As we stand at the brink of this year, let’s pause and take a moment to acknowledge the exciting trends that shaped 2023. Perhaps we’ll just focus on one standout: the revival of Y2K nostalgia and the booming streaming industry worked hand in hand, together casting a fresh gaze upon anime and fuelling an awakening for the Japanese animation genre. And who prophesised this? Depositphotos!
The stock content platform houses a library of over 250 million files, including vector images, video clips and editorial files, and has now teamed up with industry professionals to explore the future of photography, design, marketing and more. Given their knack for foreseeing trends and floating atop last year’s victories, surely we need to dig deep into their new trend-forecast, Creative Trends 2024: Unfolding Reality. Who else has an eye like theirs?
After the cosmic turbulence that was 2020, the post-pandemic era has honed in the on the remote-first lifestyle, igniting a collective frustration, particularly among millennials seeking life beyond the confines of their apartments. They hanker for a sense of belonging within an urban community, whether it be through buying locally or diving headfirst in open street festivals. The result? A rush of global curiosity in street culture. It seems soon we’ll collectively agree that our commute must somehow involve skateboards and all things hip-hop; clearly vital for our journey. Graffiti lettering, solid fills, and bold outlined cartoonish characters will now slyly worm their way into brand designs. Creative campaigns will frequently feature subculture representatives in DIY settings, blending in the VHS noise or grainy paintings akin to late ‘70s zine. Can it truly command attention if its missing that ‘70s zine zest?
Not sure about you, but as for us, we’ve had our fill of beating around the bush. Let’s cut to the chase and ditch the ambiguity. Well, it seems we’re not the only ones… it seems we’ve been trend-forecasted. People count on the clear and transparent meaning of words, encouraging brands to test the waters of text-only communication. Here’s why: a staggering 68% of online experiences kick off with keyword searches. Even TikTok (a visual platform) recently introduced a text-only format, so we’ll be seeing a lot of playing around with words, from pixelated fonts to melted letters.
Yet, even as the focus remains on words, it appears there’s a parallel movement in this trend-forecast that explores the visual frontier of multidimensional storytelling. There seems to be a clear contrast: while one trend anticipates the rise of text-only direct communication, the other foresees the emergence of visual narratives. Enter the dimensions game, inspired by the metamodernist movement. Brands are launching new creative campaigns that are toying with audience perception, reality switches and style bends. Think back to the street culture rush mentioned earlier (already whipped out the skateboard and dressed like Biggie?) since now it’s time to hop onto digital street art! Create order in chaos or chaos in order by experimenting with collages, multi-layering and multidimensionality, effectively confusing anyone that lays eyes on it.
As we bid adieu to this year and usher in the next, let’s brace ourselves for a multisensory journey as perplexing as millennials on skateboards. Within Depositphoto’s report, discover more anticipated trends so you don’t go into the new year unprepared.
Understanding our current reality is crucial, yet so is anticipating what’s ahead. “In 2024, after years of turbulence and escapism, content creators will – brick by brick – architect a new reality for us. Drawing inspiration from the latest tech advancements, local cultures, and fleeting social media aesthetics, photographers, designers, and artists alike will tailor new messages and concepts to become more relatable to their audiences,” says Maria Sibirtseva, Head of Content Marketing at Depositphotos. “Our goal for the Creative Trends design concept is to show how puzzled of different dimensions, times, and realities come together in a collage; one that looks so familiar and unknown at the same time.”
