I spend most of my time watching what creatives are doing before the mainstream catches on. Here's what I'm seeing right now:

1. Anti-minimalism is winning. After years of clean sans-serif everything, the pendulum is swinging hard toward texture, noise, and visual complexity. Maximalist layouts, layered type, analog grain — it's all coming back.

2. AI-assisted ≠ AI-generated. The creatives getting attention aren't replacing their process with AI — they're using it as a sketch tool. The output still looks distinctly human. That gap between "made with AI" and "made by a human who used AI" is becoming the taste line.

3. Brutalist photography. Flash-on, unflattering angles, grain cranked. The polished Instagram aesthetic is dead. What's replacing it feels raw, diaristic, almost anti-photography.

4. Color palettes are getting muddier. Think oxidized copper, cement, dried clay, deep moss. The hyper-saturated neon era gave way to something earthier and more grounded.

5. Cross-disciplinary portfolios. The most interesting creatives right now aren't "photographers" or "designers" — they're doing both, plus direction, plus writing. The hybrid creative is the new default.

I break this kind of thing down every week in my newsletter. If you're a creative who wants to stay ahead of what's actually happening — not what design Twitter thinks is happening — that's what Fugazi is for.