Don’t let the headline fool you. This is no historical reference diatribe. This is just my humble observations and predictions of the general design trends for 2007. Less to try and nail down specific trends, but more to open a dialog between artists and those who might be interested in the global state of design for 2007.

Typography once again looks to the Scandinavian region with new takes on old favorites, bringing back the postmodern feel. The Swiss Avant Garde block stylings play out in fun new ways. Hand-drawn calligraphy, with the emphasis on flourish, continues to gain popularity, especially as small global foundries enter the marketplace with new faces. The US trucker movement continues to revive the cowboy school in fanciful brushwork, outlining and metallics. Type that emulates the finest handcrafted signs of the past stay strong.

Packaging is led once again by the Japanese leading the way with outstanding creativity in innovative, green packaging solutions. Folded packaging gets more creative, complex and functional. Smart product labels and interactive packaging designs begin to appear.

Photography shys away from almost any sort of post-production manipulation. Hyper-realism steps forward. Photographer-driven effects are back. Lenses, lighting and styling continue to drive final results.

Print Design, following the strong Northern European type movement, picks up the best designs of the last century from the Swiss and Scandinavians and adds its own flair. Collage and graffiti stay strong. Vector-based illustration in high contrast and intricate detail. Organic imagry plays alongside urban confusion.

In printing, rough non-finished papers, along with handcrafted type elements and subtle embossing. Small letterpress shops dust off old equipment. Silk-screened prints and artwork in rough halftones and monochrome colors reach out to the 70s poster artists. The graffick-tee market continues to give new designers an outlet to perform (usually not).

On the Web, hopefully the saddening trend of the “web presnted as a giant lucite cube” will fade. While the high-gloss, reflections-galore design will exist, many designers will try and break out of the plastic cube and rely more on realistic, familiar objects and traditional lighting to drive the layout design. But the authoring lines are now clearly drawn.

One side is the standards-driven XHTML movement, pursuing the easy-to-use, powerful, cms blog-style websites. Content is king, even if there is not much to say. Designs can be transformed quickly and this graphical seasoning becomes an extension of the authors' persona, as much as the words on the page.

On the other side is the pure-Flash web design movement. With the latest version of Action Script, Flash site are not held back to deliver fully-function, enticing user experiences. It appears now the buyers of high-end flash development time are entertainment and large consumer advertisers. Mid-market Flash development becomes more available as the pool of Flash artists increase.

Advertising in general continues its humanizing of the world. Less models, more real people; hyper-real people. Cross-corporate connections and name dropping carries this testimonial trend to new Madison Avenue heights. TV coat tails the Flash Web experience, trying to revalidate its hippness. Viral video grows out of control.

Motion starts storytelling again. Even seemingly background motion graphics take the viewer on a one-minute journey. CG still drives the medium and moves beyond realism, but there is also increasingly more integration of live footage and people into the reels.

Product Design. We are now in the seventh (or more) revival of postmodernism. I think I'll call it futurist-postmodernism. That defines ergonomic, sleek product design, combining the technology of the 21st century with the clean lines of the original postmodernists. New materials enter the marketplace used in ways not thought of before to create illusional products that defy space or time. Products as icons. Icons as products.

Colors. Out of the gate;  muted dark greens, warm reds, burnt oranges, rich greys and ambers. Textile-driven color schemes drive the seasonal color trends.

These are just my thoughts, I d like to hear yours.

Happy New Year.