Liz Gorny

As AI systems advance in unstoppable motion, the creative industry faces an era of rapid change. We give pause with Light and Shade, a series interrogating the challenges and opportunities at the heart of the AI-creative conversation.

Animators and creative studios are beginning to upend expectations of AI, with unique use cases popping up in campaigns, short films and animations. Best-case scenario? It paints a more optimistic picture for the future of threatened disciplines.

Art deco typography, monk-approved logos and the ruling mood of toad: these are the trends we have been quietly bookmarking for the year ahead.

Does use of an archive make a creative project better, indisputably? And if references are currency, should we give them away willy-nilly?

An increasing number of studios, agencies, platforms – and even an AI-infused service – are trying to help brands write better. So will brand writers soon gain the prestige of brand designers?

Attendees plummet, multiplex chains shut doors; cinemas, we hear, are dying out. But something doesn’t add up when you consider the silver screen’s lure over a new generation of cinephiles.

It causes such clamour among attendees that many remix the identity, creating their own bootleg merch to hand out. We speak to the design team behind the coveted branding.

Motion blur, spiked typography and vests – we analyse key art for action movies of the past, and investigate whether they’ve changed, with a so-called masculinity crisis upon us.

Ming bounces between design collaborations for arts and culture clients, to putting colour markers and charcoal to paper in their art practice.

Designer Shira Inbar and illustrator Julia Dufossé join for Dream Theater, exploring the loudness and “liminal stillness” of the multiplex.

Modem and Mouthwash explore a future where one umbrella interface handles everything you do on your device – texting, ordering an Uber, even monitoring your mood.

Malcontent has been growing on Instagram for aeons, but the alternatives come with their own problems. We talk to creatives to understand the conundrum behind apps like Cara.

Using a giant pinball machine as a metaphor for the Euros, the 3D animation features some details that are “visible for six frames”.

Planning towards a future foundry, Daytona Mess is currently on a master’s programme, passing out type handouts in the shape of swords in presentations.

New motion design by Connor Campbell Studio mirrors the actions of focusing, zooming and bulk image imports – a photographer’s everyday.

VCCP, the retailer’s creative agency, adapted and re-kerned Primark’s wordmark in line with a new type family from Colophon – Primark Basis.

Working with Colophon foundry, Havas has opted for a totally unicase headline typeface, and pinched the crossbar of the pound sign to indicate pence.

Sculpture, web design, typography – whatever Kartik turns his hand to, there is an urge to let real world influences mess with standardisation.

The platform tries out new illustrations and a custom typeface to help it compete as a serious mental health coach service.

“We needed to radiate mass appeal,” says Porto Rocha, the graphic design studio tasked with encouraging visitors to the World Trade Centre site.