Glancing Backwards to Look Forwards Pt.1

We ducked out of the usual end of year reviews for 2012, bypassing the nostalgia of what will undoubtedly be a tough year to top, partly as we’re so busy with our Create GB book and a whole host of exciting new developments to the website; but also because it’s more fun to look forwards. So that’s exactly what we’re going to be doing over the next few days: using some of our favourite content from the last twelve months, to predict threads, trends and tones that could shape the next twelve months. Glancing backwards to look forwards.

One of the most powerful directions taken by a lot of what we featured in 2012, was that of the surreal and otherworldly. From the mega-bucks curves of Zaha Hadid’s Galaxy Soho in Beijing (aided by the equally ethereal photographic prowess of Iwan Baan) to the mind-warping madness of young upstarts like Ben Wheele, the flippant contorting of reality into elegant irreverence was everywhere to be seen.

Perhaps real-life has become too ugly to look at, perhaps we’re finally getting the visionary, fanciful future we were all promised – who knows? What is for certain, is that we want to see more of the frightfully surreal and beautifully fragile. Ghosts, whimsical visions, romantic notions and deeply disturbed dystopias – secret hiding places to disco balls that have had enough; the distorted realities and ethereal elegance of 2012 give us hope for an equally eccentric 2013…