Design Trends 2006: Color, Photography, and Illustration

More from Nancy Bernard's article in STEP Magazine...

COLOR-Last year color came back as the cautious palletts of the post-bust 9/11 era were overtaken by a new optisim. The colors were mostly soft and light. This year, color has gone three ways: deep, dark, and rich; or pure, strong, and hot.

Orange, which was the color of the avant-garde in the late '90s, is still big. Mainstream designs simply use it to shock, while trendsetters are pairing it with hot, hot pink.

The big news in color is brown. Yes, people, brown is the new black. Paired with baby pink and blue, rich jewel colors, or black and metallics, brown is really happening.

What's most interesting is the move toward multicolor design. In the past, a piece might have one or two theme colors. Now a few designers are using the whole color wheel, in either pure, hot tones or pastels. (Photo is from The Cocoa Tree)


PHOTOGRAPHY-The trend in the recent past was to use journalistic or deliberately unprofessional, poorly lit photography. That is SO over. Photography is staged, surrealistic, with very sophisticated lighting. Color is deeply saturated, just like the colors of graphics. This is where you should start to notice that many individual pieces are deploying multiply tropes. See the orange and pink of the Nike environment? (Photography by Bonnie Holland)

ILLUSTRATION-Illustration has been slowly choking to death since the 1950s. First, because Modernism demanded photography, and later because computers made it easy for designers to create their own imagery. Last year, we saw only two pieces (apart from posters) that used illustration.

No one style dominates, but it's clear that fine art, conceptual, graphic, and calligraphic styles are on the upswing, while retro borrowing is fading out (finally).

If I had to predict where illustration is going, I'd have to say 1969. Mystical hippy styles, appropriately updated, are very big in youth art. By "hippy" I don't mean "op" or "pop". I mean art nouveau ornaments, layered up with rich, dream-like imagery. There's orange and pink again. (Poster from Methane Studios)

Design Trends 2006: An Introduction

This week at Utobia, I'll be going over some recent findings from STEP magazine and their forcast for 2006. Here is an introduction from Nancy Bernard:

"One trend vector continues without change: The vast majority of the winning entries come from the design side of the world. Corporate and commerical work continue to be in the minority. As an industry observer this bothers me. I want to see everything. As a trends analyst, it doesn't bother me at all. If you want to look at trends, look at trendsetters."

"Trends start with two types of people: youth and creatives. Design students are crypto trendsetters (they're still experimenting in secret). Designers are trendsetters. Design competition judges are uber (German word for 'ultra', or 'hyper') trendsetters. The things they're doing now will show up in mainstream design a few years from now. Maybe longer--if you look at regional design competitions, you still see a lot of design ideas from the mid- to late '90s, nicely polished and professionalized."

"So, what vectors are the trendsetters pushing forward now? First, let's look at design tropes--visual preferences and techniques, then let's look at trends in concepts, and finally let's consider the social forces that have driven these design trends and see what they suggest for the future."

to be continued...

The timeline of a trend:

1.) Eveyone's into being square

2.) Some girl in East London shows up at a rave wearing her hair in a Fibonacci spiral. A picture of her is posted on myspace.com

3.) Two Korean girls with spiraled hair submit a hilarious karaoke video to youtube.com

4.) Japanese schoolgirls start winding colored ribbons around their white kneesocks in spirals.

5.) A female rapper returns from her Asian tour wearing a skin tight gold dress with a red spiral coiling around it from hem to throat.

6.) Nike designs a new shoe with a spiral-patterned sole.

7.) Apple's latest iMac shows no spirals anywhere--just clean, adorable form.

8.) Jack Anderson says, "Spirals aren't new. We've been using them for years."

9.) Sagmeister wins hundreds of awards for a Hugo Boss catalog with a diecut cover that unravels in a Fibonacci spiral to reveal a luscious pink page matte-varnished in a spiral pattern.

10.) The next year, spiral themes dominate design award winners.

11.) Interbrand updates IBM's identity, replacing Paul Rand's striped monogram with a silver 3D spiral.

12.) Massimo Vignelli becomes aware of the trend and decries it.

13.) A kid in East London shows up at a rave with his hair sculpted into a perfect cube.

from the cover of "STEP" magazine.

'Unknown White Male': extraordinary film or hoax?

On a hot summer morning in July 2003, a 35-year-old stockbroker got on a New York City subway heading toward Coney Island. When he got off, he had no idea who he was.

"I was scared," said Doug Bruce, who learned his name when he traced a single phone number in his backpack to an ex-girlfriend. "It's not anxiety. You're scared."

Bruce was taken to a psychiatric ward where his wristband read: "Unknown White Male." He was diagnosed with amnesia, and, just days later, his friend began to document the man's slow journey of self-discovery.

That documentary, "Unknown White Male," created enormous buzz at the Sundance Film Festival, but the excitement was soon followed by questions about the film's validity.

"The one thing that does seem suspicious to people is that it was documented from the very beginning," said Ian Mohr of Variety.

The film's director, Rupert Murray, said he understood people's skepticism, but he insisted it was all true.

"He's [Bruce] had the courage to tell his story and let the people enjoy and be inspired by what's happened to him," Murray said.

In the documentary, doctors confirm the amnesia diagnosis, caused by the bursting of a cyst in the brain.

"His cyst is in a location in the brain that is very near some of the memory sensors, in particular, the fibers that are connecting the left and right hemisphere," said Dr. Isabelle Germano, a professor of neurosurgery at Mount Sinai.

Bruce is now a commercial photographer working in New York City. He says the hardest part of his condition is his inability to remember his mother, who died when he was 23. His girlfriend, whom he met after the amnesia, worries about whether they will still be in love if he gets his memory back.

"Unknown White Male" opens tonight in select cities.

Watch the trailer here.

gen Y auto

While an eight-year-old Volvo station wagon or Mom’s hand-me-down minivan was a good enough first car for the Xers, today’s teens and twenty-somethings have a growing number of innovative, gadget friendly, style-driven choices when it comes to purchasing a new car. What started with cars such as the Honda Element and Toyota Scion has exploded into an entirely new category of youth-driven autos.

At entry level, there is a steadily increasing number of fuel-efficient compact cars and CUVs (cross utility vehicles) flaunting various tech, fashion, and function options. Amenities such as iPod connectivity, enhanced speaker systems, customizable design details, electrical outlets, functional/customizable storage space, and higher safety standards are some of the newest “standard” features to hit the automobile category. Keep an eye out for newcomers the Toyota Yaris, Dodge Caliber and Honda Fit. Although car companies are targeting younger drivers with these next generation autos, the combination of price, size, style, and high tech amenities may appeal to older drivers as well---particularly those with children to keep entertained in the back seat.

HT: trendcentral

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself

Google Video did it first (I think) but here comes a newer way to broadcast yourself. It's called, YouTube. I recommend you check it out, as it’s become somewhat of an Internet phenomenon. You can get any type of content from homemade videos (let me tell ya...some people have too much time on their hands), to old American Bandstand performances to 80s TV commericals and sports highlights.

Founded in February 2005, by early commerce pioneers of PayPal, YouTube is a consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience. Prior to YouTube, there was no easy way for individuals to share video on the Web. Dealing with hundreds of multimedia formats, massive file sizes and difficult uploading methods made sharing personal video clips on the Web a daunting task for even the most tech savvy individual.

With its revolutionary technology, YouTube has given people the ability to easily, upload, tag and share video clips through youtube.com, across the Internet and through email as well as to create their own personal video network. With over 6 million videos served up daily, hundreds of thousands of active members, and investment support from Sequoia Capital, YouTube is set to become the Internet's premier video service.

YouTube is the way to get your videos to the people who matter to you. With YouTube you can:

• Upload, tag and share your videos worldwide
• Browse through thousands of original videos uploaded by our member community
• Get video codes to embed videos on any website
• Securely and privately show your videos to friends and family
• Find, join and create video groups to connect with people who have similar interests
• Organize your favorite videos into Playlists
• Subscribe to videos from your favorite users and tags
• Integrate YouTube with your application or website with our suite of developer API

YouTube is completely, 100% free. Absolutely no strings attached. YouTube is a young, dynamic, evolving company constantly striving to provide our users with the absolute best online video service imaginable.

The most viewed video is one from myspace and as of now has been viewed 2,980,624 times! It was posted just 2 weeks ago.Think of the potential.

Olympics No Match for Medal-Grinding 'Idol'

"American Idol" continues its scorched-earth campaign to cleanse the television landscape of programming we hold sacred. On Tuesday night it made hash out of the Winter Olympics in their first face-off -- just six days after "Idol" reduced the Grammy Awards to ratings rubble.

Between 8 and 9 p.m., when the tape-delayed, mostly men's figure skating Games coverage was holding the interest of about 16 million viewers, "Idol" was amusing nearly 27 million by dashing the dreams of roomfuls of Ashlee and Usher wannabes.

Among the 18-to-49-year-olds that NBC targets, "Idol" more than doubled the ratings of the Games.Hopefully, the bright young future stars of Fox's "Skating With the Celebrities" competing at the Games in You-Say-Torino-and-I-Say-Turin have not yet received word of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, lest it put them off their game.

NBC's migraine continued at 9 when the Games snagged only about 1.7 million more viewers than Fox's doc drama "House" -- during which, coincidentally, Dr. House learned LSD is a great way to stop that migraine cold. And "House" anesthetized the Games among those younger viewers.

Even though NBC's coverage featured the first U.S. gold medal victory in alpine skiing in a decade, the network was left with the least watched prime-time broadcast of a Winter Olympics since at least 1988 and possibly ever.

Read the entire article here.

ba-da-da-da-daaaa...I'm diggin' it.

Just about a year ago, an new Internet trend, tagging came out. Since then, the practice has really taken off with everyone from bloggers to dating sites. The latest web trend that tech insiders are buzzing about is digging. The name comes from www.digg.com, a site composed of links to technology news articles. What makes this site unique, however, is that its readers are also the editors. Users submit articles for review and also decide which articles go on the homepage by marking them “digg it”, which is essentially giving it the thumbs up. The articles with the most “diggs” go to the top of the page. While Digg.com has the copyright on the term “digg”, other forward-thinking sites, such as video sharing site Vimeo, are also implementing the “dig” feature.

Digging could become a popular alternative to starred or numbered rating systems. Not only is it simple, positive and lacking ambiguity, but it also gives control to the users. Digg.com reportedly has plans on expanding into politics, entertainment and other categories, but look out for this “we-volution” to infiltrate the Internet in 2006.

HT: trendcentral
(photo courtesy of gettyimages.com)

The top 10 worst Valentine Gifts

In honor of this unilateral "holiday", here is a list of what NOT to get her, guys:

10.) Anything that looks like you won it at the fair. There has never been an article in Better Homes and Gardens on how to establish mood in a room decorated around the five-foot tall pink Tweety Bird motif.

9.) Anything from The Dollar Store. Also, destroy all receipts if the gift is from Napa (the auto store, not the valley), The Snap-On Tool Truck, or Ace Hardware. Remeber the answer to the question, "Where did you get this?" should always be, "The mall."

8.) Singing Big Mouth Billy Bass (even the love song edition).

7.) Monster Truck Rally Tickets. If you even thought this...If you even thought this...If...nevermind.

6.) A football. If she says she loves football, she means she likes watching over-sized, steroid-induced, millionaire hunks running around in tight pants, and slapping each other on the butt.

5.) Anything too small (or big for that matter). Skip clothes, altogether. "Skip clothes!"

4.) Cooking a romantic dinner made with Spam or Vienna Sausage. Trust me: when your huntin' buddies say, "Hey man, you're a pretty good cook!" they mean, "Hey man, it's food and I didn't have to fix it!"

3.) The Best of the Three Stooges video series. The words, "Best of" and "Three Stooges" are oxymorons in female language.

2.) Pots, pans, vacuum cleaners, or anything that involves manual labor. This is Valentine's Day, not MAID'S DAY!

1.) Nothing. Even if she says, "Oh don't get me anything," get her something. If you arrive home and realize you have forgotten to her her anything, tear your shirt and bang your head on the the car several times. Tell her you had the prettiest diamond bracelet for her, but you were mugged by a teen suburban scooter gang in the driveway.


HT:here.

"It's the End of the World" and "As we Know it"

Can you believe Grey's Anatomy?! What an ending to two edge-of-your-seat thriller episodes. Leave a comment if you saw it. If you didn't, you can check out the 3:30 version of it here.

Read the writer's blog here.

The Cassandra Report: The Furture Issue (cont.)

FOOD/BEVERAGE TRENDS: NEXT (up and coming)

ACAI: The latest “it” ingredient to hit the market, acai is an antioxidant rich berry that claims to boost energy and immunity and moderate cholesterol levels. Its taste is described as a unique berry flavor, with a hint of grape and a dash of chocolate. Usually found in juice form, acai has become a very popular smoothie ingredient and was even mentioned recently by Oprah Winfrey as one of the “ten superfoods for age-defying beauty.” Acai will be the next super drink, similar to pomegranate juice and we anticipate it popping up in trendy cocktails and smoothie joints.

PRESCRIPTION FOOD PROVISIONS: We’ve already seen the beginning of this trend, with products that boast health benefits like Kellogg’s Heartwise cereal and 7Up Plus soda, which is fortified with vitamins and minerals, while other foods cater to more serious conditions like diabetes. We predict more food and beverage brands will treat physical and mental health problems in the future, from menopause and colon conditions, to sleeplessness and hyperactivity. With advances in science, food and beverages could ultimately serve as homeopathic alternatives to medication.

Three times a year The Intelligence Group publishes The Cassandra Report®, an in-depth look into the lives of 14-34 year old consumers. It’s a comprehensive understanding of emerging trends across a broad range of topics, including technology, entertainment, fashion, spending, marketing, attitudes and consumer products.

The Cassandra Report: The Future Issue (cont.)

Three times a year The Intelligence Group publishes The Cassandra Report®, an in-depth look into the lives of 14-34 year old consumers. It’s a comprehensive understanding of emerging trends across a broad range of topics, including technology, entertainment, fashion, spending, marketing, attitudes and consumer products. (sorry guys...looks like today is all about the ladies. I'll post something manly soon. *grunt, grunt* I promise.)

FASHION TRENDS: NEXT (this means "up-and-coming")

ALTERNATIVE SIZING SYSTEMS: Fit is extremely important when it comes to fashion, yet many consumers don’t fit perfectly into existing sizing systems. To cater to a wider array of shapes and sizes, apparel will begin to incorporate additional body measurements, such as bra size, derriere size, thigh size, arm length, and shoulder width. Newly launched Rebecca & Drew Manufacturing produces button-down shirts for women that incorporate bra sizes into their shirt sizes. Notify Denim’s Body Sculpt Jean features three curve sizes, similar to bra cup sizing, to cater to a more pronounced “curve” in the derriere. Expect to see items featuring additional sizing elements or new sizing systems to satisfy a diverse consumer base.

MULTI-STYLE APPAREL: By adding customizable features and removable parts to existing apparel, designers will enable shoppers to get more than one look out of just one piece of clothing. Brands such as Radcliffe Denim feature hidden buttonholes in the side seams of each leg, allowing wearers to insert a cufflink to create short and long versions of the jean. Expect to see more brands feature removable parts and a set of replacement parts, as well as adjustable lengths to create multiple silhouettes.

The Cassandra Report: The Future Issue

Three times a year The Intelligence Group publishes The Cassandra Report®, an in-depth look into the lives of 14-34 year old consumers. It’s a comprehensive understanding of emerging trends across a broad range of topics, including technology, entertainment, fashion, spending, marketing, attitudes and consumer products. In honor of their just-published January 2006 Report, this week at Utobia will be devoted to sharing some of their most recent findings with you.

They have redesigned The Cassandra Report® so that, throughout the year, it will be separated into three distinct issues. Although each will still include macro and micro trends, brand preferences, and ones to watch, each issue will have a different theme.

January: The Future Issue
This issue will focus on the ten themes they see being the most relevant to the coming year and beyond. Some are emerging trends, some are more longstanding, but each will affect consumers, brands, and how marketers will need to talk to people. In addition to the overarching themes, categories are divided into “NOW” and “NEXT” so that you can get a clear sense of trends in fashion, entertainment, lifestyle, media and many more areas.

MOTION PICTURE TRENDS: NEXT

INTERACTIVE THEATER VIEWING: In the future, going to the movies may become more like a theme park ride, as technology makes it possible for theaters to offer an experience that includes motion, vibrations, temperature changes, wind, scents, or strobe lighting. Ultimately, viewers will be able to really “feel” a movie in theaters, not just watch it – which could give the multiplex an edge over home entertainment. We could also see the return of audience participation. Screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, complete with live actors and props, still live on in some cities, and we think younger audience are looking for more of these participatory movie experiences. In the future, smart studios will tap into this trend, offering similar interactive experiences that buck the passive audience tradition.

MOVIE LIBRARIES: Downloading TV shows was hot in the press in 2005, but we think 2006 will see movie downloading start to become more commonplace. Just as CD collections have gone the way of MP3s, movie collections will also likely go into digital storage. When movie downloading services become more user-friendly, we expect to see a dramatic increase in personal movie collections, similar to the boom we’ve seen in music collections due to the digital revolution. Because access will be greater, people will generally be more well-versed about not only Hollywood movies, but indie and classic films, as well. Up next, downloadable movies formatted for portable media devices.

Budweiser: King of Commercials

So last night's game wasn't anything great. Is it any suprise that I only watch the Super Bowl for the commercials? I don't think so. Here are a few of my favorites...in no particular order:


-- Bud Light: Magic Fridge. A man installs a refrigerator stocked with Bud Light with the ability to disappear to keep unwelcome guests from grabbing the brew. The fridge disappears via a revolving wall that, unbeknownst to the fridge's owner, spins it into the adjoining apartment.


-- Anheuser-Busch Budweiser: Young Clydesdale. This was a heart-tugger about a young Clydesdale that dreams of pulling the Budweiser beer wagon. *tear*


--Anheuser-Busch Budweiser: The Streaker. A good concept revised from years past.


--Burger King: Whopperettes. A bit quirky, but yet freaky all at once.


--The Dove commercial promoted self-esteem for young girls who might think they should be thinner, prettier, even blond.


--A funny FedEx ad about a cave man trying — but failing to send the first FedEx delivery via dinosaur finished third. At first I didn't like this one. It featured cave men...something that Geico had already done. So what was new about it? I thought. But the ending is what got me.


--Ameriquest Mortgage Company: Don't Judge too Quickly. Two doctors are in checking on a patient and one gets creative with the charge panels.


-Mastercard: MacGyver. Of course. My childhood hero. I loved this guy growing up. I wanted to be him so bad. I was happy to see his return. :)

For other great and not so great ads that weren't featured here, you can go to www.superbowl-ads.com to see anything you want.