Color + Design Vision 2021: The Visual Age
The Visual Age is a new era where there is visual literacy and creative democracy for all.
In this time of cultural communication, which is dominated by social media, all of us have become fluent in the elements of graphics, photography, design, and art. Users of the internet have contributed to this language of design through the use of apps that allow access to features like light filters, cropping, composition, and even the overlay and superimposing of additional graphics and text to personalize our images.
This has enabled everyone to participate in communicating their own content - altered and manipulated, or authentic and honest - depending on the message and medium. Media has always shaped how we perceive the world. Today, some social media apps have a vast influence of how we see and consume, and especially on how we design and construct the things around us, including buildings.
This has also enabled mass connection of people to a sense of purpose. Visuals connect people, products, and places so we can all experience things collectively, all while celebrating our individuality. We may use social media to express ourselves, forging our path, or joining with others on a collective path.
Design is at its best when mankind can experience moments and spaces with all our senses, starting with the visual. The visual give us cues for our other senses, and it is how we understand the world.
For the 2021 Color + Design Vision, we will explore this new Visual Age in context of both existing and emerging trends of how the visual arts affect our viewpoints on life. We will examine how color, light, and pattern affect our lives. We will visualize future shifts in aesthetics for design and art as well. Categories for further exploration include: Filter Fluency, Sensory Immersion, Rendered Reality, and Altered Images.
