Welcome to Friday Fives, Vol. 276
This week, we’re curling our Qs, chatting with Kendall Jenner, catching up on YouTube videos, learning new Adobe tools, and dreaming in color.
Ah, the smell of a newly sharpened graphite pencil and the meditative practice of mimicking the curves of an ‘O’ or an ‘S’ — a once universal experience that is now becoming increasingly rare in schools and logos. As more brands prioritize legibility to relate to younger audiences, they also lose a quintessential part of their history — just try to imagine the Coca-Cola logoactually losing its serif. We can’t help but feel that when historic brands like Johnson & Johnson opt for serif logos, they lose their connection to the past and a feeling of physicality, nostalgia, and esteem. Although change is inevitable, we’ll always welcome a handwritten note over a text.
Your Meta AI Assistant Looks A Lot Like Kendall Jenner
What could possibly be better than AI? You guessed it, AI combined with the personalities of prominent celebrities. The 28 new Meta assistants that Mark Zuckerberg unveiled utilize different personalities with celebrities’ images, such as Kendall Jenner and Tom Brady. Kendall’s AI personality goes by the name of Billie and takes on a big sister persona who dishes out advice. This didn’t come without a cost, though. Meta reportedly paid creators as much as $5 million to use their images, and they hope to expand to video using the celebrities’ actual voices. This announcement is apt with Halloween around the corner, and we can’t think of anything more haunting than AI using celebrities’ personas without their knowing.
YouTube Dethrones Netflix as Teens’ Go-To Video Source
According to a new survey, Netflix is losing out to YouTube, which polled 9,000 teenagers under 16. It revealed that teens spend 29.1% of their daily video consumption time on YouTube (up by 1% since last year) compared to Netflix at 28.7% (down by -2%). As streaming services continue to get more competitive, the consumption of YouTube content will likely increase, too. On the other hand, Netflix achieved status as the “coolest” brand according to Gen Alpha (7–14 y.o.) — beating YouTube, McDonald’s, and Nike. Other than wondering what teens care enough to answer these surveys, it also makes us wonder if the polarizing data may point toward an opportunity for Netflix to expand easy-to-watch, easy-to-access content.
Adobe’s AI Tools Are Regenerating Image Editing
Designers, you may want to listen to this. With Adobe’s new AI features, creating and editing designs has never been faster or easier. From generating photographic-like images from text prompts with Adobe Firefly to quickly selecting, editing, and even deleting complex image elements with Project Stardust, Adobe sets the standard for making image editing more accessible and efficient for everyone, regardless of skill level. In simpler terms, Schwarz notes that if Adobe Photoshop is like learning the guitar, then Adobe Firefly is like Guitar Hero. So, if you’re anything like us and shudder at the thought of getting lost in Photoshop, these new features may be for you.
Benjamin Moore’s 2024 Color of the Year Just Blue Us Away
Color us excited because Benjamin Moore just announced Blue Nova (825), Color of the Year 2024, and now we want to repaint our whole apartment. Like its name, it expresses the color of the night sky after sunset — the time of day when the sky takes on a deep blue. BM’s color marketing team describes it as a mid-tone blue with a nice amount of red in the undertone, making it the perfect color for elevating the everyday. Moreover, The Color Palette of 2024 is ten refreshing takes on complementary opposites. Look at White Dove (OC-17)with Regent Green (2136–20), a play on black-and-white with jewel tones, or Teacup Rose (2170–50) and Polar Sky (1674), a delicate take on blue and orange. The palette is rich and expressive, but if Blue Nova isn’t your first pick, Sherwin-Williams, Behr, and Valspar each released their color of the year, too, so we’ll let you decide which is your favorite.
