Five Markets to Track for Artwork Trends

Spend time observing what's selling to these cutting-edge niches to ensure you're keeping your own designs fresh. June 08, 2011
By Josh Miles, Contributing Writer

One of the biggest trends in the urban markets is 1950s icons paired with tattoos, weapons and dollar bills. If using a celebrity's image, be sure to investigate if you need to get permission from a copyright owner before proceeding.

Depending on the niches to which your shop caters, keeping up with constantly evolving artwork trends can make or break you. Certain markets, such as skateboard, surf, hip-hop/urban, mixed martial arts (MMA), streetwear and fashion boutiques all require that you provide fresh, cutting-edge artwork.

As an artist, it’s my job to stay abreast of design trends. I benefit from the fact that many printers who come to me already have done research and know exactly what they want. However, I also travel to Hollywood and Los Angeles on the weekends to follow trends by watching people on the street.

Working with industry-leading apparel companies on both a freelance basis and as an in-house art director also has allowed me to see what’s hot in these trend-setting markets and make recommendations to my clients.

As a trendspotter, I observe not only art details and color palettes, but also shirt styles, specialty design elements and the most fashion-forward brands. Following is what I’ve observed from a few specialty markets whose clients require edgy, updated artwork.

Urban & Hip-Hop
For the urban and hip-hop markets, money references and handcuffs still are popular design icons, but the use of historical figures in art has increased. For example, artists will take an image of Marilyn Monroe, cover her with tattoos and depict her holding a gun. I’ve also seen designs of George Washington robbing a bank. These types of old-mixed-with-new designs are extremely popular at boutiques.

Artists also are blending mobsters and 1950s icons with modern-day gangster images, such as tattoos, weapons and dollar bills — especially $100 bills (known as “Benjamins”) — in the hip-hop niche. For example, you might see a design of Al Capone with a money roll and prison tattoos.

The gangster look also is in with the urban market, which still prefers oversized shirts with large designs printed with plastisol ink for a thicker feel. This market embraces two distinct color palettes: colorful, warm tones like yellow and orange, or black and white with a splash of red.

Chino Hills, Calif., artist OG Abel is extremely popular in the hip-hop market. Many of his designs include white airbrushed printing on a black shirt, with a couple of grays for the shading. I’ve had customers ask me to create similar-looking designs. Ironically, artists previously tried to make airbrushed designs appear as if they weren’t created on a computer. Now, that look is becoming fashionable. OG Abel’s designs include Ben Franklin and Marilyn Monroe, as well as lots of skulls, women with angel wings, and even a lion in the popular Rasta colors of yellow, green and red.

Hollywood
The Hollywood look is the opposite of hip-hop designs. This style typically includes weird or abstract multicolor prints in colors like fuchsia, teal and gray. This niche is looking to make a big statement, and its fans — mostly teens — are considered trend setters. They buy whatever is unique and strange.

I’ve seen designs such as a dinosaur wearing clothing depicting controversial historical figures, a giant tongue, scattered random eyeballs and bullets as emerging lipsticks in the form of a large peace sign. Tattoo Apparel is a great resource for checking out all the brands that cater to the Hollywood market. However, keep in mind that this niche is hard to access unless your audience is in a trend-setting metropolitan area such as Los Angeles or New York.

Surf, Skate & Snowboard
The brightly colored Hollywood color palette bleeds over into the surf, skate and snowboard niches. This group loves simple, abstract designs on lightweight, fitted shirts with no hand. Most shirts sport traditional front-chest designs with the occasional back hits and off-placement artwork. Many printers also create designs that are printed up the side of the garment. 

The surf market is shifting away from images, but I occasionally see designs that include a wave or an outline of California. Surfers are big into intricate typefaces and graphics that include custom fonts. If a customer wants a cool or unusual font, I typically customize my own font collection using Adobe Illustrator. Most of what I create includes one or two words with the letters running together so that it looks more like a piece of art than a font.

Similarly, for the skate market, words used in designs are typically brand names. Nike SB, KR3W, Matix, Girl, Volcom, The Hundreds, LRG, Ergo Clothing, Stussy and Obey are popular skate brands that would make good references if you want to simulate their looks.

Another good example is Famous Stars & Straps Ontario, Calif. This clothing line was created by Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker in 1999. His clothing line is influenced by skaters, punk rock and hip-hop, and is a major player in the skate market.

Examples of popular surfer brands include Hart & Huntington, Da Hui, Marc Ecko and Element. This market also is trending toward custom cut-and-sewn garments, as opposed to conventional styles. For example, when decorating a hoodie, the hood might be removed and the print would be done over the seam and then the hood would be re-sewn onto the garment. Or the full-front zipper might extend past the neckline so that if it were fully zipped, the print would literally go over the face. In this market, graphics sizes are shrinking, but garment manipulation is increasing.

The snowboard market continues to be dominated by patterns. Most snowboard art includes plaids or repeat patterns, such as a brand name duplicated multiple times. Burton is a good example of a popular snowboard line, and skis.com is a website that features popular snowboarding brands.

Mixed Martial Arts
MMA designs are trending toward simpler, less-flashy looks than in the past, but enthusiasts still love giant lettering mainly with lifestyle or brand words. Artists create designs with grays, silvers and reds — similar to hip-hop. They occasionally throw in something strange and colorful, but for the most part they stick to this palette. This market prefers fitted T-shirts in lightweight fabrics.

MMA is arguably the largest market for tattoo art, but these designs recently shifted to the airbrushed look. Heraldry icons, such as rosaries, crosses, skulls, wings, fleur-de-lis and MMA gloves, are popular. Skulls never seem to go away, and Toronto-based Tap Out is a market leader in MMA-style designs.

MMA artists are cutting back on rhinestones and sequins, instead opting to shift to the military look. Huntington Beach, Calif.-based Sullen and Seal Beach, Calif.-based Affliction are producing turn-of-the-century military looks and incorporating studs and other decoration elements, such as patches, appliqués and loose stitching, into garments. They also are using military logos and icons, such as a simple two-color eagle shield.

Teen Girls
For this market, T-shirts really come down to fit more than graphics. They want a shirt to accentuate their bodies, making graphics secondary. Female teens look for very abstract, but colorful designs that incorporate a brand name. Lips and peace signs still are popular, along with skulls, lettering and typography. Patterns and color swatches with ink splatters also are popular. Their preferred color palette is a balance between warm and cool tones, and I still occasionally see pastels.

Girls love sublimation prints for the soft hand. I commonly see sublimation all over or soft-hand screen printing with complementary tone-on-tone printing. Burnouts have slightly decreased in popularity, but not much.

Tracking trends is not difficult; it’s mainly just a matter of paying attention whenever you are out and about. Checking in on clothing brands via the Internet and Facebook also can be worthwhile. Many markets always will stick with the traditional and familiar, but if you want to cater to a younger demographic, some familiarity with what’s hot will always come in handy.

Josh Miles is the art director for Speedwear, a fashion apparel company, as well as a freelancer under the business name 5 Ace Designs. For more information or to comment on this article, e-mail Josh at josh@5acedesigns.com or visit 5acedesigns.com.



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