30537a - Progress challenge 04

30537a - Progress challenge 04

Applying trends to your designs By Colleen Sedgwick

In the previous unit, we learnt about trend development, and this Progress challenge will help you apply emerging trends to your own designs. Answer the following questions:

1. Make your own ‘hot or not’ trend board that explores trends in your industry area over the last two to three years. Label each image with the year of their debut, and the source of the image, and then make three lists outlining trend elements under ‘past’, ‘present’ and ‘emerging’ trends.
2. Extrapolate on the emerging trends you discovered making your trend board in part A. What kinds of colour, line and styles have changed? What kinds of new skill sets would you have to develop to match these new elements? It might be a more advanced understanding of traditional media, like watercolours, or a digital method to replicate this look in Photoshop.
3. Identify a specific element from the emerging trends list you have made previously and attempt to create an image that incorporates this element. Detail your working and how you got on with creating this image. What was easy to work out? What was more challenging? Identify tools or skills you will need to develop to further master this trend element.

TIP: Navigate to the student forum to engage in the discussion with your peers.

SELF-CHECK - Submission B

Now that you have completed the Progress challenge, you may submit your work for feedback and discussion.

Instructions

• Write 300 words and complete as a PDF.

• Navigate to the self-check page to submit.

TIP: If you choose to complete each progress challenge as you work through the module, the process of completing your assessment tasks will take a lot less time.

Answer

This is what was ‘Hot’ and what was ‘Not’ in 2014 (when I started this course).

By Colleen Sedgwick (E0501145)

For Fundamentals of Design (D0116)

What has been ‘trending’ in the last few years from 2012 to now (2014)?  Keith Bryant[1], Jason Cranford Teague[2], and Paula Borowska[3] all have this to say:

Hot

Large Fonts; Mixing and Matching with weights and styles; Return of the slab serif and other ‘vintage styles’; Low contrast text; Blurred Backgrounds; Simple colours; Handwritten fonts (apart from Comic Sans, which is supposedly ‘so last century’J);

Not

Poor quality images; extended forms

2014 (c) Colleen Sedgwick - 'Hot' and 'Not'

Are these styles still ‘in’?

Let us see.

Stuart Chapman of The Big Picture outlined five major trends in packaging that where ‘hot’ back in 2014[4]:

1.      The ‘machined’ look (Anastasia Vodka);

2.      Art Deco revived (Tanquerary Ten);

3.      Drawn Freeform (Absolut, 3R Tequila);

4.      Monochrome (Black Vodka; Lock, Stock & Barrel Whisky);

5.      Black Magic (3 Howls; Coven Vodka; The Empiric Gin)

In other words, Skeuomorphic, hand-drawn designs and the vintage look were very popular three years’ ago (especially for packaging), but are they still popular today?  Tom May of Creative Bloq outlined five biggest graphic design trends of 2016[5]:

1.      Typographic Deconstruction (Pentagram for the London Design Festival);

2.      Simplification (Ministry of Sound);

3.      Intense and Heightened Colours (Wolff Olin);

4.      Big Brand-mark Revival (Co-op);

5.      Automation (Sensei).

In other words, deconstruction, simplification, bright colours and ‘retro’ were all go last year.
What is likely for this year?  Franklin Till outlines these 10 design ideas for this year in 2017[6]:

1.      Code Craft – items from familiar objects (Bastion de Nennie);

2.      Future food (Space 10);

3.      Digi-real (Lucy Hardcastle);

4.      Waste-Free manufacturing (Will H Yates Johnson);

5.      Realistic Realism (Sandy Suffield);

6.      New Materials (Nike);

7.      None more Black (Levi van Velaw);

8.      Fake Brands (Dubai+);

9.      Back to Basics (Soylent);

10.  Augmented Reality (Kailu Guan).

Other possible trends for 2017?

My predictions for ‘hot’:

1.      Inclusivity: Nike is introducing the hijab[7] and clothes for ‘plus-sized’ women[8] into its product ranges (and helps capture ‘new markets’).

2.      Back to basics and ‘none more black’ – when has ‘basic black’, realism and minimalism ever been out?

3.      The new materials (for Nike’s shoes);

4.      Augmented Reality (If only it did come true, I could easily wear a coat like that because it would make a good ‘self defence’ weapon in case someone pushes into me from behind); However, should the worst come to the worst, there is always farting as a way to make people ‘back off’[9].

5.      Recycling – Trendy or not, it is still good for the environment?

6.      Retro – because good style never goes out of vogue.

7.      Black Magic – because everyone is a bit ‘devilish’ sometimes[10] J

Not:

1.      Copying others – which is how some fashions become obsolete in the first place;

2.      Being ‘basic’ – whatever happened to commonsense[11] (and is not to be confused with ‘back to basics’ or ‘basic black’).

3.      Being ‘triggered’ – because ‘sooky-lala’ is uncool!

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[1]  Keith Bryant (2012): Current Web Typography Trends in http://blog.fonts.com/2012/02/07/10-web-typography-trends-to-watch-in-2012/ (accessed Friday 6th June at 3:11:24 PM)  

[2]  Jason Teague (2012): 10 Web Typography Trends to watch for in http://blog.fonts.com/2012/02/07/10-web-typography-trends-to-watch-in-2012/ (accessed Friday 6th June at 3:11:24 PM) 

[3] Paula Borowska (2014): Coming and going trends in 2014 in http://designmodo.com/web-design-trends-2014/ and http://designmodo.com/web-typography-2013/ (accessed Friday, 6 June 2014 at 3:34:44 PM)  

[4] Chapman, S (2014): 5 big trends in spirits packaging for 2014 in Creative Bloq, http://www.creativebloq.com/branding/trends-spirits-packaging-2014-31410896

[5] May, T (2016): 5 Big Graphic Design Trends of 2016, http://www.creativebloq.com/features/5-big-graphic-design-trends-of-2016

[6] Till, F (2017): Top 10 Design Trends for 2017, in http://www.creativebloq.com/inspiration/10-top-design-trends-for-2017

[7] Smidt, R (2017): Nike is launching a hijab collection that Muslim athletes helped develop, in Buzz Feed, https://www.buzzfeed.com/remysmidt/nike-is-launching-a-hijab-collection-that-athletes-helped-to?bftw&utm_term=.bbynVmK3r#.dhpAOe30k

[8] Shop Style, 2017: Plus-sizes – Nike, https://www.shopstyle.com.au/browse/plus-sizes/nike

[9] The Water Pipe (2013): Can a Fart be Misogynist?, https://thewaterpipe.wordpress.com/2013/12/22/can-a-fart-be-misogynist/

[10] Neturu Bookstore (2012): The History of the Devil, in YouTube, https://youtu.be/g8XQbqZUkms

[11] Keyser (2006): Top Definition - Basic, in Urban Dictionary http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Basic