Florence, March 11, 2022

In a period that demands awareness and knowledge by everybody working in visual design and communication, it is essential to try to look at what the future is going to ask us, as professionals of the creative industry. 

This is why the independent type foundry Zetafonts cares to sponsor each year the work of the educational team of Typecampus, which analyzes visual trends as a way to reflect on global design culture. 

The 2022 Type Trends Lookbook is now out as an inspirational guide to typographic and design trends, published in digital format and free to download

“The release of the 2022 Type Trends Lookbook coincides with dramatic and unexpected events – a period that demands awareness and knowledge by everybody working in visual design and communication”  ? says Isabella Ahmadzadeh, chief editor of the project ? “Rather than just looking at the trendy surface styles, designers and brands are required to pay attention to the meaning of their visual choices. And whether this meaning is found in a shared dream or in a choral action, this book can be a useful tool to help your design become more critical and conscious of the world around us.”

Following the 2021 research, the Typecampus team has identified four behavioral drivers, that we can use for defining different scenarios to describe our present visual panorama made of uncertain reality: so, as a human being, you can dream of escaping from reality, finding refuge in another time and space, or you can face reality by seeking the best of what it has to offer. You can take action, by embracing new purposes, or you can choose to be passive because nothing you do makes a difference. 

Basically, depending on the attitudes we face, trends and styles, therefore, correspond with their respective verbal and visual registers: Digital Ecstatic, Bold Purpose, Artificial Nostalgia and Hardcore Normcore.

While at the meeting point between the trends we can now find a blurry area that hosts the more interesting styles of contemporary visual culture. It is the realm of the so-called edge effect, in which all the tensions coming from the visual trends collapse onto one another and create a hybrid realm where opposites – truth and false, past and present, digital and physical – merge together. 

Welcome to the heart of New Normal: Swap Culture.

Among the various scenarios and styles, it is possible to discover interesting points of view on each trends in the interviews of Nadine Chahine (I love typography), Amber Weaver (Type01 magazine), Héctor Ayuso (Offf! Barcelona), Francesco Franchi (Repubblica), Julia Kahl (Slanted Publishers), Raissa Pardini, Tina Touli, Typetype foundry, Valentina Casali (Sunday Büro) and Bill Gardner (Logolounge).

In addition to the usual research work, this year the readers of the Type Trends Lookbook will be able to deepen the vibrant characterizations of the trends identified also with the corresponding playlists, available on the TypeCampus profile on Spotify.

"As part of the academic activity, this project is for our type foundry an opportunity for observation, study and research essential to understanding the needs of designers, brands, but above all of the society in which we live.”  ? says Debora Manetti, co-partner of Zetafonts ? “it is a meticulous job and a commitment of over 3 months, between research, production, contacts. Finally, to reach the main recipients of the project: designers, agencies, and design schools, with special regard for the affiliates of the TypeCampus academic project”

The Type Trends Lookbook 2022 is available through the web and social channels of Zetafonts and TypeCampus. Soon also available in the printed version.

DOWNLOAD IT NOW!

The 2022 Type Trends Lookbook: The new normal

by TypeCampus Team 

Authors: Isabella Ahmadzadeh, chief editor of the project, Francesco Canovaro, Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini, Sofia Bandini, Shrishti Vajpai

IMAGES AVAILABLE AT THIS LINK> https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qupvir6okpbs7ao/AAATAhfRpyDwzH8zQtqg-s0ea?dl=0

Zetafonts is part of Ligature Srl

CONTACT: Debora Manetti / debora@zetafonts.com 

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Discover the TypeCampus Academic Resources: 

An agreement, totally free-of-charge, offered exclusively to design and communication universities and schools. A series of tools and resources together with Zetafonts, to help students orientate in this wide and wild typographic design space!

> https://www.typecampus.com/academic-resources

Kindly join the revolution: Fight for Kindness!

In an increasingly self-oriented society, exacerbated by the experiences of pandemic isolation, kindness has collapsed, risking becoming a legacy of times gone by. Peace and mutual trust are becoming more important than ever, and any action that can work in this direction is our human responsibility.

Each year, in November, people across the globe celebrate World Kindness Day, which promotes the importance of being kind to each other and to the world. This project is a unique opportunity to build awareness around this annual appointment, by unifying design communities and celebrating Kindness in a more inspiring way.

Selected entries will get a chance to be featured in our online gallery, social media channels and more; be a part of digital and physical expositions, in the most influential international design schools. 

> https://www.typecampus.com/fight-for-kindness

Be part of the Zetafonts TypeClub

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> https://www.zetafonts.com/typeclub