Italian designer tiles specialist Trend has created a technology link between imagination and actuality in interior décor, with its innovative new iTrend app for iPad tablet computers. Billed as breaking down ‘the walls between dreams and design’, it enables users to overlay Trend glass mosaic tiles and agglomerate finishes onto stock roomset images, or even photographs of their own homes, then try out various combinations of colour and materials, before previewing the finished result on screen.

With the iTrend app, clients can visualise, and stockists, designers and specifiers can demonstrate, how the latest Trend mosaic and agglomerate products might look in situ, before committing to an installation project. It effectively rules out any final customer reservations regarding colour and material combinations or their suitability for different settings, by previewing the actual finished appearance, whether it’s for a living area, swimming pool, wetroom or whatever.

For new-build projects, there is an onboard database of stock roomset and pool images, enabling the user to select one closest to the proposed layout; whilst for makeover and refurbishment contracts, it’s possible to photograph the proposed room or living space. Employing one of the in-built cameras on the iPad2, or a combination of a digital compact and earlier iPad version, a still of the proposed area can be taken and uploaded into the iTrend database, for manipulation with a few simple and intuitive touchscreen strokes.

High resolution images of Trend glass mosaics, tile mixes and shading blends, unique decorative ‘wallpapers’ and agglomerate finishes are embedded in iTrend, enabling users to drag and drop the various colours and materials with a fingertip, digitally overlaying them onto the selected image. Having tried out various effects and arrived at the chosen décor, the reworked image can be saved and emailed to friends and family for discussion, or in the case of stockists and specifiers, forwarded to the client’s PC, together with a quotation for materials and installation work.

Underlining the scale of this application launch, iTrend was the subject of a six-figure software development programme and has been simultaneously introduced across all of Trend’s global markets, including those of its sister company, kitchen worktops brand Granite Transformations.

“This exclusive app gives us a real competitive edge, because there’s nothing quite like it on the market, particularly the functionality for integrating pictures of the customer’s own home,” says Trend GB Sales Director, Tom Anderson. “For clients, iTrend gives them a chance to explore plenty of exciting design possibilities, resolve any lingering doubts about different colour combinations and give the go-ahead to the final project with absolute confidence. While for interior designers, architects, specifiers and stockists, it’s a mobile sales tool that takes clients through various design routes and engages them fully in the decorative process. The fact that it’s free and runs on the world’s favourite tablet, which is widely used in the profession, is a definite bonus.”

iTrend can be downloaded free from the iTunes App Store and a tutorial/demo clip can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/TrendGroupSpA