Businesses across the gamut of industries in America are spending an average of 11.4% of their budget on marketing, and a considerable amount is spent on graphic design – including logos, web design, and publications that represent the ethos and target markets of respective brands. First impressions matter, and you can have just a few seconds to do so on your website or material. Good design tells your story, marks you in another league from your competitors, and leads to a good conversion rate. If you are excited about the way in which graphic design and 3D art can help establish your company as an innovative leader in its sector, watch out for these emerging trends that are set to change the way we view and experience design.
Metal 3D Printing
If you work in the artistic sector, then constantly offering clients new forms of artistic expression is key. 3D printing has been a big game changer in the past few years, with high-end international décor firms like Roche Bobois selling 3D décor pieces such as bears and other naif design in bold hues, completely printed in 3D. Cutting edge, reasonably priced printers have also been used for everything from reward schemes (e.g. allowing customers to print 3D versions of themselves), right through to offering customers the chance to download an app and design personalised merchandise for themselves. These days, one of the most exciting developments in 3D art and marketing materials is printing in metal. This technique is ideal for printing items that are up to 50% lighter. Such is the case that it is already being used to create ultra-light plane seats though the potential for its use in marketing campaigns is endless.
AI in Graphic Design
What happens if you are a designer and your client requests components from different photographs to be contained in one final image for their website or marketing material? As noted by AI specialist (and Adobe engineer) Brian Price, the new tool Scene Stitch, powered by Adobe Sensei, is ready to make your job a whole lot easier. In the past, to remove items from a photograph, you would need to use Photoshop’s ‘content-aware fill’ tool. The problem is that because the tool can only copy information from elsewhere in the same image to fill the space you have left behind, the final image can look unnatural and obviously altered. Scene Stich searches for imagery that can fill this gap, but instead of looking for it in the same image, it uses AI learning techniques to look for other images that can fill in the space more organically. The result is a stunning, natural result that looks every inch like an original photograph.
Parallel Reality in Design
Can you imagine creating one design that creates entirely new experiences depending upon who is viewing it, or from where? Parallel Reality, created by Misapplied Sciences, is a groundbreaking new technology in which pixels can simultaneously project up to a million light rays of different hues (currently, pixels only emit one single colour at a given time). Designers using this technology will be able to direct their designs to specific people and places. For instance, each viewer will be able to appreciate a display or sign in their own language; advertising will be targeted to a viewer’s specific needs and tastes; media and lighting effects can be individualized for each person at a concert or big event, etc.
The content can follow you as you move, guiding you through a complicated airport or telling you where to go at a busy marketing event. The makers give a good example of how this technology can be used: imagine that you are at the airport and as you look at the display, you only see the information pertinent to your flight. The situation is the same for all travellers, who will all see their own content – even though everyone is looking at the same screen! Most incredibly of all, the technology works with the naked eye – there is no need for headsets!
It is an exciting time indeed for those working in art and design, with everything from new 3D printing technologies to parallel realities totally shattering previously held notions of what creative technology can achieve. Some technologies are already in use; others (such as multipixel viewing) are being refined. What has become evident is that new developments in AI and other industries are ready to make life more challenging, inspiring, and limitless, for those working in artistic fields.
Written by Jennifer Keyes