Some Of The Latest Trends In Design
04 30 08 - 15:52 Or just cliches that aren't that tired yetBy John Potter
I'm not a big trend follower as you have probably guessed, but it's always good to know what's going on. It's kind of a business version of situational awareness. Anyhow...I thought I would point out some new trends that I've personally noticed. One thing I have noticed in the past five years or so is that trends are appearing on the internet first and then moving into main stream medias like television. The first trend I'm going to mention is a good example of this. I call it....
- Vector Mania - If you don't know what vector based drawing is have a look at this article first.
My theory is that as the popularity of Adobe Flash has expanded it has forced a lot of illustrators and designers to get creative with vector based graphics and people came to like it. Then the look made the leap to television, or "the real world" as some people like to say. Now the vector based look can be seen in Apple's Ipod commercials with silhouetted figures dancing against vector based backgrounds. Concerned investors speak of their concerns in commercials looking like sophisticated cartoons, but they're really vector based drawings. This look is all over the place now and isn't showing any signs of loosing popularity any time soon.
Vector Mania
You may be asking yourself after looking at my work..."Hey, aren't you cashing in on this look too? I mean you do a lot of vector based art"?
Well...you've got me. I always did like vector based art and Art Deco. It's fine with me if this trend sticks around for a while. - Grunge - Does this have something to do with that rock music movement out of Seattle in the 90s?
I don't really know, but the title fits this style really well, and "grunge" is a recognized term in design circles now. You could describe it as design based on stuff looking distressed, worn, abused, aged or weathered. To me this is more a fad than anything since it has little commercial application unless you're selling something distressed, worn, abused, aged or weathered, and in the world we live in today if it doesn't have a commercial application then it wont get on television and it will therefore never be real.
Grunge
That having been said, it doesn't mean it isn't cool and some hiking boot company or off road vehicle company will use this look to great effect. I'm sure it will also see plenty of use in the entertainment industry. It may also help well bred suburbanites with hints of obsessive compulsive disorder feel virtually "dirty" on their computers while never having to experience true filth. -
Brush Mania - Okay..."Brush Mania" is a term I made up, but you see this stuff all over the place lately.
Brush Mania
The reason I call this brush mania is because there is an option to create custom brushes in some graphics programs that create this cool kind of flourishy look. Some folks have taken these tools and gone crazy with them creating these graphical elements that consist almost entirely of custom brush strokes. You will frequently see this look combined with the aforementioned grunge look and elements that resemble tattoo designs. I first noticed this look on social networking sites like Myspace a year or two ago. Now it's becoming omnipresent. It's become popular for television ads and now I see that someone has developed a way to animate the brushes "growing".
I have to admit some of these pieces are nice, and I couldn't resist trying a piece or two myself. I just have a feeling we're all going to be really sick of this look before it goes away. - Web 2.0 - This is a term that basically means a website using lots of the cool new stuff available to put on a website.
Now it's being applied to design as well. The problem is no one ever really agreed on exactly what it meant for websites and the definition for what it means to design is therefore even vaguer. Terms that are used seem to imply clean design, lots of 3D especially in logos, lots of use of transparency, lots of use of gradients.
Web 2.0
Honestly it looks to me like the natural direction that web design was going anyhow. I don't see that Web 2.0 (as it stands now) is anything but an empty buzzword, but it seems we will be hearing it a lot for a while at least.
I'm sure there will be at least a few fine examples of each of these looks that are so good they will stand the test of time, but have you ever noticed that by the time most trends get a name they are over?
If this is the case, then at least two out of these four trends is already over, and it doesn't really matter anyhow because good design is good design now and forever.
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