Design trends of 2019.
Do film sets in 2019 live up to reality?
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Judging by films in the 70s & 80s, 2019 has quite a significant look and feel. Some of my favorite movies actually take place in 2019. We’ve got the 1988 Japanese animation masterpiece about anti-government activist, greedy politicians, irresponsible scientists, and powerful military leaders. Oh and supernaturally gifted children who can crush tanks with their mind.
Akira — Takes place in Neo-Tokyo, 2019.
Can’t forget about Ridley Scott’s neo-noir sci-fi film Blade Runner. This film’s complex and compelling imagery actually may have hit the mark in terms of aesthetic and technological advancement. From personalized advertising to gesture-based interfaces, a lot of the tech shown in this dystopian future resembles our own.
Blade Runner — Takes place in LA, 2019.
Virgil Abloh’s New York & Harajuku Installations
New York Louis Vuitton’s Installation by Virgil.
Imagery from Bladerunner and Ghost in the Shell.
Louis Vuitton’s new psychedelic installations by Virgil are massive, vibrant and reminiscent of the large scale advertisements from Bladerunner and Ghost in the Shell. These large-scale 12-story artworks are celebrating the fashion house’s SS19 collection inspired by The Wizard of Oz.
Virgil Abloh is in the process of preparing for fashion month, graciously letting us in on what Louis Vuitton has in store. “Every design studio I have is working full speed right now,” Abloh said in an Instagram post. “There’s a lot happing in the next 3 weeks so I’ll just post it all in no specific order.”
Virgil’s installation speaks volumes for what’s to come in terms of disruptive advertising and compelling design. I imagine, trends like this will continue and we’ll see more compelling large scale designs similar to the vibrant neon large scale imagery. Now that we’ve covered the feature of the post, let’s talk about overall design trends for 2019.
Gradients are still on top.
Why do gradients tend to stand out so well? The simple explanation is that gradients are just more similar to our observable world. Seeing color transitions in a more natural and eased way delights the eye and draws attention.
3-D Elements pop into action.
3-D has started to get more attention and some heavily used 2-D assets are making the switch with stride. Remember the 2-D humans of flat design? They’re back in this new dimension and I think we’ll be seeing more of them as the year goes on. Apple definitely pushed this trend with their latest advertisement as well.
Share your gifts” campaign by Apple & “Music & Movement” by Cabeza Patata Studio
Megogo Brand Identity & Pitch.com website illustrations by Kajdax
Kinetic Type
Kinetic typography is an animation technique that uses moving text to capture attention, set a tone, and entertain. It seems to be everywhere right now — commercials, music videos, mobile apps, and websites use it to make their words more impactful and add an element of artistry.
Web and mobile browser capabilities are bridging the gap between conceptual and reality in terms of design and application. All modern browsers support WebGL 2 which allows for a whole new level of 3D texture and object rendering, fragment depth, and vertex array objects. Browser’s benchmarks have improved significantly. With these improvements, designs now have a faster, more powerful, and more attractive vehicle to deliver information to viewers across the web.
Negative Space
Silence, empty space, and lack of color are often thought of as a negative aspect of design. In reality, it’s the most important part of contrast within a design. Negative space is the area of the layout that is left empty. It’s the breathing room for other objects to exist and it plays a huge impact on user experience.
Animated 3-D Elements
With advancements in Web-GL and other platforms for animated 3-D, we will see a lot of amazing “above the fold” concepts being executed with moving 3-D elements.
Micro-Interactions
Design inherently solves problems. Micro-interactions are the delightful interactions users experience while using a product or viewing a site. The small details inside the user’s experience are fun, effective, and human. These interactions happen so often that they become habitual when interacting with a product or website, but when the micro-interaction is unique and enticing it becomes rewarding for the user. The goal of these interactions is always to be clever and subtle.
Storytelling can be done a million different ways — especially when it comes to motion graphics. Designers aren’t limited to real life footage or even reality. We’ve come a long way in terms of motion graphics and how they aid the storytelling process, but which trends and techniques can we expect to see launching us into and throughout 2019.
Seamless Transitions
This trend has been pushing its way to the top in past years and has hit an all-time high as it coasts into 2019. From scene to scene the natural blur of transforming objects and backgrounds to foreground imagery has been a staple in motion graphics. A pivotal eye-catching segment of the animation will keep your focus as background elements transition without notice and your story transforms without interruption.
Liquid Motion
Splashing a unique use of shapes and color into motion graphics adds an organic taste of movement throughout the work. Liquid motion adds a lot of delight and character to each project it’s included in.
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