#design forecast

[lisamarie-vee]

[thedesignimagegroup]

Seen at DigitalArts from IDG (digitalartsonline.com.uk): “Design Trends 2017: 24 leading designers and art/creative directors tell us what’s inspiring them for the year ahead.”

Trends and forecasts? It’s a lot more than designers and AD’s switching in-progress projects to Pantone’s 2017 Color Of The Year. At DigitalArts you can scroll through more forecasts and predictions than you’ll likely be inclined, or be able to, assimilate into the opening months of your own 2017 project agenda. Music Agency’s Creative Director Adam Rix looks to bid farewell to what he calls the ‘gentrification of branding’ with far too many homogenous brand ID’s relying on familiar contemporary sans serif fonts mated to pastel or neon color palettes. Clearleft’s Andy Budd talks about digital skill shortages, concerned that more UI, UX and product designers are needed than the education system currently is churning out, while at the same time Framestore’s design director Anthony Gibbs worries that continually spiraling higher education costs are pricing students out of any chance for professional design careers. AKQA Group Creative Director Ginny Golden looks for evolving attitudes towards gender fluidity to drive more ‘normcore’ and unisex looks for products and brands. Design Director Kath Tudball cautions creatives about indulging in sentimentality and nostalgia, and on and on it goes. 

Whether your focus is 2-D graphic design, 3-D product design, broadcast, UI/UX or integrated marketing, you’ll find some thought provoking comments from a diverse range of design and creative services leaders. Check it out.

[davidrussellschilling]

Design Megatrends

C O N T E N T S:

KEY TOPICS

We?ve identified eight megatrends and interviewed eight industry experts to find out how they are managing or leveraging the following: edge computing, the changing face of the colo buyer, interconnectivity, data center design architectures, IoT and Big Data, cloud computing, DCIM and industry consolidation.(More…)

The Lab has already produced a set of 12 megatrends…

View On WordPress

[thecaravan-blog]

Forecast for tomorrow; 90's with a chance of Deco

This post is intended to be an ongoing ramble of the current and future state of design. I hope to update it and change my ideas as I see fit. Feel free to contact me regarding your ideas, corrections and arguments if you like.

Brave New World

Having recently moved from New Zealand to the U.K. has meant a few changes for my life-of-design; new surroundings in a country with a much larger and vaster history, new shops and products, marketing and advertising targeting a much larger—and more cosmopolitan—audience, as well as a new design job. 

One of the most appealing thoughts concerning my new move, was to be immersed this new leading-edge world of graphic design and advertising. I had formed this preconception mostly from the testimonials of others and books (one in particular comes to mind; Where Good Ideas Come From, by Stephen XXX). However, when I arrived I felt somewhat underwhelmed... nothing really struck me as the next big thing and I guess I've been wondering why ever since.

The Next Big Thing

In many job descriptions, I came across a prerequisite slotted neatly between •Confidence in Adobe CS6 and •Typographic and layout skills. It was [roughly] to be creatively driven with an eye for the next big thing. 

I'm not exactly sure how anyone is to meant to reply to that. It's actually a pretty big ask, isn't it – suggesting you are in fact at the forefront of the design world, and ready to lead millions of people in a bold, new, exciting direction?

I've had discussions [arguments] with people regarding Wolff Olins branding for the London 2012 Olympics. Designers and non-designers alike were tearing it apart. The most common dig being "that awful '80s typography it looks like Lisa Simpson giving Bart a blow job". While it's great that people are willing to look for other stories in the design, no one was really willing to think of the challenge involved in designing a brand intended to be rolled out in six years time (given London was announced in 2005). My memories of design circa 2005-06 was the advent of web 2.0, a lot of glossy skeuomorphic icons, aqua buttons and emo kids wearing too much Tim Burton branded apparel. My observation of todays design is that it has a huge '80s influence, a lot of bright colours, 80s style illustration, hairstyles and fashion. So, if I'm right, how did Wolff Olins get so close to the mark (if not a little premature given the reactions) and how can the next big thing be forecast? I lied awake in bed last night for a few hours and thought about it; and this is the conclusion I drew:

Design is mostly influenced by the design of 28 years ago

Well, 28 seems pretty specific, partly because I believe in seven year life cycles and partly because I am currently 28 (it's hard to talk beyond my years). I don't think I'm the first to come to this realisation, but a Google search didn't bring up any results.

I came to this conclusion for a few reasons, which I'll no doubt explain and hopefully test. But the main correlation was that 28-35 year olds are most likely to be the instigators in driving the next big thing, due to their job positions, financial ability and family life. I think that a quest for nostalgia from their childhood will be a driving influence (especially for people with young a family) as well as a reaction to the current state of design which will have been influenced by last generations 28-35 year olds. You know what I mean right? The '80s was reactive to the '70s and the '90s was reactive to the '80's etc...

So, in the year 2013, we must be looking at a mid-'80s revival right? Well yeah, I think we are... so that must mean, according to my calculations, the next big thing is a '90s inspired style? 

To be continued...

Look out for the next update as I add exciting new material such as;

A jaunty timeline of comparisons A venn diagram illustrating outside influences Notes about musical revivals A rant as to why I hate the '90s, but inevitably will love its revival!