Top web design trends

Creative Bloq has put together seven of the top web design trends that are making waves online.

From social media to interior design, trends can be fleeting or enduring, and web design also relies on this innovation and creativity, in order to catch the eye of users and consumers.

With vibrancy and clarity being key themes this year, top trends include monochromatic schemes, blocking and hovering, and contrasting with duller colours.

Read more about each trend here and tell us which ones you like.

Old Spice hacks Instagram with 'Choose Your Own Adventure' game

Do you have fond memories of 'Choose Your Own Adventure' games? Well, Old Spice has resurrected them by weaving its brand into Instagram through the use of tagging.

Traditional 'CYOA' games tended to be in book form, with readers playing an active role in deciding the plot's outcome - which often involved fantasy or science fiction elements.

Old Spice's spin on the game lets users search for tags, which lead to new Instagram accounts that one by one reveal the story, with the use of retro monsters, robots, and superheroes giving the game a retro, light-hearted feel. 

Give the game a go here and tell us if other brands should make their own.

Fun new campaign from National Trust

A tongue-in-cheek campaign for the National Trust was launched in the East of England late last month. 

The posters, which are placed in strategic locations across the National Trust sites, encourage visitors to enjoy their natural surroundings, using lines like 'Keep on the Grass' and 'Please Do Touch'.

The signs are designed by The Click Design Consultants and also encourage people to use the hashtag #NaturesPlayground as part of the light-hearted campaign which will feature in print ads, posters and promotional literature.

Kmart continues down the almost rude route

After their 'Ship my pants' advert, Kmart and agency DraftFCB have created a new borderline ad.

This time promoting fuel prices, they use American expressions to create a rude sounding commercial with their 'Big Gas Savings' spot.

Perhaps not as funny as the previous advert, mainly as you have an idea what to expect, but it still has some funny moments and does lead you to wonder where can they take this next. 

Watch the advert below.

Scrabble points equal Wi-fi minutes in Paris

In this age of smartphones, tablets, emails, text messages and instant messaging, one thing has become slightly neglected: spelling.

To try and address this, at least in part, Scrabble and Ogilvy Paris have created wi-fi hotspots in areas that normally have no internet connection across Paris.

The catch? You have to earn your time by playing Scrabble. Given some letters users must create a word, the higher the scrabble score for the word, the more wi-fi minutes they get.

A clever idea to promote proper spelling, Scrabble and remind people of the fun they can have with words. Take a look at the video case study below.

Scrabble WiFi - Case Study from Ogilvy Paris on Vimeo.

Great ad campaign for Vancouver Aquarium

Found on BuzzFeed, these adverts for the Vancouver Aquarium are the work of TAXI.

Clever and thought provoking they promote the various exhibitions taking place at the aquarium.

The campaigns include pregnancy tests in men's urinals that become positive, highlighting the fact that for some sea-creatures it is the male that bears the children.

Another included a board with a shark fin, attached, whilst the advert itself was only visible at low tide, and another used it's placement on street lights to mimic the Angler Fish.

Take a look at the full collection of creative here.

New York London photo series

Award-winning photojournalist Daniella Zalcman has released an incredible series of photographs called New York + London.

The series was created as a way to connect the time she spent in New York with her new home London. The series was released on Instagram using a set of photos she took of New York on her iPhone during her last month in the city, she then took the same number upon arrival in London. She then used software on her phone to carefully overlap the images, created a merged image of the two cities.

The full collection can be seen on Yatzer here. Zalcman also has a Kickstarter to get the photographs published as a book here.

The best in Neon

London-based light artist Chris Bracey is currently displaying his works in his first solo exhibition at Scream Gallery in London titled 'I've looked up to heaven and been down to hell'.

The artist, who learnt his trade from his father, has manipulated his lights into incredible designs using themes he mixes with religious iconography, retro fairground bulbs and neon advertising styles.

Bracey has also provided dramatic installations for films such as Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the Batman films.

Many of Bracey’s works are self-produced neons, referencing popular culture – “Shine A Light in the Darkness of Your Soul” was written by Martin Gore from Depeche Mode and “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” is from a song by The Smiths.

His work also draws upon iconic imagery such as tattoo designs, Las Vegas and Soho.

The exhibition is on display until the 1st June 2013.

Nissan's self healing paint

In a clever marketing campaign Nissan has released a special advert for those that read the news on their tablets. The ad itself is for their 'self healing' paint, which recovers from light scratches to look as good as new.

The advert, created by TBWA/G1 Paris, creates scratches in the paintwork of the car as users try to swipe through the ad, which then repair themselves.

Very clever use of the swipe motion that people use whilst browsing to highlight another innovation.

Watch the ad in action below.

Ad turns magazines into WiFi hotspots

In a recent issue of Forbes magazine Microsoft ran an ad about their latest product, Office 365. In a limited number of magazines there was a  surprise for the reader, a WiFi hotspot, courtesy of T-Mobile.

The ad contained a wireless router that would provide 15 days of free WiFi, the router would last for two to three hours per battery charge.

The premise is that Office 365 is a use-anywhere version of Microsoft's Office software, allowing people to work on documents where-ever they are. 

A clever but costly stunt.

Scratch-and-Sniff banner ad

From the company that brought you 'the man your man could smell like' comes a new kind of banner ad. Old Spice, who are becoming renowned for their crazy ad antics has produced the internet's first scratch-and-sniff banner advert.

Unlike Google's April Fools joke, this one won't have you pressing your nose up to the screen, instead you fill in a form and they will send you "the smell of the Internet".

Another clever and amusing campaign from the brand, promoting their Wolfthorn line of products.

Take a sniff for yourself here or see it in action over on the Onion's Sport Page.

Clever ads target French literacy

Illiteracy is apparently a big problem in France and to highlight this DDB Paris has created a clever campaign that suggests one thing whilst actually highlighting literacy.

These are clever, engaging and very well executed.

You can see more of them over at It's Nice That.

Evian's dancing babies make a comeback

Evian is back, and so are its dancing babies.

The bottled water company's adverts have become synonymous with dancing babies since 1998, working along side their slogan of "live young".

This new ad, created by BETC Paris, see's adults catching their reflection and seeing themselves as a baby, a dancing baby.

Whilst this is in no way as entertaining as the previous outings for the talented tots, it has it's moments.

Watch it and the previous ads below.

Interactive sculpture in motion

A new collaboration between Hyundai's Advanced Design Centre and Berlin-based WHITEvoid, an interactive art and design studio, has created Fluidic.

The project sees 12,000 suspended spheres acting as 3D pixels or voxels which are illuminated by an array of high-speed lasers. The magic happens thanks to 3D cameras that detect a person and react creating patterns and shapes based upon their movements.

The piece was part of Hyundai's involvement with Milan Design week, the third time it has participated in the show, and was housed at the Temporary Museum for New Design. The interactive sculpture was inspired by nature and its ability to continuously adapt to a changing context, which Hyundai think of as part of their general design philosophy.

On April 8, the day of the preview, the German choreographer Nikeata Thompson directed a special performance featuring art, music and dance in the presence of the press and opinion leaders. In the days dedicated to the public Jan Jelinek of SCAPE, a seminal figure in contemporary electronic music, gave a special performance describing the rhythmic confluence between design and sound titled "Fluidic Art meet Fluidic Sound ".

Whilst many would have missed the chance to experience this for themselves, as it was only open to the public on the last weekend of Milan Design Week, 13th -14th April, there are plans to take it on the road, updates to be posted on the Fluidic page.

Watch a video of the sculpture in action below and visit the Fluidic page for more information and images.

FLUIDIC - Sculpture in Motion from WHITEvoid on Vimeo.

Heat-sensitive business cards

The thing about business cards is that unless someone really wants one from you they tend to use it for other things.

That's why creative business cards always grab the eye, especially these ones designed for photo producer Natalie Daniels.

Created by Austrian graphic design studio Bureau Rabenstein, these business cards look like undeveloped polaroid pictures, but the black space then takes on the image of anything that touches it.

The cards are produced with a special thermo-sensitive black ink under the surface of the card, which takes a temporary imprint of whatever it comes into contact with (providing sufficient heat of course).

Whilst the cost of these would be a lot greater than normal cards, they definitely wouldn't be easily thrown away and would leave a more lasting impression than your hand would on the card itself.

Take a look at more images here.

Let us know your thoughts on creative business cards.

Art that's good enough to eat

In Australia Kit-Kat decided to commemorate their limited edition white chocolate bar by holding back the last 50 and melting them.

But that isn't the full story, they got illustrator Mike Watt, to use the melted chocolate and crushed biscuits to make some incredible posters using only a scalpel remove any unwanted chocolate.

The posters won't last forever as after a while the hard chocolate will crack and break away from the canvas, but before all that happens they have managed to post them all up on their Facebook page. 

The designs have been called Kit-Kat White Final Fifty and is a great example of creative art and design.

Take a look at them here.

Pass the time with this Street View Hyperlapse

If you've managed to tear yourself away from the last time-waster we shared with you, Google's 3D marble Maze, then perhaps it's time you had a play with another Google favourite; Google Street View Hyperlapse.

Developed by the team at  Teehan + Lax, a Toronto based digital utility designer, the hyperlapse works by taking images saved on Google Street View, then speeding them up.

To create your own, you choose a location, select starting and end points and then a focal point, the focal point is the icing on the cake, it will allow you to see an image as the camera approaches and passes, simply recreating a car journey as you pass a point of interest.

Watch the video from Teehan + Lax below, then have a go yourself here.

Google Street View Hyperlapse from Teehan+Lax Labs on Vimeo.