Visual Trends for 2016: The Extended Human

2016 is already set to be a year of dynamic and complex visual trends. We are entering a unique time for design and imagery, with new innovations and accessible technology allowing us to consume and experience imagery in ways previously unthought of.

Each year, Getty Images’ team of art directors and visual anthropologists make trend predictions for the year ahead in the annual forecast, Creative in Focus. One of our predictions for the year ahead is that marketing and design imagery will really start to celebrate the growing relationship between humans and technology in a trend we are calling Extended Human.

Extended Human is one of the three macro-trends we expect to dominate visuals in the year ahead; the others being Outsider In and Divine Living. Together, these three trends represent the contrasts and complexities facing modern people; we crave luxury, but support ethical ambition, demand convenience but also support sustainability. These paradoxes will be one of the biggest challenges for businesses as they look to develop a higher purpose or meaning for their brand.

Technology is having an ever-increasing impact on our lives, so it’s hardly surprising that visuals exploring this relationship are on the rise. According to Deloitte, by 2021 more than 76 per cent of the global population will own a smart phone.

And it’s not just smart phones that are becoming common place. Sophisticated technology such as virtual reality is also hitting the high streets, with Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR [below] no longer limited to technology gurus, but readily available for anyone to purchase and use within their homes.

Virtual reality head sets are allowing us to experience visuals more deeply. These technologies expand our senses, transporting us to real or imagined places without leaving our living rooms.

Furthermore, the ubiquity of wearable devices allows us to self-monitor our bodies and visualise this abstract information to improve ourselves. Technology is truly becoming an extension of the self.

In the past, our reliance or dependence on advanced technology has led science fiction to focus on our collective anxieties around the dangers of robots and artificial intelligence (AI).

These anxieties are explored in films like Ex Machina and the TV series, Humans. The Extended Human trend provides an anecdote to this; it posits new technologies as a space for optimism. For brands, this opens up a huge potential to explore this relationship more deeply.

Extended Human imagery depicts technology as making us more human rather than less. It connects us with our families and friends, brings us closer to the global community and even heightens our emotional state, expanding our capacity for love or connecting with people.

A recent campaign from Sony Mobile called Extraordinary Everyday really captures this idea. In this campaign they highlight how their devices transform everyday experiences into extraordinary experiences. 

Using phrases like ‘I can run through walls’, ‘I can survive underwater’ or ‘I can see in the dark’ they explore how our personal experiences through our devices cannot be separated from the devices themselves.   

Another great example is Toyota’s interactive installation Cars that Feel [above], where the brand displayed its new Prius cars which engaged with the public expressing messages such as ‘hug me’ or ‘tickle me’ on them.  In doing so, the brand invited people to have an emotional, playful and more human interaction with a non-living thing.

As technology becomes an extension of the self, we are starting to ask what it means to be human. The Extended Human trend sees us collectively explore and contemplate the impact of our relationship with technology this year, both in the pictures we create and the new ways in which we create them.