With a new year, comes new trends. Shutterstock is one of the most widely used content sites on the web. This research is based on billions of image, video, music searches, and downloads from Shutterstock customers and has been analyzed for design forecast. Their trend data is likely one of the best indicators you’ll get as to where things are headed. Creative trends that transcend the digital world. We’ll see these creative trends influence fashion, social media, graphic design, film, policy and more.
Shutterstock, the stock photography company that lets creatives browse royalty free photos, vectors, illustrations, and more. From its research, Shutterstock predicts that the aesthetics of yesteryear are set to make a comeback. Some of these trends you may have already picked up on.
An ’80s look of decadence and overindulgence is in, while cute kawaii illustrations and tempting typography are also due to hit the big time. It’s not all nostalgia and retro fonts though, as trends like Beyond Plastic highlight urgent environmental issues.
Each of the trends are backed up with some solid search stats, so you know that these are the terms that people crave. However, three creative trends for 2019 stood ahead of the pack…
01. Yesterday’s tomorrow
What’s old is new again. This trend is an optimistic redux of early-tech – a focus on what yesterday’s tomorrow looked like. It’s all about the looks and sounds that defined futurism at the dawn of the digital age, like purple, blue, and pink duotone gradients, basic vector graphics, and dreamy synth music.
02. Zine culture
In the digital age, zine culture lives on in the decentralized mindset of social media, where independent makers can share and niche groups can discover. Built on principles of collage and largely influenced by the invention of the photocopier, it’s paper cutouts, noise and grain textures, and rough-edged layers that define this trend.
03. ’80s opulence
The ‘80s is back and it’s ready to party with gold chains, animal prints, and attitude. We say forget good taste, this is about good times. Clashing is the keyword for this trend. Think leopard print and snakeskin, peacock feathers and gold chain belts, soft fur and hard metal textures.
04. Authenticly Diverse
Media trends in film and social media indicate that creatives are using more content that accurately depicts the people around us and the world we live in. As digital media makes the world a smaller place, our creative community is searching for video, audio, and images representative of cultures from varying communities around the world.
The search for minority groups across the board have gone up:
Islamic +185%
African+176%
Elderly+121%
Asain +46%
Check out the article in its entirety to see the incredibly well designed and informative, infographic here.
