By: Yehudis Blicksilber, Crisis Critique

AI has matured this year.

The world - and the design world - is recovering from the AI explosion. 

As the dust settles, two things are happening: 

• We can pump out imagery now that would never have been possible - or at least, not within our budgets - to create more custom, more detailed, more branded.

• We’re getting weirder. Maybe because designers are busy proving that they are human, or maybe because it actually is  getting harder to stand out in the growing  sea of typical, designers are leaning into the strange and zany instead of the safe and sweet. This year, copy has  been getting cheekier, images and styles getting more experimental, and the common denominator seems to be talking to humans more like humans. Images that have a heavy “AI look” are quickly phasing out, replaced by either super-realistic images (is that a photoshoot?) or stylised illustrations.

Here are some new things I’ve been noticing in frum advertising this year that I hope you’ll find inspirational.

Take a seat and grab some inspo:)

Trend 1: Warm flash

A level up on the evocative photography that we’ve been seeing for the past couple of years, these ads are based on carefully planned photoshoots (or botshots) that give 80s film camera vibes - extreme flash, warm colouring, gritty texture and slightly random angles, even cut-off objects. There’s a halo of nostalgia around these shots, and many of them are candid, like you’ve just walked in on a scene from the past.

Vibe: Happier times.

Trend 2: Zany

These are the ads that make you raise an eyebrow.

Things given eyes and faces, distorted objects, storybook pages, cartoon characters and mascots - it’s more about the concept than the design or the copy.

Some things can’t be ignored - I think the eyeball in a crown below, by GCNY, sums this trend up nicely:)

Vibe: What in the world?

Trend 3: AI shaping

This trend is pretty self-explanatory - it’s fun to be able to take brand elements, take a scene, and shmush the two together.

We’ve been using logo parts in ads for a long time, but AI is giving us new possibilities that previously would have taken hours of Youtube tutorials and a lot of hit and miss to put together. (Whether it’s so easy to get AI to come up with exactly what you want is debatable, but still:)

The best ads in this category take their logo or brand image and work it into a full, immersive scene.

Trend 4: Case Studies

Not strictly design, but rather a concept trend that’s catching on quickly - instead of presenting a general service, or all the items in stock, ads are zooming in on one user, or item, and giving it an identity. So they’ll be based on a square single portrait that tells a story, inviting you to appreciate what they’re selling close up.

Vibe: This could be you.

Trend 5: Teasers

Like a joke with a punch line, these ads replace the double spread with something more interactive - a first ad that leaves you guessing, and then a reveal a page later. That way, the message takes up more mental space and reading it becomes a tiny experience. This one looks fun to experiment with (and is also handy if you run out of time to run a proper teaser campaign!)

Vibe: 🎉

Trend 6: Yellow

I don’t know where this came from, but here is bold, sunny, high impact, heavy-weight and slightly industrial: all-yellow ads.

The vibe here is scroll-stopping and unapologetic and keeps everything simple but loud. Try it out in a tech or product ad that doesn’t need to be pretty, and see what it does!

Vibe: A confident hi.

Bonus: Honourable Mentions

These ads look like they could be the next big thing, but it’s too early - or they’re too unique - to see anyone copying them.

I’m putting them here as food for thought:)

So here it is. The next time you’re working on a design that needs that elusive something fresh, something trendy; or you just want to have some fun with a new concept or technique - I hope there are one or two trends here that you can reach for and enjoy.

Happy designing!

Yehudis Blicksilber

Crisis Critique, an on-demand mentor service for design crisis moments - you send me the file you're working on and I send back a clear video clip with advice, ideas and critique.