outside groups such as Ringling's Sarasota International Design Conference, the Institute for International Research, Center for Creative Leadership, American Society of Interior Designers, Big XII Development Conference (keynote speaker), Institute for International Research Future Trends Conference, the Kansas City chapter of the American Marketing Association, Avila College, professional organizations, and corporations.

Curious by nature and with a degree in fine arts and emphasis on philosophy, Wesely-Clough began her career at Hallmark as a line designer and did stints as a lettering artist (where she created an alphabet font called "Marita" for a new card line), in design studio management, and in the Creative Advisory Group.