Month: August 2024

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View Transitions are one of the most awesome features CSS has shipped in recent times. Its title is self-explanatory: transitions between views are possible with just CSS, even across pages of the same origin! What’s more interesting is its subtext, since there is no need to create complex SPA with routing just to get those eye-catching transitions between pages.

What also makes View Transitions amazing is how quickly it has gone from its first public draft back in October 2022 to shipping in browsers and even in some production contexts like Airbnb — something that doesn’t happen to every feature coming to CSS, so it shows how rightfully hyped it is.

That said, the API is still new, so it’s bound to have some edge cases or bugs being solved as they come. An interesting way to keep up with the latest developments about CSS features like View Transitions is directly from the CSS Telecom Minutes (you can subscribe to them at W3C.org).

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View Transitions were the primary focus at the August 21 meeting, which had a long agenda to address. It started with a light bug in Chrome regarding the navigation descriptor, used in every cross-document view transition to opt-in to a view transition.

@view-transition {
  navigation: auto | none;
}

Currently, the specs define navigation as an enum type (a set of predefined types), but Blink takes it as a CSSOMString (any string). While this initially was passed as a bug, it’s interesting to see the conversation it sparked on the GitHub Issue:

Actually I think this is debatable, we don’t currently have at rules that use enums in that way, and usually CSSOM doesn’t try to be fully type-safe in this way. e.g. if we add new navigation types and some browsers don’t support them, this would interpret them as invalid rules rather than rules with empty navigation.

The last statement may not look exciting, but it opens the possibility of new navigation types beyond auto and none, so think about what a different type of view transition could do.

And then onto the CSSWG Minutes:

emilio: Is it useful to differentiate between missing auto or none?

noamr: Yes, very important for forward compat. If one browser adds another type that others don’t have yet, then we want to see that there’s a difference between none or invalid

emilio: But then you get auto behavior?

noamr: No, the unknown value is not read for purpose of nav. It’s a vt role without navigation descriptor and no initial value Similar to having invalid rule

So in future implementations, an invalid navigation descriptor will be ignored, but exactly how is still under debate:

ntim: How is it different from navigation none?

noamr: Auto vs invalid and then auto vs none. None would supersede auto; it has a meaning to not do a nav while invalid is a no-op.

ntim: So none cancels the nav from the prev doc?

noamr: Yes

The none has the intent to cancel any view transitions from a previous document, while an invalid or empty string will be ignored. In the end, it resolved to return an empty string if it’s missing or invalid.

RESOLVED: navigation is a CSSOMString, it returns an empty string when navigation descriptor is missing or invalid

Onto the next item on the agenda. The discussion went into the view-transition-group property and whether it should have an order of precedence. Not to confuse with the pseudo-element of the same name (::view-transition-group) the view-transition-group property was resolved to be added somewhere in the future. As of right now, the tree of pseudo-elements created by view transitions is flattened:

::view-transition
├─ ::view-transition-group(name-1)
│  └─ ::view-transition-image-pair(name-1)
│     ├─ ::view-transition-old(name-1)
│     └─ ::view-transition-new(name-1)
├─ ::view-transition-group(name-2)
│  └─ ::view-transition-image-pair(name-2)
│     ├─ ::view-transition-old(name-2)
│     └─ ::view-transition-new(name-2)
│ /* and so one... */

However, we may want to nest transition groups into each other for more complex transitions, resulting in a tree with ::view-transition-group inside others ::view-transition-group, like the following:

::view-transition
├─ ::view-transition-group(container-a)
│  ├─ ::view-transition-group(name-1)
│  └─ ::view-transition-group(name-2)
└─ ::view-transition-group(container-b)
    ├─ ::view-transition-group(name-1)
    └─ ::view-transition-group(name-2)

So the view-transition-group property was born, or to be precise, it will be at some point in timer. It might look something close to the following syntax if I’m following along correctly:

view-transition-group: normal | <ident> | nearest | contain;

• normal is contained by the root ::view-transition (current behavior).
• <ident> will be contained by an element with a matching view-transition-name
• nearest will be contained by its nearest ancestor with view-transition-name.
• contain will contain all its descendants without changing the element’s position in the tree

The values seem simple, but they can conflict with each other. Imagine the following nested structure:

A  /* view-transition-name: foo */
└─ B /* view-transition-group: contain */
   └─ C /* view-transition-group: foo */

Here, B wants to contain C, but C explicitly says it wants to be contained by A. So, which wins?

vmpstr: Regarding nesting with view-transition-group, it takes keywords or ident. Contain says that all of the view-transition descendants are nested. Ident says same thing but also element itself will nest on the thing with that ident. Question is what happens if an element has a view-transition-group with a custom ident and also has an ancestor set to contain – where do we nest this? the contain one or the one with the ident? noam and I agree that ident should probably win, seems more specific.

<khush>: +1

The conversations continued if there should be a contain keyword that wins over <ident>

emilio: Agree that this seems desirable. Is there any use case for actually enforcing the containment? Do we need a strong contain? I don’t think so?

astearns: Somewhere along the line of adding a new keyword such as contain-idents?

<fantasai>: “contain-all”

emilio: Yeah, like sth to contain everything but needs a use case

But for now, it was set for <ident> to have more specificity than contain

PROPOSED RESOLUTION: idents take precedence over contain in view-transition-group

astearns: objections or concerns or questions?

<fantasai>: just as they do for <ident> values. (which also apply containment, but only to ‘normal’ elements)

RESOLVED: idents take precedence over contain in view-transition-group

Lastly, the main course of the discussion: whether or not some properties should be captured as styles instead of as a snapshot. Right now, view transitions work by taking a snapshot of the “old” view and transitioning to the “new” page. However, not everything is baked into the snapshot; some relevant properties are saved so they can be animated more carefully.

From the spec:

However, properties like mix-blend-mode which define how the element draws when it is embedded can’t be applied to its image. Such properties are applied to the element’s corresponding ::view-transition-group() pseudo-element, which is meant to generate a box equivalent to the element.

In short, some properties that depend on the element’s container are applied to the ::view-transition-group rather than ::view-transition-image-pair(). Since, in the future, we could nest groups inside groups, how we capture those properties has a lot more nuance.

noamr: Biggest issue we want to discuss today, how we capture and display nested components but also applies to non-nested view transition elements derived from the nested conversation. When we nest groups, some CSS properties that were previously not that important to capture are now very important because otherwise it looks broken. Two groups: tree effects like opacity, mask, clip-path, filters, perspective, these apply to entire tree; borders and border-radius because once you have a hierarchy of groups, and you have overflow then the overflow affects the origin where you draw the borders and shadows these also paint after backgrounds

noamr: We see three options.

1. Change everything by default and don’t just capture snapshot but add more things that get captured as ?? instead of a flat snapshot (opacity, filter, transform, bg borders). Will change things because these styles are part of the group but have changed things before (but this is different as it changes observable computed style)
2. Add new property view-transition-style or view-transition-capture-mode. Fan of the first as it reminds me of transform-style.
3. To have this new property but give it auto value. If group contains other groups when you get the new mode so users using nesting get the new mode but can have a property to change the behavior If people want the old crossfade behavior they can always do so by regular DOM nesting

Regarding the first option about changing how all view transitions capture properties by default:

bramus: Yes, this would be breaking, but it would break in a good way. Regarding the name of the property, one of the values proposed is cross-fade, which is a value I wouldn’t recommend because authors can change the animation, e.g. to scale-up/ scale-down, etc. I would suggest a different name for the property, view-transition-capture-mode: flat | layered

Of course, changing how view transitions work is a dilemma to really think about:

noamr: There is some sentiment to 1 but I feel people need to think about this more?

astearns: Could resolve on option 1 and have blink try it out to see how much breakage there is and if its manageable then we’re good and come back to this. Would be resolving one 1 unless it’s not possible. I’d rather not define a new capture mode without a switch

…so the best course of action was to gather more data and decide:

khush: When we prototype we’ll find edge cases. We will take those back to the WG in that case. Want to get this right

noamr: It involves a lot of CSS props. Some of them are captured and not painted, while others are painted. The ones specifically would all be specified

After some more discussion, it was resolved to come back with compat data from browsers, you can read the full minutes at W3C.org. I bet there are a lot of interesting things I missed, so I encourage you to read it.

RESOLVED: Change the capture mode for all view-transitions and specify how each property is affected by this capture mode change

RESOLVED: Describe categorization of properties in the Module Interactions sections of each spec

RESOLVED: Blink will experiment and come back with changes needed if there are compat concerns

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CSSWG Minutes Telecon (2024-08-21) originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.

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One of the most important early design decisions you will make is what kind of background will carry a project. Should it be a single color, colorless, use trendy elements such as geometric shapes, gradients, or wood grain patterns? Or would a solid background design can help make a project shine?

Staying on trend with background design styles is important as well. A trendy background choice shows that a website design is modern and the content is new. A modern visual framework can even signal a user that you are thinking about their needs and making the most of the tools that will make their experience better.

So how do you do it? Here’s a look at background design trends and styles, with a few great options to try.

Muted Colors

Background designs have changed significantly over the years. Back in the day, most backgrounds, especially on websites, were all about chaotic images, vivid colors, and distracting videos.

Today, most backgrounds aim to create a calm and soothing environment to showcase content more efficiently. And the new muted colors trend is one of the most effective styles you can use to create such backgrounds as it allows you to create beautifully soft and calming backgrounds for all kinds of designs.

One To Try

Creating a muted color background is easy. All you have to do is pick a color that matches your branding design. But to add a bit more style and make it look less bland, you can use a texture that blends well with muted colors, like this gray stone texture pack.

Retro and Vintage Vibes

A classic vintage vibe never goes out of style. Many web designers and graphic designers have been using this trend to their advantage as it’s a background style that often highlights elegance and class.

Featuring aged effects, rough textures, and art deco styles, vintage background designs are perfect for creating a bold look for branding designs as well as high-end website designs.

However, when it comes to more playful and creative projects, a retro-inspired background full of neon colors and 80s vibes is the best approach.

One To Try

Creating a vintage background with a rust and weather effect takes some effort. This bundle of vintage grunge backgrounds will help you save time. Use it to create a gritty background for your digital and print designs.

Hand-Drawn Elements

The background of a design plays a key role in creating a more personal look that not only adds a human touch but also evokes emotions in the audience. Adding creative, hand-drawn elements to a background is an effective way to achieve that goal.

Adding subtle brush strokes, playful sketches, illustrations, and icons allows you to make your backgrounds more unique and alter the overall look of the design in a positive way to make them stand out from the crowd.

One To Try

The best way to recreate this background trend is to craft unique hand-drawn elements on your own. But that could be difficult when you’re working on multiple projects. In such cases, use some items from this 200+ abstract shapes collection.

Gradient Meshes

One of the most mesmerizing background trends in website design is the colorful and creative gradient mesh design. These backgrounds feature interactive designs with gradients that change colors as you move your mouse cursor around.

This background style not only gives your website a vibrant and attractive feel but also makes it much easier to highlight the content above all else. That’s part of why this trend has been quite popular recently and we will likely see more of it throughout this year.

One To Try

You’ll need some CSS skills to recreate this style of interactive gradient meshes for websites. However, if you’re looking to add a static gradient effect, use some of the vibrant gradient backgrounds in this bundle.

Repeated Typography

Backgrounds with repeated text and titles are a new trend we’ve been seeing lately. It’s a popular trend used by web designers but it’s also often used in posters, flyers, and even social media designs as well.

Using this trend requires careful thought and planning as it makes things more difficult to create a background that doesn’t steal the attention from the content. To make it less distracting, you can adapt creative methods like using glitch effects, transparent text, and outline fonts.

One To Try

The repeated typography effect is easy to create but it would take time. The best approach is to use a pattern creator Photoshop plugin like this one. It allows you to easily create patterns from layers.

Glass Blur Effect

Adding a subtle glass blur effect to a background may look simple, but it has many benefits. It not only adds depth to the overall design but also makes it much easier to create contrast between the background and the text.

The glass blur background effect works perfectly with both image and gradient color backgrounds. However, it’s much more effective when used with gradient color backgrounds as it helps create a subtle glass-like aesthetic look for websites and graphic designs.

One To Try

Applying a simple Gaussian blur effect to an image won’t help you recreate this design style. You’ll need a glass blur effect for this one. The easiest way to create this effect is to use a glass blur Photoshop template and apply it directly to your background image.

Split Background

The split background design trend differs from the popular split website layout trend. This trend involves creating backgrounds that are split into multiple sections.

But it’s not just about adding two images side by side or using two different colors. It’s about creating balance and separating sections more innovatively.

In the above example, the website uses a slider that you can move around to change the divider, which is quite interesting for boosting engagement as well.

One To Try

The best way to create this effect is to use CSS. But you can also start with a split layout template like this split homepage template for Adobe XD.

Fun Illustrations

One of the best ways to create emotionally engaging and memorable website designs is to use fun illustrations. We see handcrafted illustrations on almost every website these days but most of them are quite random and chaotic. When used properly, the illustrations give a unique personality to each and every design.

The trick is to make the illustrations fun and relatable in a subtle way. Of course, it has to blend with your overall design and theme as well.

Some websites and brands also use illustrations as a way to convey their messages in visual form. And they also use fun characters and mascots to make more memorable designs. But for backgrounds, a big, fun, and creative illustration will do the trick.

One To Try

You don’t always have to handcraft illustrations. A good illustration pack will give you plenty of options to choose from.

Glowing Effect

The neon glowing effect is something that always grabs your attention. It often works perfectly for adding a dark and moody vibe to the overall look of the design. The glowing background effect uses a similar approach but without the classic retro neon colors.

The soft, luminous light effect also creates depth and contrast between the content and the background. You’ll see this style used more commonly on technology-themed designs.

This background style works perfectly for product landing pages and for promotional adverts like flyers and posters. It creates a bright and bold look while bringing all the attention to the main content.

One To Try

The abstract modern backgrounds is a collection of high-resolution backgrounds that includes 15 different styles of images featuring glowing effects.

Grainy Textures

The grainy texture background style succeeds beautifully when it comes to adding a tactile feel to website designs. It creates a unique handcrafted look to digital designs with its sandy and organic textures.

The main goal of using this background style is to give a more natural, rugged, and raw look to your designs. It’s also perfect for creating a retro and nostalgic look for your digital and print designs, especially for brands that seek to achieve a more grounded aesthetic.

One To Try

You can use this grainy fabric effect Photoshop template to easily apply a grainy texture effect to your background images.

3D Illustration

Three-dimensional anything is a big trend this year. Illustrations with a 3D feel are funky and light for a design that has a certain feel.

The trick to this background style is to pick 3D elements that really work with your content. Illustrations can be a full scene or use 3D icons that create texture or a sort of repeating pattern.

This style emits a certain feel from the get-go. It is lighter and less serious than some other styles, so you want to make sure you are using it with just the right type of content. Otherwise, you could end up with an odd disconnect.

Create your own illustrations or find a UI kit with the elements you need. Add another level of visual interest with a touch of animation, such as the example above.

One To Try

Emoticon 3D Illustration is a fun option with big faces that you can drop in a background grid or with a more random placement.

Pastel Gradient

A pastel gradient background can be soft or brilliant, but the trend is leaning more toward softer hues and subtle graduation of color.

What’s nice about this type of background is that it adds visual interest with an element of depth. The style can work with any type of content and almost every brand color combination, making it a super practical option if you want to refresh your website design.

One To Try

1000 Square Patterns includes plenty of fun repeating elements in a gradient style that can add depth to any website background.

Video

Background video is becoming more common in website design projects. Think of this as b-roll or video that’s more for visual purposes than storytelling.

Motion can help keep attention on a design a little longer or create interest with content that might be lacking visual spunk.

If you click through the example above, it uses two layers of animation – video in the background and moving text in the foreground to create a fun display with a lot of impact. The video background is a stylish contributor to this aesthetic.

One To Try

Gold Modern Business Video Background has simple motion that can work in any space.

Light Shapes

Geometric shapes can be a nice addition as a subtle layer behind other elements in a website design. Elements with thin lines and not a lot of color will create something that’s visually interesting and does not get in the way of the rest of the design.

You can take these effects to another level by using them in similar ways throughout the design and ensuring the shape and style that you use are relevant to the website content as a whole.

Don’t be afraid to use them in multiple ways as well, such as reversed out, with super subtle color, or slight animations. It’s all about creating the right feel for the design with an extra element to engage in the background.

One To Try

Simple Laine Handdrawn Patterns has thin lines that fit this design trend perfectly. Play around with size and placement to make it work for you.

Layered Background Image

This is a background trend that we didn’t expect – photo backgrounds behind other layers, including text, other images, or videos.

These images tend to be wide-angle, easy-to -understand images that set the stage for the content on the website. They are most valuable when they provide extra information to make everything easier to understand. The challenge is that they can clutter or overwhelm the design if not done well.

Look for images that you can fade easily and content that’s easy to understand at a glance. Generally, the best options pull from the overall website color palette or include a lot of unused space that fades from one part of the background to another.

One To Try

Beautiful Seascape is an example of a photo background that could work because it just establishes a sense of location and the color could be muted, if necessary. For this design trend, an image that helps create a locational element can be helpful.

Three-Dimensional Feel

Three-dimensional and tactile backgrounds draw users in because they look and feel like something real. Users can almost dive into the design and be part of what they are seeing on the screen, and there’s a strong visual appeal to that.

The modern 3D background trend is more than just shadows and shapes for depth. They also include animation and texture that enhance the realistic vibe.

The key to making a 3D background work is it has to be believable, meaning the effect replicates reality, or it has to be so far-fetched that it is obviously imaginary. There’s a delicate line there that takes practice to do exceptionally well.

One To Try

Abstract 3D Background mixes depth effects with motion for a groovy background. The elements of motion can add to a 3D background, but you have to be careful so that you don’t end up with a dizzying effect.

Layered Elements

Background and foreground elements no longer have to be completely separated on the screen. The merging of background pieces with other parts of the design can create amazing depth, contribute to a three-dimensional effect (as featured above), and help users feel like part of the design.

This background trend is an extension of merging illustration and reality in imagery that we saw trending in 2020 and 2021. Now the trend seems to be more focused on geometric shapes and color with image layers to create this depth effect in a way that’s less cartoonish.

Bright color choices can help propel these designs forward with extra elements of visual interest with shadows or other depth-building techniques.

One To Try

Background Abstract Landing Page is a good starter to create this effect. To get just the right layering of shapes and elements, start with a background element that contains shapes that you like and then add images to the mix.

Liquid Backgrounds

Liquid backgrounds are increasingly popular because they are just so visually interesting.

You might find them in one of two ways:

• As a subtle liquid image behind other elements
• As a flowing animation in the background

Both concepts are neat to look at and even in a still liquid background, it evokes feelings of motion. The waterlike feel of a liquid animation or background often has a somewhat calming effect as well because of the natural flow on the screen.

One To Try

Liquid Backgrounds includes high-resolution backgrounds in a few color schemes. Each has an interesting texture and could work at fully saturated color or muted.

Photos with an Overlay

Background images never seem to get old and designers are playing with different ways to add contrast to images with overlays and effects that bring the whole scene together.

Overlays are interesting because there are so many different ways to do it, from full-color screens to partial overlays to adding color and other design elements on top of images.

The real key to making a photo overlay background work is using enough color to make foreground elements highly visible without hiding too much of the background image.

One To Try

Epic Photo Overlays includes some trend overlay options that both darken images and provide a dreamy effect. (This is popular on social media and starting to creep into more web projects as well.)

Thick Transparencies

In stark contrast, the trend above is using thick color transparency over an image or video. While this effect creates a lot of contrast, it almost renders the background image unreadable.

And that’s what the designer is trying to accomplish with this look. It works best in instances where artwork isn’t strong and primarily serves to provide additional texture so that the background isn’t just a solid color block.

Take care with images or videos used behind thick transparency. They shouldn’t be so interesting that people try to understand them. These images should fade into the background with ease.

One To Try

APPO 3.0 template is designed for presentations but shows what you can do with a thick transparency. Take your color or gradient way up to enhance text elements in the foreground.

Watercolors

Watercolor backgrounds are a new take on illustrations and scenes in website design. This trend includes anything that has a bit of a hand-painted texture to it.

What’s nice about watercolors – and likely what makes them popular – is that the style has a certain softness to it that some harsher background options lack. Watercolor also has an authentic feel that communicates the uniqueness of the content you are about to explore.

Finally, watercolor styles emanate a bit of whimsy. This concept seems to be a design feeling that more projects are trying to replicate right now.

One To Try

Watercolor Backgrounds with Modern Shapes combines a couple of trends – watercolor texture with geometric shapes. The result is pretty stunning and this set of files can help you set the scene for a variety of projects.

Full Screen Video

Video has been a go-to background design element for a couple of years, but it’s being reinvented somewhat with this trend: full-screen background video.

Responsive shapes are allowing designers to scale video to fill the landing screen. Like the example above, this trend focuses on the video with minimal effects and elements surrounding it.

The almost cinematic experience draws users in and can be highly engaging with the right video clip. To make the most of this background design trend, look for a video that has a lot of movement and action.

Options To Try

Envato Elements has a solid collection of stock video – more than 500,000 clips – if you need to jumpstart a video background and don’t have anything to work with.

Text in the Background

You might not think about text as a background element, but it can be.

Powerful typefaces with big words can carry the background with image elements surrounding them or even encroaching into the space.

This might be one of the trickiest background trends to pull off because you need to maintain a balance between lettering, images, and responsiveness all while maintaining readability.

One To Try

Boxer Typeface is a funky, slab display typeface that’s almost made for background use thanks to thick lines.

Subtle Textures

Subtle textures in the background can add depth and dimension to a project.

There are all kinds of texture patterns to try, but the dominant trend seems to be specks (most commonly white) over a solid color.

This style of texture provides a rough element to the background and adds a feeling that the design isn’t overly polished. The best part of this trend might be that it works with practically anything and you can even partner it with other background trends. (The example above uses video and texture.)

One To Try

Procreate Texture Brushes is a cool add-on packed with subtle sand textures for users of the iPad app.

Hover Animation

Who said background images have to be static?

Perfectly placed hover actions add the right amount of movement to otherwise static backgrounds. This technique works with photos, illustrations, and even patterns or textures.

The trick is that it adds an unexpected element of delight to the user experience. Until the hover action presents itself, users don’t even know it is there.

To make the most of this background trend, create a subtle bit of motion. In the example above, the image has a little bounce when activated.

One To Try

Animative is a collection of image hover effects that you can use on your website.

Layered, Scene Illustrations

Another background trend that’s evolving is the use of illustrations. While designers have used illustrations in the background for quite some time, these illustrations are more elaborate with layered scenes and even some animation.

An illustration can be attention-grabbing and memorable. The thing that’s difficult about an illustration is that these background designs can be rather busy, and you’ll have to carefully plan the placement and style of other elements.

The use of the illustration in the example above is almost perfect. With an off-center placement and hints of animation, it complements the text and the rest of the design well.

One To Try

Creative Flat Design Business Concept has a trending flat design with a color palette and styles that are highly usable. The creator has multiple illustration options available in this style.

Color Block Layers

Color blocking has been a design trend that transcends disciplines. You’ll find it in fashion, home décor, and website design.

What’s great about this style for design backgrounds is that it can be bright, and with layering, visually interesting. It works with a variety of color palettes – which can be great for brands – and doesn’t create a background that’s overly complex or difficult to achieve.

Use a color-blocked layer with a bright or light background and then add a second “background” in another color. You can see this in the portfolio website example above with a white background and then individual elements in blue boxes.

Flat Color

One of the parts of flat design that have never really gone away is the colors of the style. These colors are coming back around as background colors.

Not only is the style to use bolder hues for the background, but to use them flatly. No gradients, no variation, just a solid color background in a single hue.

These backgrounds often have realistic layers on top and sometimes a border or another background behind them to create depth. (You can see this full effect from the example above with white edging around a beige background with an image on top.)

Geometric Shapes

Circles, polygons, and other geometric elements are a big part of background design in 2021.

The shapes can be reminiscent of childhood or just a fun alternative to all the flat, single-color backgrounds that had been previously trending. For a modern flair on geometry, stick to a monotone color palette and use elements with a lot of contrast to make the most of the background.

These background styles can be somewhat flashy, such as the example above, or include a muted color palette with subtle geometric undertones.

One To Try

Linear Shadow Backgrounds includes 10 large and small geo (or poly) shapes with fun colors and gradients.

Line Patterns

From subtle curves to bold strokes, line patterns are growing in popularity as a background design element.

What makes lines work is that they mean something. The best line patterns help draw the user into the design and lead the eye to other visual elements, such as the custom line pattern in the example above.

Line patterns can be large or tiny, and both can be effective depending on the goals of your project.

One To Try

Engraved Vector Patterns includes 16 repeat patterns for backgrounds. The kit includes almost any line style you might like with straight lines, blocks and curved lines. (Repeating patterns are nice because you don’t have to worry about “seams” where patterns meet.)

Gradients

If you are at all like me, then you are one of those designers that truly has a love affair with gradients. (I can’t get enough of them.)

This trend is so flexible with background gradients that are only color, background gradients that overlay an image or video, or even animated background gradients that change color or seem to float across the design.

With so many options, it’s almost certain that you can find a workable solution that works with your color palette and design scheme.

Bubbles and Blobs

While bubbles and blobs might resemble geometric shapes, they are often different in that many of these elements include some motion and the shapes are rather imperfect.

This trend tends to work in two ways as a background element:

• As an actual background with bubble or blob-shaped elements that are there only for visual interest or to add a little color to the overall design.
• As a “foreground” background element, such as the example above. Bubbles and blobs are often moving shapes that float up through the design to create a more layered effect but are “background elements” because they serve no functional role other than to help grab user attention.

One To Try

Vintage Bubble Backgrounds has a true-to-life bubble style appeal, with 10 faded bubble images.

Wood Grain

Woodgrain backgrounds are popular when it comes to product photography and scene-style designs.

Both work well with this element because the wood grain background provides a natural setting that isn’t flat. It’s interesting, but not overwhelming. It provides an interesting location to help bring focus to the thing sitting in the background.

To make the most of wood grain styles, try to match the coloring of wood to foreground elements and look for planks that are wide or thin based on foreground elements as well. Try to avoid elements that fall into the “cracks” between planks.

One To Try

Wooden Backgrounds includes 10 different options with color and lighting changes with images that are more than 3,000 pixels wide.

White and Gray

Light-colored – white and gray – backgrounds are a trend that continues to hang on. Mostly derived from the minimalism trend, these backgrounds are simple and easy on the user. They provide ample space and contrast for other elements on the screen.

Most white and gray backgrounds have some element of texture, such as a pale gradient, use of shadows to create separation with foreground elements, or some sort of overall pattern or texture.

One To Try

Showcase Backgrounds includes 12 background images with a light color scheme with only white a pale gray, making these a perfect fade-into-the-distance design option.

Conclusion

Change up an old design with a new background. Something as simple as changing the look of the design canvas can refresh a project.

Look for something with a touch of trendiness to add a more modern touch to your design. Plus, all of the “one to try” options above are ready to download and use.

Influencer marketing is one of the most powerful and most effective forms of digital marketing available today.

With a market value of over $21 billion dollars, over 3X the value since 2019, influencer marketing continues to grow as it provides a level playing field for both big and small brands to compete for the user’s attention.

According to a survey by Matter Communications, 81% of people claimed they’ve made purchases based on recommendations from influencers, friends, and family.

Unlike other traditional forms of marketing, influencer marketing evolves with new trends, strategies, and concepts. Each year, you’ll see something new and different that brings better results for your campaigns.

In this post, we take a deep dive into some of these newest influencer marketing trends to see how you can leverage them to get better returns on investment (ROI). These methods might not be as effective next year so it’s better to take advantage of them right now!

1. Rise of AI Influencers

It’s no secret that most influencers on social media platforms now utilize some form of AI in their content creation process to make everything look perfect, whether it’s writing better captions, generating AI images, or even enhancing their everyday photos with a little bit of AI editing.

However, real influencers will have to do much more than that to stay relevant as they now have new competition from an entirely new group of influencers that are even more seemingly perfect.

Miquela is just one of many AI influencers currently taking over social media platforms. With more than 2.5 million followers, this AI influencer is not even the biggest account of its kind.

While it’s a new concept, most of these AI influencer accounts are already creating sponsored content and brands do not hesitate to get their products reviewed by an AI personality.

The same trend can be seen across all social media platforms from VTubers on YouTube to AI models on Instagram and TikTok. Facebook is also working on a new AI personality model that allows creators to make AI representations of themselves.

At this rapid rate of advancements in AI, it’s difficult to predict how big of an impact it will have on social media.

2. TikTok Domination

60-second videos are still the “king” of social media marketing and TikTok is still in the lead on that front. Especially when it comes to targeting Gen-Z audiences, TikTok is the go-to platform for marketing campaigns.

(Source: Statista)

Even though TikTok ranks at the 5th position in terms of the number of monthly active users, it is the most popular platform among brands for influencer marketing. 66% of brands use TikTok for their influencer marketing campaigns, with only 47% using Instagram, 33% YouTube, and 28% Facebook.

Even though Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook have also implemented their own versions of short-form content formats, TikTok still dominates the Gen-Z market with its trend-making content creation system.

3. Growth of Nano-Influencers

Gone are the days of looking up to celebrities for fashion and lifestyle advice. Now, younger audiences, especially Gen-Zers, turn to smaller influencers for fashion advice.

According to another study by Matter Communications, 60% to 70% of consumers prefer advice from small influencers who are experts in their field while only 17% to 22% listen to popular celebrities.

(Source: TikTok)

In fact, the smaller the follower count the better. Engagement rates were much higher for influencers with 1,000 to 10,000 followers (nano-influencers) than influencers with 10,000 to 50,000 followers (micro-influencers).

The biggest reason for this is authenticity. Smaller influencers put more effort and energy into creating more original content and having closer relationships with their audience.

4. Niche Trends vs Global Trends

Going viral on a social media platform is still a shot in the dark. With changing algorithms and audience interests, no one can predict what the next meme or trending hashtag could be. While big brands are still making bets on these global trends, smaller brands and businesses are now slowly turning towards niche trends.

(Source: Google Trends)

Local and niche trends are much easier to target than taking a shot at a trending global hashtag or an event. Small brands have a much higher chance of going viral on a small scale with niche trends, making it easier to even target specific local audiences.

Working with small, local influencers is the key to success in niche trends. Finding micro and nano influencers who specialize in a niche market will make it much easier to target your ideal audience and create trendy content that goes viral.

5. Long-term Campaigns

Influencer marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. You can’t convince your target audience to buy your product over a more established, competing product with just a single TikTok video. It takes long-term campaigns and partnerships to achieve that goal.

This is why many businesses now set aside marketing budgets specifically for content and influencer marketing. According to a HubSpot report, 50% of marketers plan on increasing their content marketing budgets this year.

(Source: YouTube)

As a result, most brands are now establishing long-term partnerships with influencers. Some even go as far as making ambassador-like partnerships that allows influencers to promote products exclusively from a single brand.

It’s an effective way to win over an audience rather than one-time sponsorships from an influencer who promotes products from different brands without consistency.

6. Livestream Shopping & User-Generated Content (UGC)

Leveraging user-generated content (UGC) in social media marketing is nothing new. It’s been an effective strategy for many years. However, a new trend in UGC offers a more effective, multi-layered approach that brings much higher benefits.

It involves partnering with influencers to encourage their audience to create content about a product. Usually, a giveaway or some sort of a prize is necessary for this process, sometimes even asking the audience to involve their friends as a part of the process.

This type of marketing greatly benefits the brand as it generates buzz around the product and the brand on multiple levels.

Livestream shopping plays a huge role in this process as well. Platforms like Whatnot are allowing content creators and influencers to easily create shopping experiences and involve their audiences in the process.

7. Influencer Seeding

Sending influencers free product samples, also known as influencer seeding, is still an effective strategy used in social media marketing. While it’s not as engaging as sponsored partnerships, this strategy allows much smaller businesses without big marketing budgets to create a presence for their brand.

(Source: TikTok)

A better way to approach this method is to create personalized packages that show the influencers how much you appreciate them and what they are doing. Including several additional free product samples for a giveaway will also get their attention.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many different opportunities and ways to approach influencer marketing. Big or small, every brand can use these influencer trends to create awareness and reach new audiences. Be on the lookout for the latest trends and leverage them to beat the competition.

I created a little library at work to make those “skeleton screens” that I’m not sure anyone likes. […] We named it skellyCSS because… skeletons and CSS, I guess. We still aren’t even really using it very much, but it was fun to do and it was the first node package I made myself (for the most part).

Regardless of whether or not anyone “likes” skeleton screens, they do come up and have their use cases. And they’re probably not something you want to rebuild time and again. Great use for a web component, I’d say! Maybe Ryan can get Uncle Dave to add it to his Awesome Standalones list. 😉

The other reason I’m sharing this link is that Ryan draws attention to the Web Components De-Mystified course that Scott Jehl recently published, something worth checking out of course, but that I needed a reminder for myself.

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AVIF (AV1 Image File Format) is a modern image file format specification for storing images that offer a much more significant file reduction when compared to other formats like JPG, JPEG, PNG, and WebP. Version 1.0.0 of the AVIF specification was finalized in February 2019 and released by Alliance for Open Media to the public.

You save 50% of your file size when compared to JPG and 20% compared to WebP while still maintaining the image quality.

In this article, you will learn about some browser-based tools and command-line tools for creating AVIF images.

Why use AVIF over JPGs, PNGS, WebP, and GIF?

• Lossless compression and lossy compression
• JPEG suffers from awful banding
• WebP is much better, but there’s still noticeable blockiness compared to the AVIF
• Multiple color space
• 8, 10, 12-bit color depth

Caveats

Jake Archibald, wrote an article a few years back on this new image format and also helped us to identify some disadvantages to compressing images, normally you should look out for these two when compressing to AVIF:

1. If a user looks at the image in the context of the page, and it strikes them as ugly due to compression, then that level of compression is not acceptable. But, one tiny notch above that boundary is fine.
2. It’s okay for the image to lose noticeable detail compared to the original unless that detail is significant to the context of the image.

See also: Addy Osmani at Smashing Magazine goes in-depth on using AVIF and WebP.

Browser Solutions

Squoosh

Squoosh is a popular image compression web app that allows you to convert images in numerous formats to other widely used compressed formats, including AVIF.

Features

• File-size limit: 4MB
• Image optimization settings (located on the right side)
• Download controls – this includes seeing the size of the resulting file and the percentage reduction from the original image
• Free to use

Cloudinary

Cloudinary’s free image-to-AVIF converter is another image tool that doesn’t require any form of code. All you need to do is upload your selected images (PNG, JPG, GIF, etc.) and it returns compressed versions of them. Its API even has more features besides creating AVIF images like its image enhancement and artificially generating filling for images.

I’m pretty sure you’re here because you’re looking for a free and fast converter. So, the browser solution should do.

Features

• No stated file size limit
• Free to use

You can find answers to common questions in the Cloudinary AVIF converter FAQ.

Command Line Solutions

avif-cli

avif-cli by lovell lets you take your images (PNG, JPEG, etc.) stored in a folder and converts them to AVIF images of your specified reduction size.

Here are the requirements and what you need to do:

• Node.js 12.13.0+

Install the package:

npm install avif

Run the command in your terminal:

npx avif --input="./imgs/*" --output="./output/" --verbose

• ./imgs/* – represents the location of all your image files
• ./output/ – represents the location of your output folder

Features

• Free to use
• Speed of conversion can be set

You can find out about more commands via the avif-cli GitHub page.

sharp

sharp is another useful tool for converting large images in common formats to smaller, web-friendly AVIF images.

Here are the requirements and what you need to do:

• Node.js 12.13.0+

Install the package:

npm install sharp

Create a JavaScript file named sharp-example.js and copy this code:

const sharp = require('sharp')

const convertToAVIF = () => {
    sharp('path_to_image')
    .toFormat('avif', {palette: true})
    .toFile(__dirname + 'path_to_output_image')
}

convertToAVIF()

Where path_to_image represents the path to your image with its name and extension, i.e.:

./imgs/example.jpg

And path_to_output_image represents the path you want your image to be stored with its name and new extension, i.e.:

/sharp-compressed/compressed-example.avif

Run the command in your terminal:

node sharp-example.js

And there! You should have a compressed AVIF file in your output location!

Features

• Free to use
• Images can be rotated, blurred, resized, cropped, scaled, and more using sharp

See also: Stanley Ulili’s article on How To Process Images in Node.js With Sharp.

Conclusion

AVIF is a technology that front-end developers should consider for their projects. These tools allow you to convert your existing JPEG and PNG images to AVIF format. But as with adopting any new tool in your workflow, the benefits and downsides will need to be properly evaluated in accordance with your particular use case.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you so much for your time and I hope you have a great day ahead!

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