The anti-trendy design-object is designed to be used. It is created to nourish the user aesthetically on a long-term or short-term basis. It is alive in the sense that it is made to develop in accordance with human life--by either being alterable or perishable. The anti-trendy object supports a life worth sustaining. A life that contains wholesome rhythms and edifying challenges and isn't dependent on consumption for pleasure.

Anti-trendy living is a natural, fulfilling, and sustainable way to live. It may have many different expressions but is characterized by authenticity and meaningfulness. Reduction of consumption and long-term usage of things is a vital part of anti-trendy living--it involves mending and caring and may-be even sharing.

Through an analysis of resilience and sustainability in life in general and in design-objects the themes of the book unfold: intuition and anti-trend research, a life worth sustaining, existentialist despair, raw and resilient aesthetics, sustainable storytelling, legitimizations for designing products in a world with too many things, democratic sustainability, craft innovation, civil disobedience, and collaborative consumption.