2018 - IN A NUTSHELL

2018 - IN A NUTSHELL

Content Courtesy of: nytimes.com

Written by: Roberta Sith, Holland Cotter and Jason Farago

Some highlights of the year included, from top left, Hilma af Klint, Bruce Nauman, Huma Bhabha, Antonio Canova, Charles White and Eugène Delacroix.

The art critics of The New York Times tell you what rocked their worlds this year: notable art events, works in museums and galleries, emerging artists and how they found beauty in unexpected places.

ROBERTA SMITH

A series of Altarpieces in “Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future” at the Guggenheim use ascending and descending triangles set against energized orbs. Mysticism informed her pioneering abstraction.CreditGeorge Etheredge for The New York Times

When the going gets rough, there’s always art. It can soothe and teach you, and arm you with new tools and perspectives with which to face the world. This year had some great winners and obvious losers.

One of the most thrilling winners was European and American art history. Magnificent exhibitions at three museums advanced new research in areas that had seemed thoroughly explored. The Guggenheim Museum offers a revisionary chapter about the start of modern abstraction in its current headliner, “Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future,” introducing works that this Swedish artist and mystic made in 1906-7. Suddenly, the most sacred genesis tale of Modernism — the invention of abstract painting — has acquired a female actor who actually got there several years ahead of the revered triumvirate of Kandinsky, Mondrian and Malevich. Af Klint’s joyous paintings, with their radical palette, scale and openness, push abstraction toward the future. (Through April 23.)

Another gauntlet landed with “Posing Modernity: The Black Model From Manet and Matisse to Today,” at the Wallach Art Gallery of Columbia University. Partnering with the Musée d’Orsay, the Wallach has combined some great paintings (by Manet, Bazille, Degas, Matisse and Bearden) with fascinating ephemera, bringing new detail about the plight and presence of black women in late-19th-century Paris life and art, and following this theme through the Harlem Renaissance into the present. (Through Feb. 10.)

In Washington, the Smithsonian American Art Museum unveiled “Between Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor,” a stunning retrospective of this once-unknown outsider genius (1853-1949), a former slave and tenant farmer who spent the last decade of his precarious life making drawings on the streets of Montgomery, Ala. Effortless in their fusion of narrative and form, Traylor’s images distill memories harsh and pleasant into taut silhouettes on found cardboard. They now count among the greatest works of 20th-century American art, and thanks to a magnificent catalog, the artist is obscure no more. The show will not travel, so plan a trip to Washington soon. (Through March 17.)

Everyone who likes art, except residents of New York State, lost when the Met persuaded New York City officials to replace “pay what you wish” with an egregious mandatory fee of $25. With this, the immensely wealthy Met sacrificed one of its most honorable features: the broad accessibility offered by libraries. The loser is visual literacy.

In the fall, financial anxiety led the Met to back out of the last three years of its eight-year lease of the Met Breuer and reabsorb its department of Modern and contemporary art into its main building. The program at the Met Breuer has been surprisingly good and getting better, but attendance hasn’t been high enough. It certainly didn’t help that the Fifth Avenue museum remained the staging ground of big-draw contemporary shows like the David Hockney retrospective or the recent display of gifts from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation.

Willem Dafoe as Vincent van Gogh in “At Eternity's Gate,” a film directed by Julian Schnabel.

Credit By: Lily Gavin/CBS Films

The year brought an outstanding movie about a painter: Julian Schnabel’s “At Eternity’s Gate,” an intimate, atmospheric treatment of the last days of Vincent van Gogh. Such endeavors rarely attain credibility, and yet this century now boasts two, the other being Mike Leigh’s lavish “Mr. Turner” (2014). “At Eternity’s Gate” is carried by its star, Willem Dafoe, whose gripping performance is aided by his uncanny resemblance to the artist. Mr. Schnabel’s stated goal was to desensationalize the story of van Gogh — usually depicted as a mad artist who killed himself and died in obscurity. The movie makes a good case against each of those points, starting with its plain, unsensational style. What we get is an impassioned, articulate artist who adored nature and painting it and had a touchingly codependent relationship with his younger brother Theo. Mr. Schnabel also sides with those who argue that van Gogh did not commit suicide and proposes that he was killed by two youths playing with a gun.

Former President Barack Obama and the former first lady Michelle Obama elevated a dreary academic ritual — the official White House portrait — making a routine post-presidential event an instance of change. Seeing advantage in the renewed liveliness of figure painting, the couple chose a well-known painter, Kehinde Wiley (for Mr. Obama’s portrait), and a lesser-known artist, Amy Sherald (for Mrs. Obama’s). The depictions at the National Portrait Gallery are more than good enough — and the better for being such distinctive, explicitly human departures from a fossilized tradition that, with luck, will never be the same.

Kerry James Marshall’s beloved mural about the power of books, “Knowledge and Wonder,” will remain at the Chicago Public Library’s Legler branch.CreditCity of Chicago

A much-loved public mural by the painter Kerry James Marshall is staying put. Called “Knowledge and Wonder,” it was commissioned in 1995 for the Chicago Public Library’s Legler branch, on the city’s West Side, and celebrates the library as a source of mystery and wonder for children. With Mr. Marshall’s profile and his prices on the rise, the city decided to sell it at Christie’s, hoping to raise $10 million to fund an expanded library and a new public-art program. But with rising prices come increased clout, and when Mr. Marshall objected to the sale of his 10-by-23-foot work, the mayor, Rahm Emanuel, reversed course.

The British street artist Banksy put up a work at Sotheby’s auction house that half-destructed as the gavel came down, thanks to a remote-control shredder built into its frame. (It sold for $1.4 million.) The audience seemed genuinely shocked; those behind the podium, not so much. Banksy’s clever trick is sure to earn him a footnote in auction history, which is no stranger to stunts (most involving chandelier pricing). Still, this one did give rise to a slender hope that if such tricks become an auction house staple, serious people might go back to buying art the old-fashioned way — from galleries. But not yet. Everyone was back at the madness the following week, bidding up a Hockney and a Hopper to record prices.

HOLLAND COTTER

Installation views of “Afro-Atlantic Histories” at the São Paulo Museum of Art.

Credit By: Eduardo Ortega

In 2018, a politically shuddersome year, the international art world was both out to lunch and on the alert. Art fairs and auctions continued to serve as conveyor belts for investment capital. Cheerleading and celebrity chat passed for discourse. At the same time, a spirit of resistance was building, and some critical projects came to pass.

This immense exhibition, split between two Brazilian institutions, the São Paulo Museum of Art (known as MASP) and the Tomie Ohtake Foundation in the same city, was an eye-filling, mind-altering account of how a profound evil — slavery — revolutionized a hemisphere. The show closed just a week before Brazil elected Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing populist, in the country’s most radical shift since the military dictatorship of decades ago. A second Ohtake Foundation show, organized by the young curator Paulo Miyada, documented that murderous earlier era and, in the charged postelection climate, felt like an act of courage.

Conceived by the Equal Justice Initiative and set on a hill overlooking Montgomery, Ala., this memorial to racial violence is a giant Minimalist sculpture with maximalist emotional content: The hundreds of steel plates that make up its structure are inscribed with the names of many of the 4,000 African-Americans lynched between 1877 and 1950. A second site downtown, the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration, brings the story of white supremacy into the present. Together, they pack a wallop. You come away changed.

This exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art was one of the most un-MoMA shows I’ve ever seen there. A 50-year survey of an American artist who has taken racism, misogyny and xenophobia as her themes, while refusing to be defined by them, it made the museum feel like a life-engaged place, not the high-polish, content-muting one we’ve grown used to.

An oil-wash drawing by Charles White of a street preacher, titled “Black Pope (Sandwich Board Man),” at the Museum of Modern Art. He flashes viewers a papal blessing and a peace sign. 

Credit By: Agaton Strom

MoMA came through again with this survey of a painter and draftsman who made African America his theme, and formal beauty his means. White (1918-79) had the hand of an angel and the mind of a sage. Both warm this show, on view through Jan. 13. And both were evident in two other high points of the season: an exhibition of work, at the New Museum, by the contemporary Ghanaian-born British filmmaker John Akomfrah, and a career overview, at MoMA PS1, of the Iranian-born playwright, director and performer Reza Abdoh, who rocketed across the international theater before succumbing to AIDSin 1995, at 32.

This show last spring at the Whitney Museum of American Art was a lesson in the power of visual understatement. I had wondered ahead of time if Ms. Leonard’s austere, allusive, intensely personal work would be able to cast its spell in the Whitney’s wide-open reaches. It did. (The show is now at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, through March 25.) A bit later in the year, the museum took another formal risk — and had another win — with “Pacha, Llaqta, Wasichay: Indigenous Space, Modern Architecture, New Art,” a show that mixed craft, architecture and performance in the work of seven young Latinx (a gender-neutral term for Latino) artists, and introduced a fine new Whitney curator, the Puerto Rican-born Marcela Guerrero.

This exhibition at the Fowler Museum of Art and Culture, University of California, Los Angeles, is the most beautiful sculpture show of the year. It touches on the myriad traditional uses of iron in Africa, and even the ordinary objects look magical: a sickle in the shape of a beast with a bristling mane; a hoe distilling the essence of elephant, all trunk and ears; an herbalist’s staff that trails a flock of tiny, tissue-thin iron birds. (Through Dec. 30.)

This show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was yet another rewarding gamble. Combining historical material with contemporary Iranian art, the exhibition was, in effect, a critical history of heroes — emperor, athlete, saint — though it never explained that theme. Indeed, it said little about its intentions or its works; the galleries were all but bare of labels. Ordinarily, I would find their absence annoying, but here, because the art was so strong, I was caught up in its drama. The show is still vivid in my mind months later.

Fra Angelico, “The Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin,” 1424-1434, tempera with oil glazes and gold on panel.

Credit By: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

The dreamiest Italian Renaissance painting in America, Fra Angelico’s “The Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin,” is tucked away in a corner of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and easy to miss. But, for this show, it was put in the spotlight and surrounded by a dozen other pictures by the artist. The intention was to illuminate an overlooked aspect of his work: his skill as a reality-grounded storyteller. But what also came through in our distracted age was the radical nature of his spiritual composure.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art recently announced a renovation of its existing galleries of art from Africa, Oceania and the Americas. The renovation would present an opportunity to remap global history accurately by making transcultural connections among objects old and new, Western and non-Western. If the Met pursues this route with daring and commitment, it will do what no other encyclopedic museum in this country has done.

Last year, President Emmanuel Macron of France announced his intention to return African art objects in his nation’s museums to their countries of origin, temporarily or permanently. He commissioned the Savoy-Sarr report to determine the mechanics of restitution. Soon after its release, he announced that an initial group of 26 objects at the Quai Branly Museum would return to Benin (suggesting that others be made available to their home nations not only through restitutions but also through exhibitions, exchanges and loans). The implications for museums, collectors and markets, in and beyond the field of African art, are huge. Fireworks lie ahead. But, bottom line, restitution is right. It’s the hows and the whens that are up for debate.

JASON FARAGO

A view of the Fondazione Prada show “Post Zang Tumb Tuuum. Art Life Politics: Italia 1918-1943.”

Credit By: Fondazione Prada

After the wailing comes the work. If 2017 was art’s year of indignation, in 2018 artists and museums have hunkered down and gotten serious about the immense political, environmental and technological hazards that lie before us. I’ve spent much of the year in Europe, and there and here I’ve seen a new commitment to building a common future.

This was the year the Italian nonprofit, created in 1993 by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, arrived as one of the world’s pre-eminent institutions of modern art. At its Milan headquarters, it mounted the most important show of 2018: “Post Zang Tumb Tuuum. Art Life Politics: Italia 1918–1943,” a meticulous mapping of how fascism moves from the margins to the center of society, via 600 works of interwar Italian art by Morandi, De Chirico, Severini and far less familiar names.

Its current Baroque exhibition, curated by Luc Tuymans, puts Caravaggio alongside contemporary art, and a new slanting tower, by Rem Koolhaas, delivers acres of gallery space and the disco of my dreams. It turns out that money is not what the art world should fear most; what we should fear is inertia, and we should combat it with the tools Ms. Prada herself wields: discipline, rigor, gravity, style.

In a tumultuous year for the Metropolitan Museum of Art — which got a bright new director, Max Hollein; cut loose the Breuer, its underachieving satellite; and dishonored itself with new mandatory admission — this shadowy show of France’s champion Romantic made it all O.K. (His first comprehensive retrospective in North America!) I might have preferred the Delacroix feast at the Musée du Louvre, its first stop; the Met has had to make do without most of his large works. But at both museums, Delacroix’s agitated scenes of passion and empire speak emphatically to contemporary appetites and anxieties. (Through Jan. 6.)

In this Chinese artist’s video installation “Asia One,” a wrenching tragedy of love and economics at the Guggenheim last summer, we meet the two last humans in an automated factory — ostensibly from the “future,” but filmed at a real Shanghai factory where workers are already unnecessary. Their every move is recorded, logged and scored; they ache to connect, but find human emotions beyond them. Recently, the Beijing municipal government announced that all the capital’s citizens will be tracked and assigned permanent ratings that could improve or impede their daily lives. Soon, we will all work in Asia One.

This two-part, all-media retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (through Feb. 18) and MoMA PS1 (through Feb. 25) offers a master class in the limits of the body, the limits of language and the artistic desire to push beyond them. It is also the finest of swan songs for its curator, Kathy Halbreich, MoMA’s former associate director, who did so much to revive the museum’s engagement with the art of today.

The Frick Collection finally got its long-wished-for approval for an expansion to the east, but this was the more immediate coup: a loan of Canova’s full-scale model for a lost marble statue of the first American president, wearing a Roman skirt and writing his farewell address in Italian. Imposing, adamant, the image of restraint, this plaster Washington came across as an act of subtle opposition by New York’s most old-school of museums.

A museum show for the age of migration: European porcelain figure of an “oriental woman” from around 1860, right, is among the transcultural objects on display in “Mobile Worlds” at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, Germany.

Credit By: Geneviève Frisson/Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe

Even before the momentous Savoy-Sarr report raised the temperature in European museums with colonial holdings, an ambitious show in Hamburg boldly imagined a new, more just collection. It was “Mobile Worlds,” Roger M. Buergel’s delirious rethinking of applied arts, which mined the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe for Afro-Brazilian fabrics, Chinese porcelain with Arabic inscriptions, and other transcultural objects that evade the logic of imperial classification.

This summer, the Brooklyn Museum hosted one of the first great works of art of the Trump era, a requiem for democratic authenticity in an age of lies. Mr. Levine’s hourlong monologue, performed by professional actors in the galleries over six weeks, recounts the psychological toll of being a “fake person,” whether you’re writing a sock-puppet social media account or cheering a candidacy at Trump Tower. I sorely regret not reviewing it; buy the current issue of n+1 magazine, which has published the script.

Two excellent shows timed to the Soviet Union’s centenary have explored the dreams and nightmares of Jewish artists of the left, and what became of their utopianism after 1918. “Comrade. Jew. We Only Wanted Paradise on Earth,” at the Jewish Museum in Vienna, offered a hundred-year survey of the art and literature of Jewish Communists, from Moscow to the gulag and into exile. And “Chagall, Lissitzky, Malevich,” seen at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and currently at the Jewish Museum in New York (through Jan. 6), vibrantly restages debates about a new Communist art at one revolutionary academy in Vitebsk.

The American Folk Art Museum showed Orra White Hitchcock, a Massachusetts matron whose beguiling illustrations of mushrooms and mammoths were tied up with love for her husband, for God and for all earthly creation. And, through Feb. 17, the New York Public Library has a small firecracker in the form of Anna Atkins, the seaweed-loving Victorian who sewed cyanotypes of British algae into the world’s first photo books.

This prodigy footballer is only 19 and already the most polished French artist since Matisse. For what is art if not the junction of form and meaning? And what does Mbappé deliver, while blatherers scorn the new, plural Europe he incarnates, but renewed faith in the political power of beauty? When I watched Mbappé, so confident in blue, as he dashed and nutmegged to this year’s World Cup trophy, I felt what I too rarely feel: unalloyed hope for the generation to come.

Marketing

10 Hot Consumer Trends 2018

Content Courtesy of: ericsson.com

1. Tomorrow, your devices will know you

Tomorrow, your devices will know you

Imagine you have just arrived home from work. You wave your hand, and the lamp turns on, flashing the light in greeting. The home speaker begins to play music, but when you give it an exasperated look, it turns off. You make a coffee, but grimace because it's too bitter. The coffee machine immediately offers to add sugar or milk.

Two things are conspicuously absent from this vision of a not-too-distant future. One is an appliance with switches and knobs, and the other is a smartphone full of remote control apps.

Our research indicates that consumers are increasingly moving towards a paradigmatic shift in how they expect to interact with technology. Ever more things are becoming connected, but the complexities of how to control them all are a different matter.

On the one hand, alternative yet equally good user interface solutions for simple functions have existed for much longer than we've had electronic gadgets. A Westerner who experiences an Asian meal for the first time soon finds out that the user interface to that meal is a pair of chopsticks rather than a knife and fork.

On the other hand, mass-market acceptance of digital technology has made the proliferation of user interfaces practically infinite. Every new device with a screen adds new user interface variations, which are then multiplied by the number of apps within each gadget.

Today you have to know all the devices. But tomorrow all the devices will have to know you. If consumers continue to be faced with the prospect of learning and relearning how to use devices in the face of an ever-increasing pace of technological change, they will become increasingly reluctant to buy in to the future.

We might already be close to that breaking point. The current generation of "flat" user interfaces do not use 3D effects or embellishments to make clickable interface elements, such as buttons, stand out. It is difficult for users to know where to click. As a result, they navigate web pages 22 percent slower.1 For this reason, our trends for 2018 and beyond focus on various aspects of more direct interaction between consumers and technology.

With 5G, connectivity is set to become ubiquitous. This might sound simple, but it involves a huge technology upgrade; devices must be able to relay complex human interaction data to cloud-based processing, and respond intuitively within milliseconds. The Internet of Things (IoT) must provide interoperability between all devices, and allow for mobility. Network availability also needs to be maintained, so that devices do not suddenly go offline and lose their human-like capabilities.

Trend 1. Your body is the user interface

Your body is the user interface

Digital tech is beginning to interact on human terms.

Consumers who already use intelligent voice assistants are leading a behavioral change. In fact, more than half of them believe we will use body language, intonation, touch and gestures to interact with tech just like we do with people; two out of three think this will happen in only three years.

Today, smartphones are almost synonymous with internet use. But when consumers increasingly interact with other types of tech, they may well start to think about a general need for connectivity.

Given that one in three intelligent voice assistant users think that eventually they will not be able to open doors, cook food or even brush their teeth without an internet connection, it is clear that reliable connectivity will become all important.

But it may also be necessary to think about what we will use less because of this change. Potentially, we will have a reduced need for smartphone-based remote control apps.

And although the keyboard and mouse are universally present and accepted by almost everyone today, 81 percent of intelligent voice assistant users actually believe such traditional input devices will be a thing of the past in only 5 years. Will we miss them? If direct interaction turns out to be more convenient, we certainly won't.

There are many other interfaces that will also be replaced by direct interaction and a reliance on connectivity. For example, the advanced internet users in our survey voted self-driving cars as the next tech gadget that people everywhere will eventually buy. This means not only the end of steering wheels and pedals, but also that cars will have to directly interact with pedestrians. For example, how does someone waiting at a crossing know when they can go if there is no driver in the car to gesture to them?

 More than half

Trend 2. Augmented hearing

Augmented hearing

In the near future, we might find that we use wireless earphones all day long – and even sleep with them in too.

Many smartphone makers are now abandoning the headphone jack in favor of digital multi-function ports, in a way forcing consumers to seek out wireless alternatives instead. Some accept this change, while others do not; but all might agree that the headphone jack represents an analogue era that we no longer live in.

This means when consumers are upgrading their phones they also need to upgrade their earphones. And just as people expect new functions in a phone, it turns out that they expect new functions in earphones too. Today, earphones are already used not only to enable sounds but also to block them out. For example, noisecancelling functionality has been serving this dual purpose for some time.

We use headphones and earphones to select what we want and do not want to hear.

It is therefore not surprising that half of all advanced internet users surveyed think that earphones that let you select which people in a room you want to hear clearly, and which people you want to mute, will be mainstream in only three years. But for that to become a reality, earphones will need to be more aware of our intentions and allow for more direct user control.

Furthermore, such functionality can be applied in many situations. In fact, 81 percent believe earphones that charge wirelessly, so that you never have to take them out at all, will be mainstream in only 5 years.

The most anticipated functionality for such earphones is real-time translation of all languages, desired by 63 percent of respondents. But 52 percent also want to block out the sound of snoring family members in order to sleep.

81% image

Trend 3. Eternal newbies

Eternal newbies

As many as 30 percents of respondents say new technology makes it impossible to keep their skills up to date. This means some of us to feel like total beginners even when performing everyday routine tasks.

The pace of technological change is increasing almost every day, and it is easy to feel stress at not being able to keep up. For some, this is probably manifested as a feeling of helplessness. [1] But for many, it may present an opportunity. In fact, almost half of consumers think technology will make learning even advanced professions much quicker. On the other hand, endeavors to learn and relearn will be a never-ending rat race, with 55 percent believing that technological change will accelerate the pace of change in skills needed at work.

Luckily, the internet can also help consumers cope with this new situation. As many as 46 percent say the internet allows them to learn and forget skills at a faster pace than ever before.

Generally, we learn skills only at the moment we need them. Already today, almost half say they often just search the internet for how to do things, because they have either forgotten or because there is a new way to do it anyway.

Trend 4. Social broadcasting

Social media promised user-driven two-way communication, giving voice and power to individual consumers and redressing the balance between senders and receivers. However, social media is now being overrun by one-sided broadcasters.

Influencers with money buy followers and those with the right know-how use artificial intelligence (AI) bots to fill social media with traditional broadcasting messages – turning social media back into a platform of one-way communication.

Consumers are well aware that social networks are increasingly becoming the scene for standardized broadcast messages that are more designed to spread an opinion than to invite dialogue and reciprocity. Fifty-five percent think influential groups use social networks to broadcast their messages, and a similar number think politicians use social media to spread propaganda. Thirty-nine percent think celebrities pay to get more followers, while as many are getting tired of requests from companies to rate them and like them online. In fact, one in three confess that they do not really read other people's status updates, implying they do not neccessarily pay attention to what they see online anyway.

On the other hand, half of the advanced internet users surveyed say AI would be useful to help check whether facts stated on social networks are true or false. The same number of respondents would also like to use AI to verify the truthfulness of what politicians say.

We humans sometimes favor automated communication over spontaneous dialogue. Messaging apps in smartphones and smart watches are already offering lists of predefined answers that we use to reply even to our nearest and dearest. As many as 41 percent of thosewho currently use intelligent voice assistants would even want to use AI to automate their email replies.

Even though we may find it acceptable to give impersonal, machine like responses to others, we must realize that we are also receiving them in return.

The question as to whether we humans really want to engage in sustained dialogue still remains open.

What would happen if we leave all dialogue to machines instead? Given that as many as 38 percent of those who currently already use intelligent voice assistants would like to use AI to write social network status updates, this is a question that needs to be answered. Would a world where only AI assistants interact allow for a better exchange of opinion?

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Trend 5. Intelligent ads

Intelligent ads

Ads might become too smart for their own good.

Consumers have a love-hate relationship with advertising. In our study, 40 percent say they do not mind advertising if it means they get free services, whereas just over a third say they actually dislike ads.

This tension will remain, as the online advertising industry will certainly jump at the chance to create more direct interaction with consumers. Simultaneously, consumers themselves also see an opportunity to employ cutting-edge tech to make ads less invasive. For instance, 6 in 10 want to employ AI to block out online ads.

Speaking of AI, 42 percent think companies will use it to make intelligent advertising that knows exactly how to persuade us to buy things. On its own, that would leave people quite exposed to commercial exploitation. But at the same time, 6 out of 10 consumers expect to be able to use AI for price comparisons, thus helping them to select other suppliers.

This could cause issues, with consumers becoming reliant on an electronic assistant for their purchases. For example, 57 percent of current intelligent voice assistant users would like an AI to help them with everyday shopping. But many already use a voice assistant that has been developed by an advertising company or retailer.

However, some believe the urge to provide compelling experiences might eventually cause ads to defeat their own purpose. Today, only a proportion of consumers use premium versions of smartphone apps when free versions exist. However, ads using augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) will gain app-like functionality and could in essence turn into free versions of the products or services themselves. For this reason, more than half of current AR or VR users think ads will eventually replace the products being advertised. For example, you might experience a beach destination in a VR ad and realize you do not need the actual vacation anymore.

Intelligent ads

More than half

More than half of AR or VR users think ads will become so realistic they will eventually replace the products themselves.

Trend 6. Uncanny communication

Uncanny communication

Machines that mimic human communication can make us feel surprisingly awkward.

One thing that we have all been practicing since the day we were born is communication with other humans. Obviously, this also makes us experts at knowing when an interaction, even a familiar one, is not quite human after all.

Although people quite easily assign human characteristics to toys, phones and pets, we can quickly become suspicious if the objects become too human-like. For example, some people who have visited the Madame Tussauds wax museum or any similar place might recall how their feelings shifted from wonder to dislike when looking at the figures on display. The fact that researchers are now creating AI-enabled robots that mimic human expression down to the slightest detail [1] may not necessarily improve our aversion to things pretending to be human.

A future where we move towards more direct communication with devices all around us will be full of pitfalls. Will machines communicate just like humans if they grow up communicating with us? Or will humans refuse to interact if machines become too similar to us?

In our research, 50 percent of respondents said that not being able to tell the difference between human and machine would spook them out. In other words, the feeling of uncertainty alone would be enough to create a negative reaction. This has implications for automation of some processes that are already well underway. For example, as many as one in three say they would avoid contacting companies that use intelligent robots in customer service.

Most likely, the smartphone is the first device that will expose consumers to these issues. Today, we already use biometric data, such as fingerprints or even facial recognition, to unlock the screen. But if the smartphone were to use such information interactively, many will feel uneasy; almost half  of consumers said they would be spooked out by a smartphone that constantly watches their face. And as many as 40 percent say that it would be spooky if their smartphone sees when they are happy, sad or bored and responds accordingly.

A natural instinct in such situations might be to try to hide your face. And indeed, one in three would like to wear glasses that make it impossible for facial recognition software in their smartphone or social network to recognize them.

If consumers were to develop such mistrust of their personal devices and communication services, they would also soon doubt similar technology used on a societal level. Thus, one in three would also like to wear glasses that make it impossible for surveillance cameras to recognize them.

Trend 7. Leisure society

Leisure society

Creating the freedom to engage in leisure may be more important than the need to preserve work.

One in five students and working people in our study believe robots will take their jobs before they retire. Some people certainly look to such a future with trepidation, whereas others may be looking forward to a day that is free from the boredom and stress of the daily work routine.

In any case, those who think robots will take over their jobs are outnumbered by the 32 percent who do not think they need a job to find meaningful things to do in life. Furthermore, almost 4 in 10 believe their hobbies may also develop into new sources of income. For this reason, it is rather likely that more people will face a situation where work and leisure become more intertwined and income is garnered from many different sources.

At the core of this is of course the strong tie between work and income. If that connection is severed, more people would be willing to forgo work. In our research, 49 percent said they are in fact interested in a universal basic income, and as many as 1 in 3 think it is OK to not have a job as long as their economic situation is not hurt.

But is it realistic to believe that income will be separated from work? The alternative may be to have robots work for you rather than having them take your job. An example could be a taxi driver who would rather manage a few self-driving taxis than drive himself. Forty percent say they would indeed like a robot alter ego that works and earns income for them.

But both of these scenarios would lead to fewer humans actually working. Are we then heading towards a leisure society? In fact, one in three would like having everything handled by intelligent robots, giving them all the free time they could ever want. And almost a quarter of respondents even see a future where intelligent robots take control of everything.

What would be your interest in the following?

Trend 8. Your photo is a room

Your photo is a room

Our photos are memories we have captured to revisit time and again, but they may be turning into rooms we can freely walk around in.

Smartphones are the most popular cameras ever. Not because they are necessarily the best quality, but because they are always there when you need them. When that memorable moment suddenly happens, the smartphone is with you.

For this reason, our memories have changed from physical photo albums stowed away in a cabinet, to digital albums on our smartphones. However, new technologies such as light field photography are changing the nature of photos themselves, and we will soon be able to revisit our memories from more angles than a flat picture frame allows.

Three out of four consumers believe taking photos at events such as weddings or birthdays and revisiting them in VR as if you were one of the guests will be commonplace in only five years. As many think we will also do this on holiday and at parties by then.

In order to do this, one in two already want a smartphone camera that lets you capture everything around you in 3D. Those who are currently using AR or VR have a higher level of interest in this area, with 56 percent even wanting contact lenses with built-in AR or VR functionality.

But if photos become rooms, consumers will also need to be able to manipulate objects in these rooms. In this light, it is not a big surprise that as many as 55 percent of those currently using AR or VR would also like gloves or shoes that allow you to interact with virtual objects.

3 out of 4

Trend 9. Streets in the air

Streets in the air

City streets are getting so crowded that citizens are looking to the skies for relief.

Urbanization keeps accelerating, as cities become increasingly powerful drivers of the global economy. But whereas cities not only contain the majority of the earth's population, and consume an even higher proportion of its natural resources, cities in fact only occupy one percent or less of the land area worldwide. [1] Cities are, in other words, extremely space-challenged places.

Yet, from the perception of space, cities seem to be inhabited by people who ave not realized there is a third dimension; apart from a few airplanes, the skies above are mostly empty.

But as city populations continue their extensive growth, this might change. Already today, 39 percent think their city is so congested that it needs a road network in the air for drones and flying vehicles.

Obviously, city dwellers recognize that new layers of streets in the air would cause some disturbances in airplane traffic, and would also increase overall treet noise. But an even bigger concern, voiced by 38 percent, is the possibility of drones actually falling on their heads.

Hence, there would need to be a way of knowing where drones fly, so that citizens could take similar precautions as when they cross streets on the ground. Therefore 55 percent of current AR or VR users would like an AR smartphone app that visualizes these air corridors.

The fact that 4 out of 10 respondents are interested in using flying taxis might reveal more about current frustration levels among city dwellers than it does about the most economically viable type of transport.

A more potentially likely near-future scenario may be that competition to increase the delivery speed of consumer purchases takes to the air. For example, almost half of respondents want drones that deliver takeout food so quickly that the dishes are still hot when they arrive. Given the extreme environment of the world's largest cities, this could happen quicker than you might imagine.  In fact 77 percent think most online retailers will use drones in order to minimize delivery times in only 5 years.

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38%

Trend 10. The charged future

The charged future

A connected world will require mobile power. Keeping the power flowing will be as critical as maintaining connectivity; if either goes down, instant disruption will ensue.

There are of course many aspects to how we will power our hyper-connected lives. Sustainability of resources might be one reason why consumers now rate electricity as the most popular energy source – 48 percent even think electricity should power airplanes.

Another aspect is convenience, which could explain why consumers have high expectations of batteries. Fifty-six percent of advanced internet users expect smart battery technology to fundamentally change how we power everything from phones to cars.

For many consumers, their smartphone’s battery doesn’t last a day without dying, and 71 percent want long-lasting batteries that they don’t need to worry about charging. The same percentage of respondents also want batteries you can fully charge in minutes, just in case. Consumers have been asking for batteries such as these for years, but now more than 80 percent of respondents believe they will be mainstream in only 5 years. One in two even thinks charging batteries using radio signals in the air around us will be commonplace in only three years.

It might be the renewed focus on electricity in general, and electric cars in particular, that makes people believe innovation in battery technology will pick up speed. As many as 63 percent want electricity to power cars, whereas only 33 percent prefer either oil or gas. Still, one in three believes fuel cars will not easily be replaced, indicating that there could still be some speed bumps ahead on the road to a fully charged future.

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Infographic: 10 hot consumer trends 2018

10 hot consumer trends 2018

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Methodology

This report presents insights based on Ericsson's long-standing consumer trends program, now in its seventh year. The quantitative results referred to in the report are based on an online survey of 5,141 advanced internet users in Johannesburg, London, Mexico City, Moscow, New York, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo that was carried out in October 2017.

Respondents were advanced internet users aged 15−69, who have an urban early adopter profile with high average use of new digital technologies such as intelligent voice assistants, virtual reality headsets and augmented reality applications.

Correspondingly, they represent only 30 million citizens out of around 180 million living in the metropolitan areas surveyed, and this, in turn, is just a small fraction of consumers globally. However, we believe their early adopter profile makes them important to understand when exploring future trends.

The voice of the consumer

Ericsson ConsumerLab has more than 20 years' experience of studying people's behaviors and values, including the way they act and think about ICT products and services. Ericsson ConsumerLab provides unique insights on market and consumer trends.

Ericsson ConsumerLab gains its knowledge through a global consumer research program based on interviews with 100,000 individuals each year, in more than 40 countries – statistically representing the views of 1.1 billion people.

Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used, and hundreds of hours are spent with consumers from different cultures. To be close to the market and consumers, Ericsson ConsumerLab has analysts in all regions where Ericsson is present, developing a thorough global understanding of the ICT market and business models.

Fashion

TOP 10 FASHION TRENDS OF 2018

Content Courtesy of: hypebeast.com

For better or for worse, 2018 was a trend-dominant year in fashion, to the extent that being on-trend was perhaps the biggest trend of them all. With that said, none of the below mentions should come as a surprise. Many of this year’s top trends were the logical-next-steps of 2017’s movements, while others were indicative of general shifts in not just fashion but culture at large — genderless designs, satire on consumerism, and changing the notion of who (or rather what) we’re dressing for in the social media age.

So without further ado, here are 2018’s 10 biggest fashion trends, in no particular order.

01: FACE MASKS

Very rarely do we come across a trend that hasn’t been widely recycled in previous years. In terms of novelty, face masks take the cake as the most emboldened trend of the year. Mostly taking form in the Fall/Winter 2018 season, the face mask trend stretched to all corners of the fashion sphere, ranging from luxury designers to niche imprints. The statement, head-covering accessory varied from the surgical masks prevalent in Asia to pull-over knit balaclavas and ski masks. The heavily functional piece took on a more flippant attitude when it reached luxury imprints such as Gucci and Calvin Klein.

02: PVC/PLASTIC MATERIALS

This year, transparency in fashion took on a literal form via see-through PVC accessories and glossy, plastic surfaces. Though largely sprouted from utilitarian and industrial influences, the PVC trend quickly grew into an ironic display of impracticality. Virgil Abloh’s Off-White™ x Rimowa clear suitcases and the slew of transparent tote bags courtesy of Celine, Prada, Raf Simons, Maison Margiela and more all had the cheeky inconvenience of exposing all personal belongings. Beyond the accessories department, clear synthetic materials also had a strong presence in clothing via see-through panels and pocket details, but also on footwear, most notably the Nike React Element 87’s transparent uppers and the see-through stripe detail on the newest YEEZY BOOSTs.

03: ANIME/CARTOONS

Every year in fashion has an element of nostalgia and for 2018, the reference point was ‘90s cartoon and anime classics. This year, Prada offered graphic collections centered on Japanese manga/anime, enlisting Taiwanese-American artist James Jean to design comic prints that were emblazoned on everything from bomber jackets to bags. Then there was Gucci, who continued its tradition of cartoon cameos with a FW18 collaboration with Japanese artist Chikae Ide on illustrations that include the comic ‘Viva! Volleyball’ and knits featuring Bugs Bunny.

On the other side of the coin, you had Raf Simons’ Calvin Klein channel Western childhood classics, such as Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner knit sweaters. The Dragon Ball Z obsession rolled through the year via adidas footwear collaborations, as well as the slew of Mickey Mouse and Sesame Street projects. With countless Disney classics being remade for 2019, fashion’s love affair with childhood nostalgia surely isn’t going anywhere.

04: UGGS/CROCS

Last year’s chunky sneaker trend just got uglier, and this time it’s a familiar type of ugly — Uggs and Crocs. These footwear zeitgeists of the early naughts have returned anew in 2018, taking on exaggerated proportions and almost impractical new heights courtesy of Balenciaga and Y/Project. Glen Martins of Y/Project resurrected the notorious UGG boot with thigh-high lengths, shearling trims, and intentional slouching that mimicked the way the boots naturally wear over time. The polarizing winter boots were championed by the likes of Rihanna and Dua Lipa. Elsewhere, Balenciaga’s take on the infamous Croc silhouette played on the kitschy, mid-2000s fever dream appeal of the rubber mule, offering a bubblegum pink version adorned with a bevy of decorative buttons and a dramatic platform sole.

05: SPACE RACE 2.0

While the first space race of the 1950’s and ’60s brought us American pop culture classics such as Stanley Kubrick’s Space Odyssey and futurist movements in architecture and design, the space race of 2018 gave us NASA-inspired fashion and an abundance of metallic clothing. Mirroring the historic event of sending the first man to the moon, this millennial space age is fueled by the onset of private space travel — another great leap in mankind, made possible by contenders such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. This new era of technology made its impact in the fashion sphere via the likes of Tom Sachs and Nike‘s NikeCraft Mars Yard 2.0, the NASA x Vans “Space Voyager” collection, UNDERCOVER’s 2001: A Space Odyssey capsule, Heron Preston, Supreme x The North Face, and Anicorn’s limited edition NASA watch collaboration.

06: LOGO REVIVAL

Logomania may be nothing new, but instead of the unapologetic all-over branding of 2017, this year saw heritage labels revert back to vintage logo designs with a contemporary approach. These revamped graphics essentially represented a new era: Gucci’s return of the GG monogram displayed Alessandro Michele’s bootleg-centric visions; the return of the original Burberry check via Christopher Bailey’s rainbow tie-dye and Gosha Rubchinskiy’s collaboration; Fendi’s vintage-style inverted F print; and of course, Hedi Slimane’s controversial rebranding of the Celine logo without the accent.

07: TRAIL SHOES

The trail sneaker is the sequel to last year’s pervasive “dad” shoe craze, representing a continuation of the ”anti-fashion” normcore codes that hit on ’90s nostalgia and rave culture. Offering a slight change from the orthopedic build of chunky zeitgeists such as the Triple S and YEEZY BOOST 700, the trail sneaker boasts a more streamlined silhouette with premium multi-textile uppers and ultra-technical tooling, often incorporating bungee-cord rope laces, a high-traction rubber sole and eye-grabbing colorways. Original trail sneaker imprints such as Salomon and Nike’s ACG lineage experienced a proper revival, whereas designer fashion labels offered their spin on the hiking theme, such as Balenciaga’s TRACK sneaker, ALYX’s Roacollaboration and Gucci’s crystal-encrusted Flashtrek.

08: TINY SUNGLASSES

“It’s all about tiny little glasses,” Kanye West famously wrote in an email to Kim Kardashian in January 2018. And surely, tiny Matrix-inspired sunglasses and steampunk frames were practically everywhere in the street style scenes and Instagram pages as another nod to this year’s 1990’s fashion influence. Fashion houses such as Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton and Calvin Klein embraced the mini shades on the runways, as did eyewear labels such as Gentle Monster and Le Specs.

09: SPORTS TEAM PRIDE

2018 was filled with major sports moments, ranging from the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and the FIFA World Cup, to the powerful statements made by Colin Kaepernick and Serena Williams. While these sports events undoubtedly had their effect on merchandise sales, fashion’s general dive into sportswear and athleisure also reached a high with the transition from tracksuits and sports jerseys to high fashion offerings such as Virgil Abloh’s Off-White™ x Nike Track & Field collection and Gucci’s MLB collaboration.

>10: XXXXL TAILORING

Perhaps with bigger shoes came bigger attire, but whether or not XXXL clothing was a matter of cause and effect, it was evident that 2018 was all about extremely baggy tops and very wide pants. Vetements lit the fire with aggressively oversized and over-layered hoodies, jackets and tops, including collaborations with Kappa, Levi’s, Alpha Industries and more. Other labels such as Balenciaga, Raf Simons, Calvin Klein and visvim also played their parts in taking the oversized fit trend to viral levels, giving us pop culture gems such as its may memes and Kanye West and Lil Pump’s “I Love It” music video.

Technology

Content Courtesy of: cnet.com

Written by: Roger Cheng

cambridge-analytica-phone

Photo by: James Martin/CNET

Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal and GDPR

What else could we go with for our top story of the year (so far) than Facebook's spiraling Cambridge Analytica data breach. Well, the company didn't consider it a breach until CEO Mark Zuckerberg called it one in his congressional testimony. There's so much to unpack here: the loss of the personal data of 87 million people, increased scrutiny on the practice of taking not just your data but the data from friends in your network, questions over how much value Facebook places on the security of that information.

Though the General Data Protection Regulation, the EU's new, stricter rule governing how online companies can collect your data, is technically a separate item, it and Facebook were so strongly linked by both topic and timing that they had to share a spot at the top of this list.

FCC Holds Vote On Repeal Of Net Neutrality Rules

Photo by: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Net neutrality laws are no more

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai set out to roll back the laws protecting the open internet, and he accomplished just that in June. But the story isn't over yet -- the move prompted states to enact their own net neutrality laws, and the decision will likely face legal challenges in the months ahead.

Video Game Manufacturers Show Off Their Latest Products At Annual E3 Conference

Photo by: Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Fortnite takes over everything

Last year's PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (or PUBG) popularized the battle royale style of game play, but Fortnite has taken it and absolutely dominated our lives. It helps that this game is on every console, as well as PCs and the iPhone. If Drake is playing Fortnite on Twitch, you know this is a thing.

mergers

Photo by: James Martin/CNET

Merger mania still alive

What a wonderful time to go shopping -- if you're a multibillion dollar corporation. AT&T won its case against the Justice Department to complete its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner. Walt Disney is trying to secure its purchase of Fox's entertainment assets, in spite of Comcast's best efforts to steal them away. And T-Mobile and Sprint are finally getting together.

yannylaurelscreenshot

Photo by: Screenshot by CNET

Yanny vs. Laurel

What did you hear? This sound illusion -- a trick in the frequency and how people respond differently to sounds -- had us replaying and replaying the audio clip as we lightheartedly debated with our friends and family. Go #teamlaurel.

avengers-infinity-war-poster

Photo by: Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Avengers, Deadpool prove comic book movies still rule

Avengers: Infinity War wasn't just a movie; it was a cultural touchstone that seemingly everyone was talking about. All that chatter about comic book movie fatigue went out the window after Avengers hit, followed by the strong follow-up Deadpool 2. But that ending to Infinity War has us clamoring for the sequel ASAP.

Trump China

Photo by: Getty Images

Trump shockingly helps Chinese company ZTE

ZTE seemed destined for oblivion. A ban by the US Commerce Department against US companies doing business with ZTE meant the Chinese firm losing access to core components from the likes of Qualcomm, and critical parts of Google's Android. But President Donald Trump opted to save the company, pushing the Commerce Department to come to a settlement, despite the protests of those in Congress. It's a surprising contrast considering Trump's platform of saving American jobs first.

A physical bitcoin shown on circuitry

Photo by: Getty Images

Bitcoin's dramatic fall

Who didn't see this coming? Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency in general, was white hot at the end of 2017, peaking at $20,000 in December. But common sense and a realization that well, you can't really use Bitcoin in a lot of places, brought its valuation down to earth. It's sitting at $5,900, a far cry from just a few months ago.

cash-bribe-bought-payoff-3663-2

Photo by: James Martin/CNET

Apple and Samsung's epic legal battle is over

It was the high-profile legal fight no one thought would end. The two tech titans have been squaring off in courtrooms for the past seven years over claims of stolen tech. It's a struggle that went all the way up to the Supreme Court -- which somehow didn't fully resolve things. Fortunately, Apple and Samsung settled out of court and everyone can move on.

xiaomi-mi-8-2374

Photo by: James Martin/CNET

Rise of copycat notch phones

The notch atop the iPhone X was controversial. Many derided it as ugly and a design misfire. Yet this year has seen a flood of copycats, including the LG G7, the OnePlus 6, the Xiaomi Mi 8 and the Asus Zenfone 5. Samsung, to its credit, stuck to its Infinity Display concept and shied away from the notch. But you can't deny Apple accidentally kicked off a new phone trend.

tesla-factory-7267

Photo by: James Martin/CNET

Elon Musk's Tesla drama

Musk has been in a pressure cooker throughout 2018, arguably one of his own design. Tesla has struggled to produce its Model 3 sedans in the volumes he promised, let alone with acceptable quality and for a profit. The Model 3 and Tesla as a whole still hold huge promise, but the company's window of opportunity appears to be closing. Lately, the brilliant, enigmatic Musk seems to be unraveling under the pressure -- particularly on social media, where he's appeared increasingly erratic and distracted. Fans, critics and investors are all taking notice.

SPAIN-TELECOM-MWC-MOBILE-WORLD-CONGRESS

Photo by: Lluis Gene/Getty Images

Huawei gets the cold shoulder

This was supposed to be Huawei's big year in the US. Reports had AT&T and Verizon finally supporting the Chinese phone maker in a big way. But those persistent security concerns over Huawei's connections to the Chinese government forced both carriers to reverse course, with Best Buy also cutting its ties. That's despite broad adoption of Huawei phones overseas.

President Trump Hails Supreme Court Immigration Ruling

Photo by: Getty Images

Trump blocks Qualcomm-Broadcom deal

President Donald Trump has been busy in the tech world. He stepped in to personally kill Broadcom's attempt to buy Qualcomm, a deal Qualcomm had been trying to get out of. The deal would've combined the two chip giants, but Trump was more concerned about what this might mean for the US' leadership position in 5G.

google-home-assistant-1358-2

Photo by: James Martin/CNET

Say hello to Google's Duplex AI

Google wowed us at its I/O developer conference with Duplex's ability to sound so human that it could fool people on the other side of a phone line. But that wow factor soon turned into a creep factor, and Google quickly backtracked and said it would disclose upfront that the voice was part of Google Assistant. The company has since opened up to a limited public test with a few specific businesses.

tech-workers-protest-trump-3830

Photo by: James Martin/CNET

Tech companies speak out about immigration

Just as President Donald Trump's ban on certain Muslim countries spurred major tech players to speak out last year, this year's policy of separating undocumented immigrant children from their parents caused the industry to once again weigh in. It's another sign of how tech companies are using their heft to influence social issues.

Brands

Content Courtesy of: musebycl.io

Written by: Tim Nudd

From NBA 2K to Atlanta United

Top execs pick their favorite work of the year

We invited some top execs in the business to tell us their favorite creative ideas of 2018. They were allowed to pick one idea from their own company, and one idea from outside their company.

See the full series at "Ideas That Worked."

Matthew-Curry

Matthew Curry

Chief creative officer, Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners

Our idea that worked: NBA 2K, "They Will Know Your Name"

We were able to make some great work with our friends at NBA 2K. The 2018 launch campaign, "They Will Know Your Name," was an idea that promised fame and glory to anyone who came in and outplayed the rest. It kicked off with the reveal of cover athlete LeBron James, as well as a cover design that featured the different names he's known by and things he believes in. The cover went viral, with fans creating their own versions.

We then hijacked the NBA Draft, having future phenom Trae Young expose the campaign tagline "They Will Know Your Name" stitched into his suit jacket on his way up to the stage. Finally, we launched a TV spot that had LeBron challenge the world to take the throne.

The idea became an invitation to anyone, anywhere, a chance to become the greatest of all time. The response was so big that it inspired a follow-up campaign, "Everyone's On," that creatively used data to reveal how many players, teams and rivalries were on at any given time, showing just how big the NBA 2K party really is.

The idea with "Everyone's On" was to create FOMO as we headed into the holiday season. We took over large parts of L.A., San Francisco and New York with out-of-home executions that were culturally aware and contextual to their location, along with pre-roll that did the same.

Another idea that worked: Postmates, "We Get It"

There was a lot of smart work in 2018, but the work I loved most was driven by real insight. It was well crafted, with the brand at the center of the idea, and nailed a moment in time, attitude or behavior we could all relate to. If I had to pick one favorite, it was the Postmates "We Get It" campaign by 180 LA.

Maybe it's the writer in me, but there was such an insightful simplicity to this work. Headlines that nailed the cravings, attitudes and idiosyncrasies of different neighborhoods and the people living in them. And a simple design that stood out.

I love how the idea, "We Get It," speaks both to the literal service the brand provides as well as the level to which the brand understands its consumers (which is really anyone who needs something). It was one of those campaigns where you wanted to seek out every execution because each one made you smile or chuckle for different reasons. There's a brutal honesty to them. A delightful mirror held up to our private cravings and stay-at-home behavior.

In a world painted by our polished social-media personas, this work was a breath of fresh self-awareness.

Libby-DeLana

Libby DeLana

Co-founder and creative director, Mechanica

Our idea that worked:

iZotopes, "Inspire Collaborations"

Audio technology company iZotope worked with us to design and execute a simple, fun and effective campaign. Reaching out to two songwriters, they created a collaborative video that displayed the easy-to-use, mobile Spire Studio, in which users can record, edit and mix audio tracks, simply by using a Spire and their phone or tablet.

Merrill Garbus of Tune Yards and Chris Thile of Punch Brothers and Live From Here were given four hours to record a song, using only a Spire, their apps and their creativity. This campaign is a favorite, as it was a collaboration done to show the simplicity of a product, and how it can be used by musicians of all skill levels in a realistic and relatable way, with some great, original music added for good measure!

Another idea that worked: Patagonia's political activism

2018 has been a tense year for America, and brands have been given an opportunity to connect with their consumers in one of the most personal ways: political activism. Brands expressing their beliefs on political topics has become more prevalent, so much so that it's hard to tell who is genuinely challenging the system and who is simply trying to hit on a social trend to stay on the good side of the public.

Patagonia, however, has stood out by taking extra steps through spreading awareness on what's happening with our government and natural resources, something the company certainly holds dear to its heart. This year alone, the brand has endorsed two Democratic candidates, closed up shop on Election Day and donated $10 million it saved from government tax cuts to grassroots activism groups.

Although this is not one campaign in particular, all of these pieces amount to one message to consumers: Patagonia is a brand that believes in something. They have challenged the idea of creative and took it beyond a headline or video, emboldening other brands to follow suit.

chris-breen

Chris Breen

Chief creative officer, Chemistry

Our idea that worked:

Atlanta United, "Unite & Conquer"

Atlanta is legendary for its fair-weather fans, so when Arthur Blank launched his new MLS team, no one expected them to win, and very few people expected the city to sell out every game for two seasons straight. Both happened. In fact, Atlanta United broke the MLS single-game attendance record eight times in two seasons.

Now, there is a multi-year waitlist for season tickets and the MLS franchise has a higher average attendance than any North American pro sports team outside of the NFL. It's also the top 20 in attendance in the world (the first time ever for a North American soccer club!). Let that sink in.

Then, top it off with an MLS championship, breaking Atlanta's 23-year drought—a championship with over 73,000 in attendance. United.

Another idea that worked: Nike, Colin Kaepernick ads

Hands down, Nike's "Believe in Something" campaign was the best of the year. It wasn't the execution, the writing or the art direction that made it exceptional, it was that it transcended marketing all together.

Nike took a stand and did what very few companies do—they put their money where their mouth is. Loyalists doubled down, and most importantly, the younger generation took note. For quite some time, Nike was losing ground to Adidas, and in one bold move that ground was reclaimed.

John-Weiss

John Weiss

Co-founder and chief creative officer, Human Design

Our idea that worked:

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) has protected key species on our planet since 1973. Its own survival was called into question when the new administration threatened to cut its funding. Human Design created a campaign that clearly showed how the ESA is the critical one-act that we cannot stand to lose.

We rallied celebrities to "act" for a species of their choice, by lending their name, social feed and signature to a petition to the U.S. Government to keep the ESA funded. Visuals depicting the fall of the ESA setting off a cascading downfall of species, ending with humanity, were created to mimic dominos falling—a narrative that anyone from 7 to 70 would immediately recognize and comprehend the gravity of the situation.

The campaign was executed from start to finish in six weeks, and what started with five celebrities ended with 33 signing on to participate and share their voice.

Another idea that worked: Payless, "Palessi"

The work that Payless rolled out with "Palessi" was on point. It clearly closed the value/brand perception gap that Payless has always struggled with. Current Payless customers were reminded that not only are they savvy in saving money, but they apparently have exquisite taste as well.

The false lines of quality that are drawn by "influencers" was called into question, and the playing field for what constitutes high fashion was immediately flattened. A well-executed and entertaining way to remind consumers that paying less doesn't mean compromising quality. It might only require a perspective (or name) change.

Top 25 Ads of 2018

Content Courtesy of: adweek.com

Written by: David Griner

KFC U.K.'s unforgettable apology, Bud Light's supernaturally good marketing and Tide's meta Super Bowl ads were just a few of 2018's best.



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