Every new year brings new challenges, new opportunities – and new visual trends. In the world of graphic design, it is our job to stay abreast of such trends.

Being “trendy” is not necessarily a bad thing; trends can reveal characteristics about our world and how we view things. However, I don’t blindly follow them either.

Some graphic design trends are noteworthy and make sense when applied. Others are short lived for obvious reasons. As visual communicators, it is our job to filter these trends and only apply ones that benefit our clients’ brands.

So what trends are we watching for in 2012?

• Tangerine Tango, the new hot color for 2012
• Condensed fonts used as headlines
• Letter-press and old fashion printing techniques
• Large photo backgrounds

Over the next few months, I’ll write a blog on each of these trends. In the meantime, do you have anything else I should add to my list?

I was at my parents’ home last month for Christmas and I went through a stack of 40 or 50 holiday cards they had received. Their stack was vastly different than the collection at my home.

It was interesting to see how many of their friends and family actually wrote something in their card. How novel I thought. Who would send a Christmas card that wasn’t just a glossy photo of their family on a beach? Not only did the senders write something, they wrote in cursive. A skill I barely possess.

My older brother and I poured over the cards reviewing everyone’s hand-writing skills. “Wow, look how she did her ‘e’s.” The review quickly turned to a “second language” conversation. “I can read it, but I can’t write it.”

Along with 47 other states, The Indiana Department of Education has officially ended cursive writing as a requirement. This will of course affect future typefaces and type treatments. I find it interesting that this style of communicating will eventually become extinct or will evolve into a secret language for anyone born before 2001. Use it while you can designers.

The University of Notre Dame recently partnered with Borshoff to develop the UpRight! campaign, which promotes aerial lift safety awareness for universities, colleges and high schools. The integrated campaign included the development of several key pieces, including a central website that offers a video introduction to aerial lift safety considerations, as well as video segments and tips on four key areas of lift safety: the Right Setup, Right Training, Right Weather Information and Right Safety Contact.

The website also features a downloadable fact sheet and posters, including one that encourages schools to input their official adopted wind limit, to post in areas where aerial lifts will be used. The UpRight! campaign launched on August 26.

Check out some of the campaign elements:

Central website

Right Weather Information video segment

Downloadable materials

During March, people with disabilities, families, schools and others will celebrate Disability Awareness Month statewide with community events, school assemblies, classroom curriculum and other activities.

Led by the Indiana Governor’s Council for People with Disabilities, this year’s Disability Awareness Month features the theme “Free Your Mind.” The campaign inspires Hoosiers to embrace the differences of adults and children with disabilities – a group that represents nearly 20 percent of Indiana’s population.

Each year, Borshoff works with the Council to develop a unique theme for Disability Awareness Month and produces campaign materials. This year’s materials feature people of different ages and ethnicities – with and without disabilities – lying on the grass and gazing at the sky with optimism and enthusiasm. The text reminds us that by embracing people’s differences, we open ourselves to a world of new possibilities. When we free our minds and see the potential inside everyone, we’ll expand our horizons – and our circle of friends.

“I could probably push a little more here…”

“I like the connection here…”

“I’m drawn to that…”

“We need to get it a little bigger to communicate…”

“The relationship between the shape and the type is much more balanced here…”

“The greens and blues make me feel good…”

“I love what you did with the Y here…”

“Adding the vertical line – it needed that…”

“I like the thought behind that…”

“It seems a little funky…”

“This is an initial look at where we’re going with the theme…”

“If we could just give a little more color and life to it…”

“I wanted this typeface to have a little more personality on this level…”

“I want to work this a little more — see if I can bring in a little more color…”

“I want to impress as much as we can…”

“I’d like to have other themes in our back pocket…”

“I would feel comfortable presenting these three just the way they are…”

“Beyond that, if you guys want to tweak and finesse, I’m all for it…”

“Perfect. Thanks guys.”

I recently learned that istockphoto.com is “excited to announce a whole new product coming to the iStock collection”: they will start selling logos on the site. IStock is a discount stock image and video Web site where visual artists upload royalty free images and then  iStock customers can purchase from the Web site. Original artists are then paid a commission for those individual works.

As a designer, it’s no secret that from time to time I use photos and illustrations from the service because of client or project budget constraints. Perhaps the client can’t afford a photo shoot,  or maybe they just can’t stretch the budget for a professional service like Getty. Unfortunately, our industry seems to be shifting more and more into the mentality that stock houses like iStock, and amateur sites, are simply the more affordable equivalent of their professional counterparts. In other words, the people who take photographs for a living, who do the job every day for hours a day, who take the time to work with clients to arrange content into a specific composition meant for a very specific ad/brochure/Web site, are being confused with laypersons who happen to snap some shots with a handy-cam.

iStock is a valuable source. When you simply can’t afford to pay for professional photography, it’s a viable option. But. Let me say it again. But. You are not getting the same quality of product. As professionals we know this, but it seems like more and more folks are starting to believe that the quality is the same. The reality is a quick five-minute browse comparing the images at iStock to the images at Getty will quickly dispel any notion of parity.

So if photography can be replaced, what’s the big deal with logos?

It removes the design.

Design is not simply making things look pretty. It is visual communication. Designers are hired to make images speak, not just to make them look good. The purpose of our industry is to tell stories with visuals. Our job is to make the image tell the right story.

The problem with iStock selling logos lies in the lack of client-designer interaction. It means that the designers who are willing to sell logos to iStock don’t even know their “client,” much less what service or product their “client” provides. The logo can’t tell a story about the client or provide a precise visual description of the client services because the designer has no idea what those offerings are. Instead, the “client” is left to browse images that they find personally, and subjectively, attractive. Professionally, and objectively, they will have no meaningful, intentional relationship to the company or client that the logo will then represent.

Visual representation without creative thought and implementation is a problem because people are choosing what looks good as their branding. Their visual brand – the visual identity that serves to communicate the essence of the company, the company someone invested time, energy and money into – is boiled down to one person picking what they find personally aesthetically pleasing.

As an agency, however, we know an organization’s brand deserves more thought than a quick scroll through images.

We take the time to research the company history and the company goals. We get a feel for who the company is and who they want to be. We recommend a strategic approach that conveys your unique positioning in the marketplace. We take the time to find solutions that make sense visually and historically. We take the time to make sure that the image is able to be trademarked and doesn’t face issues with another pre-existing logo. We take the time to sketch, test, critique and design the images we create. We take the time to make sure a logo will work across multiple mediums and uses. We take time to double-check our work, and make sure there are no remaining issues with it. Most importantly, we take the time to work with our client to ensure an end product that is personalized, meaningful and effective.

The time we invest in creative development is valuable and should not be reduced to a Web page order form.

Is working with an agency going to be more expensive than purchasing a pre-made logo (which I feel inclined to refer to as ‘clip art’) on iStock? Absolutely. Will you get the same quality work? Never.