Keeping up with the latest trends in the industry is crucial for any graphic designer. Author Kevin Roberts made some interesting observations in his book “The Future Beyond Brands: Lovemarks” in speaking about the youth market in China. In Roberts' observations he noted, “China is not slowed by decades of technological baggage, and leaps straight to the best new offerings.” This observation by Roberts' can be said of many cultures around the globe when it comes to keeping up with changes in technology. I shall take as an example the role of a web designer of the templates and resources available on myspace.com. It's a cultural conclusion of sorts that myspace.com is targeting a young market in their choice of users. Although many older customers may utilize myspace.com, the older ones tend to gravitate towards facebook.com in connecting with friends and coworkers. In the early days of the Internet, not much was offered by way of social utility networks. Web design was often left to the experts, and anyone wanting to create their own personalized website would inevitably have to learn some sort of html code in order to make their page look and act presentable. Today however, the trend is to allow users to design their own space, in a quick and easy fashion with very little or no coding skills needed. This user-friendly trend in design can be seen almost everywhere on the Internet. From Youtube.com to sites like Vimeo.com, users regardless of technological savvy can upload video, audio, and make it all look and act like a professional production with a few simple mouse clicks. As far as the next big thing in design trends with websites, I see a few things happening. Firstly I think that content on the Internet will increasingly become available and controlled by the massive public, and not corporate executives. This means that everything from marketing to design, will be created, controlled and delivered by your average web savvy consumer. I also see online education extending to not only include undergraduate and graduate education, but also K-12 education. A growing trend in America perhaps due to the state of our economy is home schooling our youth. Online resources for parents who teach, will inevitably expand to include more elaborate lesson plans, online discussion boards, and formal diplomas for K-12 students that can be earned while being schooled at home in conjunction with a web based service. To be a designer who is informed and aware of current trends, you need look no further than what design templates consumers choose to use on their webpage. Being an informed designer means scrutinizing and analyzing what everyday people talk about online, and what colors, shapes, and sounds they use to deliver that content. I look to be at the very helm of web design in the future, as I feel it would be a great resource for the world, to offer accredited K-12 education online. This would especially be useful in areas of the world that are remote, and that don't have many local quality educational resources available to them. I would use my sales and marketing background, to reach educators and school boards, to encourage them to implement online versions of their institutions as an option for students. I would then use my visual design skills to design their scholastic web pages with creatively, and intelligence. The most consistent aspect of trends is change. And to be an informed designer you must keep your eyes and your ears open to what pops up next online. BM
