Trendiness is the world of the seller. Magazines, fashion goods, hair products, stocks, dog breeds, new music, vacation locations, body art and what you're supposed to say and do today. It's all for sale.
While one of the aspects of today's creative designers is to produce art that appeals to the viewer, a good working designer doesn't necessarily follow trends. They devise the direction of their creations based on appropriate, strategic approaches that further the communicative value of the piece and reinforce the client's brand image.
While there are rules for design integrity (balance, composition, color, technical compatibility, consistency) I don't think you'll find one called "Thou shalt be trendy". I may be wrong. Maybe it's in the fine print.
But wait. Maybe long shadows aren't a trend but just a technique, I thought. Or better yet, a look. So of course when I thought this it made it okay to try it. Doesn't hurt to play with a specific look. As long as it's not a trend. Seems like the end of day/early morning exaggerated shadows work best when there is no gradation in them, as some of the examples in the article do. I kept the artwork in illustrator for the vector value. Adding gradations seemed to cheapen the quality of the bold colours and tarted them up too much. And it seemed to keep everything within the flat design realm.
Interesting. As long as it's not a trend, of course.
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I had a boss who liked to take the artists to the mall to see what's "in". I kept telling her that if it's already in the mall, it's too late to follow that trend, but she couldn't see that following isn't creative leadership. Just goes to show that some people completely miss the point. Glad to see you're painting. Love that line about the blank canvas matching the sheets :)
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