Welcome To Friday Fives, Vol. 263
This week we’re serving up summer, curating niche playlists, marveling at movie trailers, pondering the unnatural, and putting the creative brief to work.
Hot-girl summer, barefoot-boy summer, what will it be next? As a way to make every summer more memorable, social media has assumed the responsibility of annually branding summer. Branding summer has its cons, it certainly makes it easier for companies to capitalize off of, but it has its pros, too — like bettering our mental health because we’ve convinced ourselves that the sweltering heat is just a part of “hot-girl summer.”
You heard us correctly. A new wave of influencers, deemed Spotify influencers, have garnered success on the streaming platform by making hyper-curated playlists that receive thousands of likes. By posting snippets of selected songs with their followers on TikTok, they entice listeners to give the playlists alike and listen.
The past couple of years have brought audiences exciting new live-action takes on classic childhood stories, and the upcoming release of Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, is no exception. The film is set to release on July 21, and it’s all anyone can think, dream, and talk about. And because the two pictures are locked in an epic summer blockbuster showdown, we’re obligated to mention that Oppenheimer releases the same day. Pick a side.
What hasn’t already been changed by artificial intelligence will undoubtedly change soon. From the labor force, talking human androids, to growing multicellular organisms from scratch, the question of what we will deem “natural” or “unnatural” will be a growing philosophical, and moral debate. Naturally, we’re about to go ask ChatGPT to define natural for us. We’ll let you know what it says.
The pinnacle of design direction, the seed from which all things grow, is the creative brief. The brief is the core tenant of any design project. In 8 different tips, Ed Silk, the Global Head of Strategy for JDO, explores how to build a more valuable brief. And in case you’re wondering, yes, the first tip is “Be brief” and we’re living for this helpful wordplay.
