The AIF Library:
How It Works
Recognising a look is often easier than explaining it. Two designs might seem closely related despite having completely different colours and imagery; something in the way they are put together still connects them.
The AIF Library gives those observations a vocabulary. It brings together historical references, visual analysis and ideas explored in the AIF trend reports, helping explain how a design works and what might make it relevant in a particular cultural moment.
The Library at a glance
Explore a section below ↓Historical & Vintage References
A personally selected collection of movements, imagery and objects, organised by era. Movement summaries appear alongside vintage references, with descriptions of what each example is and sources for further reading, including museums, archives and historical overviews.
These references give the visual discussion something concrete to return to. They can also inform Trend Markers when a particular detail or historical style appears within a newer aesthetic.
Traits
Traits describe individual qualities within a design. A composition might be Symmetrical, its shapes Organic and its lettering Playful; each term explains a different part of what is happening.
The Library contains 40 Traits arranged across 20 paired spectra, such as Light and Dark or Loose and Precise. They are grouped into seven families: Atmosphere, Form, Composition, Logic, Materiality, Temporality and Voice.
A design can combine several Traits, with different elements pulling towards different ends of a spectrum. The articles examine how those qualities appear and what happens when they work together.
Base Aesthetics
Base Aesthetics describe recurring ways of putting a design together: the underlying relationships between its shapes, materials, typography and composition.
They provide a visual foundation that can appear across different eras, movements and trends. Several cultural moments may share the same Base Aesthetic, even as their references and associations change considerably.
Each Base Aesthetic has characteristic Traits, with room for a particular design to emphasise some qualities and soften others.
Trend Markers
Trend Markers are the specific references and stylistic details that give a Trend Aesthetic its recognisable character. Old software windows, for instance, can become a Marker when their familiar appearance is borrowed for a contemporary design.
Markers are grouped into Era, Cultural and Stylistic categories. A single Marker can draw on a historical reference and express several Traits; its role is to explain the particular styling that makes this version of an aesthetic distinctive.
Trend Catalysts
Trend Catalysts examine the human and cultural conditions that may help explain why a visual direction becomes relevant. These can include changing values, technological developments, economic pressures or a reaction to something that has become thoroughly exhausting.
Why might a worn, visibly handled surface become more appealing in a culture surrounded by spotless digital images? A Catalyst explores the conditions behind that kind of question and the evidence supporting a particular explanation.
Trend Catalysts are available in the AIF trend reports, where they are explored alongside the visual directions they help explain.
Trend Aesthetics
A Trend Aesthetic describes a cultural moment or “mood bubble”: a recognisable set of visual choices gaining relevance within a particular context.
It draws its underlying structure from one or more Base Aesthetics, with their associated Traits. Markers give it specific styling and references, whilst Catalysts explore the human reasons that may help explain its appeal.
The same foundation can therefore take on a different character as its references, cultural setting and reasons for use change.
These ideas also run through the AIF design assets, where textures, patterns and bundles offer materials to explore them in practice. The Library helps explain what a particular surface, shape or arrangement might bring to a project, whilst leaving plenty of room to try a different combination and see how the whole thing changes.