103 – To Trend or Not to Trend

  Laura

0:00
So in Episode 85, we talked about creating your own signature style as an artist or designer to help you stand out from the crowd. We know trends can also be important to understand, especially for artists and commercial fields like surface design. So what dictates a trend? How do you know what the next big trend is before it’s gone? To trends even matter if you have a strong signature style? How can you use trends to your advantage? Will you be able to sell more artwork if you pull trends into your designs? We’ll discuss all of this and more in this episode.

Hi, this is Laura Lee Griffin.

Nikki

0:41
And this is Nikki May with Startist Society, inspiring you to stop getting in your own way and start building an art biz and life that you love.

Laura

0:50
We are artists who believe strongly in the power of community accountability, following your intuition, taking small actionable steps and breaking down the barriers of fear and procrastination that keep you stuck.

Nikki

1:03
Follow along with us on our creative business journey as we encourage you on yours. A lot of us become artists, because we want to express ourselves, we have something to say and sometimes we want to stand out. But we often see a lot of work in the art and design worlds that kind of all looks alike. Why is that? Are people following trends? Because they think they’ll sell? Are they copying others? Because they don’t have their own style yet? Do we need to think about these things? If we want to have a career in art or design? Should we follow what’s on trend what we see that selling? Or should we go our own way and just do what feels most like us?

Laura

1:41
Okay, so let’s start at the beginning. Nikki, how do you define a trend? 

Nikki

1:53
It could be a certain color palette, a specific medium, or perhaps a popular motif. It can also be a style within a medium, a certain way of making marks or applying paint.

Laura

1:59
So let’s talk about a few examples of each of these. And we’ll start by talking about motifs first. So when I say motif, I mean an element of the design, like an icon within your design. It could be basically the subject matter, right Nikki? Right. Okay. So one example that is always quite popular is a trend of the Chinese zodiac. So if, if you remember, last year was the year of the tiger. And I mean, I even jumped on that bandwagon and did a tiger illustration.

Nikki

2:33
Tigers were everywhere. They were everywhere, right? I haven’t drawn a tiger since since I did a mural in my high school.

Laura

2:43
Did you do on last year, though? No. Oh, you didn’t? Okay, I did. And then this year is the year of the rabbit which I’ve seen a little less of maybe because tigers are just like cooler to illustrate than rabbits maybe? 

Nikki

2:57
I don’t know, maybe the tigers all ate the rabbits.

Laura

3:02
So so the current Zodiac year is always a great trend to understand. Because that’s just something that will pop up for that entire year. Now another trend I really remember and this was a few years back was owls there were like, I don’t know three years where you could see owls on freaking everything.

Nikki

3:21
Right? Oh, and let’s not forget, put a bird on it. I think that started with Portlandia. But I’m still seeing birds everywhere. I think birds are one of those universal things. Probably not a trend just always popular.

Laura

3:36
Yeah, I love birds. And I now have a big yard with huge trees that are just full of birds. And it’s just super fun to watch them. So I can buy into that trend. All right. Another trend is rainbows. That seems to be one that seems to be quite eternal. But there have been years where I’ve seen a lot more of that. So rainbows there was a year of boho chic so there were like feathers and dream catchers and rainbows and all kinds of things like that. Forest Animals That was one that was maybe a couple years ago where I saw lots of foxes and bear and deer. And then let’s see mushrooms. How many mushrooms have you seen in the last two years, Nikki?

Nikki

4:20
Mushrooms are everywhere.

Laura

4:22
They’re everywhere embroidered mushrooms painted mushrooms illustrated mushroom, mushrooms are everywhere. Now, you you’re always going to have a trend for Christmas and florals which are the top two markets for surface pattern design. And those motif trends will never go away. Now I will say you know you might not necessarily see that in Fine Art people making a lot of Christmas art certainly not Nikki May. Nikki May will never make Christmas art right.

Nikki

4:51
Um, as a matter of fact, one year I decided to play around and made some Christmas cards and ornaments. But they were not not your traditional ones, they had nude women in them.

Laura

5:05
Yeah, that makes more sense then for you. But yes, so those two trends are always popular, especially in surface design in a portfolio focusing on Christmas and florals are really great trends to to consistently have is that really a

Nikki

5:21
trend, if it’s all the time, that’s kind of eternal, I don’t know, I wouldn’t call that a trend, I would just call that a popular style or a popular motif,

Laura

5:31
I would call it an eternal trend, Nikki.

Nikki

5:34
I think eternal trend is an oxymoron.

Laura

5:40
All right, we just know that they’re popular, we’ll just say that. Now, another type of trend could be regional motif trends that are essentially always popular in a specific area. So for example, if you live by the ocean, or you’ll be doing an art festival that’s near the ocean, having sea themed artwork will likely be a really good bet.

Nikki

6:03
Another eternal trend,

Laura

6:06
regionally, originally.

Nikki

6:10
And in the fine art world, I feel like it’s kind of a pendulum back and forth between figurative and abstract, it will go one way, and then there’ll be a reaction to it the other way. And I kind of have an example about annoying trends and going against them from when I was in grad school. So I went to grad school to study painting. And in the painting department, I think there were maybe eight or 10 of us in this program, I was painting really sort of subdued, beautifully layered, decorative paintings. And everybody else in the program was like making constructions out of garbage, or sculptures out of building materials. So nobody else was really painting, right. And they were all very conceptual, you know, they didn’t matter as much what they looked like it mattered what they were about which that’s legitimate, not saying it wasn’t, but they had this attitude that what I was doing was wrong. So the trend at that time, this was like early 90s. The trend, at least where I was in grad school was conceptual art that basically wasn’t painting, and wasn’t

Laura

7:29
pretty to look at. And your artwork was very pretty to look at at the time, my artwork

Nikki

7:33
was very pretty to look at. But they had this idea, this attitude, this kind of snobby attitude, that it couldn’t be it couldn’t have any meaning if it was also pretty. 

Laura

7:47
Okay. And and how does this relate to trends?

Nikki

7:48
Well, it’s just the trend towards not painting the trend towards this conceptual stuff that was, you know, not pretty, right? While I was doing something pretty, and that’s an example of me, not following the trend. And so in

Laura

8:08
this case, it was the trend of the type of art that people were making, and that you were going out on a limb saying, I’m going to do something different and finding meaning in this thing, where as you know, a majority of people were looking at things that were much more conceptual.

Nikki

8:24
Yeah. And the fact that, you know, in the fine art world that goes back and forth, there’s times where the trend is to these like abstract conceptual things. And then a trend might be going back towards like, rich, decorative, beautiful paintings. And being outside of what’s trendy makes you unpopular in the fine art world.

Laura

8:50
Well, but you can also look at history, right? So in history, when it comes to fine art, there have been stages and groups of art over time, the Impressionists were not popular when they first came out, right? Absolutely. And look at them now. You know, it just took them dying, right? 

Nikki

9:06
Yeah, they’re all dead. And that’s the moral of the story. But we digress.

Laura

9:20
We always digress. Alright, so let’s get back to let’s get back. Let’s get back to trends. So beyond motifs, you might also consider trends in things like typography, right? There are different fonts that will have their heyday depending on the year. And if you incorporate text in your designs or your artwork at all, this could be really helpful to understand what’s really growing popular or is on the verge of becoming popular at the time. Okay, so now let’s talk about color trending. I personally like the idea of having a strong personal color palette, which we talked about in our signature style, episode number 85

Nikki

9:59
and All right isn’t your signature color palette, all of them?

Laura

10:06
It’s like 35 to 40 colors. I don’t think that that’s not all the colors, but it’s quite a few. Maybe I should narrow it down. However, you will definitely see color trends on a broader scale that happened depending on the year.

Nikki

10:21
Right. For example, Pantone comes out with a color of the year every year, and you start seeing it everywhere in the more commercial arts and fashion.

Laura

10:31
Yeah, like this year’s Pantone color is Viva magenta, which I love because I’m a huge fan of all things magenta, like Quinacridone Magenta golden, one of my favorite colors.

Nikki

10:44
I also see trends and colors varying between bright bold colors, one year maybe and then the next year softer earth tones.

Laura

10:54
Yeah, I’ve definitely seen years where the soft, earthy tones were popular recently. But I also think there’s been a big surge towards vintage in the last few years. And that has its own color palette as well. Like the fact that mid century modern is just super popular. So those 1950s 1960s kind of colors like the chartreuse, maybe the avocado, some of those colors are making a comeback, right? 

Nikki

11:19
And I kind of think that these trends in color and style tend to be a reaction to previous trends. So I think people maybe get tired of seeing one thing so they swing in the opposite direction. Right? So let’s talk about trends in different mediums. 

Laura

11:35
Okay, so, watercolor had a huge comeback, especially loose watercolor florals. I mean, everywhere you looked for a while you saw them on journals, fabric home decor, it used to be considered extremely old fashioned, but watercolor just really had a fantastic comeback.

Nikki

11:53
And caustic was the same way. It was virtually unknown to artists, and definitely to the general population. But after seeing a couple of people use it and taking a workshop and starting to use it myself, suddenly, it seemed to be everywhere.

Laura

12:07
Yeah, I learned about it around 2007 or so and was really into encaustic painting for about four years. And I think around 12 books came out about it during that time. I have them all

Nikki

12:17
I’m sure you do.

Laura

12:21
But that’s another sure way to know what mediums are on the rise. Definitely. And at some point, pouring acrylic became really popular over the last couple of years because I see that everywhere on social media.

Nikki

12:33
Oh yeah, pouring and spinning and blowing paint. Those were fun kid crafts that I taught at camp and arts and crafts, but don’t get me started on my opinion of them as fine art.

Laura

12:45
Well, Nikki, I’ve seen some pretty cool ones that have been done large scale where people like create those big buckets and they like they go around an entire room. It’s pretty interesting to watch. But yeah. Anyway, we’ll move on to this gimmick. Okay, there are also trends in mark making.

Nikki

13:06
Yeah, I’ve noticed trends in the kinds of marks that people make, like brushy, loose paint strokes versus tight, precise lines. And there was a time when I felt like every abstract painter was making paintings that were that were abstract swatches and bright colors with lines and dots and black. I felt like that was half my Instagram feed.

Laura

13:30
Yeah, there’s a lot of that. But that’s yeah, they’re they’re fun to look at.

Nikki

13:33
I’m not saying they’re not good. I’m just saying there was a lot of

Laura

13:38
it. Yeah, you saw him everywhere. So where do trends start? And how do you know what the next trend is going to be? So one of the best places to look is the fashion runway for high end designers. Now, generally, color and motif Trends tend to start there a year or so before they make their way to mass production and off the rack and commercial markets. So if you’ve ever seen the movie The Devil Wears Prada. Have you seen that one? Nikki?

Nikki

14:07
I’m afraid not. 

Laura

14:09
Oh, it’s hilarious. So Meryl Streep kind of add her finest she plays a kind of a wicked boss and the the editor of Vogue but she wasn’t at her finest when she was trying to decide which kid would die. Oh gosh

Laura

14:27
Sophie’s Choice another great movie. There’s a lot of great Meryl Streep movies. She’s amazing. Although that one is extremely depressing and difficult.

Nikki

14:34
But anyway, that’s that’s my preferred genre. depressing and difficult. dystopian into the world apocalyptic. Okay, got it.

Laura

14:45
Again. we digress. Back to Devil Wears Prada Meryl Streep gives this famous monologue about a surreal alien sweater that her assistant is wearing. That is pretty hilarious. But it shows that really many colors that end up being popular in the commercial World start out on the fashion runway. And if we can find a link to a YouTube video with that little monologue, well, we’ll put that in the show notes.

Nikki

15:08
Yeah, well, I know that a trend is caught on when I start seeing the same thing for many different accounts in my Instagram feed, which makes me think of another kind of trend what and how people are posting on social media. You know, tick tock dances, Instagram reels with people pointing at phrases, carousels that are just little slideshows of text teaching you something, but I think that’s a whole nother episode. Social media trends. Yeah, the bet is

Laura

15:37
like trends in marketing, right? Yeah, for sure. So a lot of interesting trends that people do in marketing, we’ll put that on the list to talk about. I’ve never pointed at anything like that in any No, yeah, not gonna. But also, I’m not really showing my face as much as I should. So Yeah, same. So my fingers aren’t making it in there either.

Nikki

15:59
We could do pointing without the face just fingers pointing.

Laura

16:03
I have my hand holding on to paintings. Does that count?

Nikki

16:06
No. Okay, carry on moving on.

Laura

16:11
For mediums, it might be what is showing up on social media. But you can also see a huge uptick in instructional books on whatever that medium is. So watercolor is an example of that, where all of a sudden, you just saw tons of loose watercolor floral, you know, instructional manuals,

Nikki

16:29
and hand lettering, so many courses and books on hand lettering,

Laura

16:33
oh, my goodness, yes, so many on hand lettering. And I’m sure I own like three or four of them just saying.

Nikki

16:41
So you can also keep tabs on upcoming trends by seeing what’s been highlighted in popular design blogs. We pulled together a little list for you that we’ll put in the show notes. But I just want to call out a couple of people that we’ve interviewed who follow surface design trends and report on them, not just follow but predict. So Elizabeth Silver, who we interviewed in Episode 49 is one and also Shannon McNabb, who we interviewed way back in episode eight, who has sketch design repeat. She talks about trends every year. And she even provides a way of keeping track of trends and how you’re how you’re using them. In our show notes, you’ll also find a few links to where you can read about Fine Art trends and graphic design and illustration trends.

Laura

17:32
Right. There’s some great blogs out there that cover trends and are great resources to have your pulse on. And there are some companies whose sole business is to anticipate future trends and create reports like a company called wgsn. They have a few free resources on their website, which we will link to in the show notes. And one item they mentioned recently was the huge surge of popularity of pastel lavender, which they call digital lavender. That has had eight, digital lavender, digital lavender, that’s what they call it.

Nikki

18:09
First of all, I can’t stand lavender, not the color, the color is fine, but the smell. Okay, okay. But digital lavender.

Laura

18:19
It’s kind of a weird, it’s kind of a weird name.

Nikki

18:23
Well, okay, let’s

Laura

18:24
just get past the digital and let’s just look at I can’t let’s just call it pastel lavender. Okay, okay,

Nikki

18:30
I’m okay with it

Laura

18:31
Now, it’s had a huge surge on the runway, but also, it’s representative of wellness, digital escapism, maybe that’s where they got the digital from digital escapism and mental health, like there’s this, this whole surge towards self care, right. And that lavender color is a really great gender neutral, you know, color for wellness. So there, they say we’re gonna see a lot of that in the future.

Nikki

18:56
All right, I’ll be looking for it, but I will not call it digital lab. So you can also take courses to learn more about getting on the front end of trends, like an example is Cat coke has a Skillshare course called trend forecasting. That is really great. And we’ll link to it in the show notes.

Laura

19:17
You can even get visibility into popular culture trends by using a tool like Google Trends, which helps you see what everyone else is searching for. And that is that trends.google.com Ford slash trends. So that can be really interesting to tap into what’s popular in the moment. If there’s any I think you can hone down in specific areas to see how many people are searching for a certain thing over the last like year or over the last six months. Right?

Nikki

19:48
Remember that trends often lasts for more than a year.

Laura

19:51
Yeah. So what that means is you can go to your favorite shops, you can go to fabric stores and see what those common motifs are those common Some themes, and you might be able to build off of that, because those are still going to be popular for the next year or two to come. And hey, hello anthropology. Do I really need another excuse to go there?

Nikki

20:13
You do not I give you permission to go to Anthropologie.

Laura

20:17
And as we mentioned previously, trends will always exist for Christmas florals and in Nikki’s case, bourbon.

Nikki

20:27
Again, Laura, I’m gonna have to say bourbon is not a trend. It’s a lifestyle.

Laura

20:35
Is it an eternal trend that we’re naming is

Nikki

20:38
yes, it is an oxymoron. So this talk of trends is all very interesting. But you might be thinking, Okay, if I just created artwork for trends, wouldn’t that feel really inauthentic and sort of like selling out?

Laura

20:54
Well, personally, I want my artwork to be what makes my own heart sing that others can connect to. But if I have the ability to put my own twist on a popular theme, it’s definitely something I would consider, especially if I’m wanting to create work that will catch an art directors eye and potentially result in a licensing or a freelance deal for surface design work.

Nikki

21:15
Yeah, and I don’t really follow trends, or even usually pay attention to what they are. I do a lot of florals but in my own style, and because they’re endlessly fascinating to me, not because they’re on trend. I also draw nude women, which is both timeless and also sometimes in and out of trend. So Laura, what are our key takeaways?

Laura

21:38
Well, trends can come in many different forms from medium and motifs to color and mark making with a little research, you can understand the beginning of new trends, and find ways to infuse those into your work if you choose. But if you have your own signature art style and color palette, you don’t have to adopt trends if you don’t want to, to trend or not to trend is really your own personal choice.

Nikki

22:03
I really think that no matter what you create, whether it’s on trend or not, as long as it’s something that’s true to you, something you can get excited about love making it and want to see it out in the world. You’ll find others that will appreciate it too, and hopefully purchase it as well. So you can really just experiment with whatever feels right to you.

Laura

22:23
For links to all the resources we mentioned and to read today’s Startist Society shownotes go to Startist society.com/trends.

Nikki

22:33
If you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, we’d love for you to leave us a five star rating and review reviews help us reach more Startist like you and keep us inspired to create new episodes.

Laura

22:43
Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. So Nikki, I just want to ask you, what do you think the next trend is going to be?

Nikki

22:51
The next trend is going to be Skoolies, because I have an idea for a whole line of t-shirts and stickers and things.

Laura

23:03
Related to people living on school buses like you?

Nikki

23:06
Yes,,I didn’t say it would be a huge trend. It could be a small niche trend and still be a trend.

Laura

23:14
Awesome.