2025 Ins- and Outs According to the Creative Substack Community
From the perspectives of designers, art directors, writers and more..
Hi everyone,
Hope you had a good Christmas. I’m very excited about today’s post as I LOVE reading people’s ins- and outs for the new year. It’s such a fun thing and I love how specific it gets, that’s why for this post I gathered the ins- and outs of my favourite creatives on Substack to share their perspective on the ins-and outs of 2025. From copywriters, marketeers, designers and everything beyond. This is a long read, but definitely worth it as there are so many interesting perspectives.
I also had a thought about my ins- and outs and although I feel like a bit biased, because I’m working on a 2025 art direction trend report at the moment. I thought it would be nice to make mine personal.
Ins:
Taking care of your mental health as a creative and being picky with what type of projects you work on. Our time is so valuable, but so is our creative mind. If you are too stressed and thinking about finishing a million things at once, your work might not be as thoughtful as you want it to be. That’s why in 2025 I will only be working on a selection of (personal) creative projects with a small selection of people. I can spend more time on this and produce better work, rather than a lot of things halfway.
Making physical to do lists and crossing them off. I recently bought the Sofia Coppola 2025 planner and I’m obsessed. I was never really a very systematic working, I’d do nothing for days and then get work zoomies and do everything at once including chores. I love crossing off physically what I did because it feels like an accomplishment so I will be carrying my physical planner around.
Sharing your process online. We can often feel pressured by seeing so many young people online being so successful, when we look on their Instagram account for example it looks like they started shooting for magazines right away (because everything else has been archived and only the achievements are shared). I LOVE seeing the process, thoughts and everything of artists, it makes me feel closer to them and more relatable. That’s I think for 2025 it’s hot to share your mess, moodboards, failed projects, graphic experiments or creative work that’s just been made for fun.
Outs:
This one’s for my friends working in production and client management, can we stop normalising saying ‘asap’ to every. single. task. No, you don’t need everything asap and if you do, then plan better and tell me earlier. If I get 10 tasks at once and they are all needed asap, you can’t expect them all at once or to be well done. I start to overthink the hierarchy of what is important and it stresses me out. Let’s ban the word asap from every project, thank you.
Thinking it’s a flex to reply ‘I’ve been so busy’ to the question ‘how are you?’. It’s not good to be always super busy and definitely not a flex. Take some time for yourself, everyday life and recharging your mind.
Leaving negative comments on Substack, TikTok, Instagram or any social platform. If someone shares something they worked on, an outfit, a project or their perspective. There is no reason to leave a nasty comment or making someone question their taste. Just don’t say anything (unless someone is specifically asking for opinions, but constructive feedback also still exists) or leave something positive. The internet can be so cruel sometimes for such little things like sharing a moodboard.
Annie Dabir
Annie Dabir has spent the last decade working on luxury brands as a designer and art director. Her newsletter, Dabbling, features shopping finds and fantasy branding campaigns.
Ins:
Messy messiness: I know people love “effortlessness,” but I think an interesting shift would be to go a step further. The 2025 aesthetic of uncaring randomness. I think we’ll see a shift towards a reckless abandon approach to styling and photography. We are all so tired of the cyclical nature of trends, our phone addictions, being told what “era” we are supposed to be in. I feel like the pendulum will swing the other way, and we will try to look like we don’t care at all. It’s all about a lack of effort (every girl’s unattainable goal). This won’t just come through in product photography, but also in the model’s expressions, her hair, maybe even we will see a chipped nail moment. I think it will be more about being caught in a moment than effortlessness. A lack of posing is key here.
Combining mediums, graphic physicality: I think for brands to stand out this year, they’ll have to elevate their graphic language and keep it consistent. One thing I’ve been seeing recently and I think will be very on trend in 2025 is this idea of combining mediums, or combining the physical and digital in graphics. There are so many ways to do this, but I think a simple styled image is no longer enough. It should look like the image was touched by two different mediums, but in a cheeky, “made-you-look” way. It could be as simple as a collage or a scanned image that’s been manipulated, as long as the image looks like it’s changed hands.
Making a place the cornerstone of your brand: I think a lot of people are fatigued by schemes on the internet promising you can have a side hustle through drop shipping, affiliate marketing, etc. I’ve also come to learn that so many brands are simply middle men and outsource their branding, production, and just take care of servicing the consumer (or something like that). I think we might see a return to brands that actually MAKE things, and behind it is a place that they make it (Flamingo Estate). Farms are really the main thing I’m thinking of here, but I’d like to see a return to a time when people actually made what they were selling at their shop down the road.
Outs:
Gray gradients: This probably won’t be popular, but I am so tired of seeing those gray gradient backdrops. It seems like everyone is trying to emulate 90s Prada, but it’s getting a little too cold and boring for me. While it definitely looks luxury, I think I’ve seen enough of it. I am all for simplicity and minimalism when it comes to luxury photography, but let’s try something new people!
Two colour packaging: I know we are all about standing out on the shelf. But if everyone is trying the same thing to stand out, it’s not working! This is how I feel about two color packaging. It’s a way to make the graphics on your bottle really high contrast. To me, it’s just starting to look dated!
Single name brands: There was a time when people were obsessed with making their brand’s name turn into a verb (like Google). I think that’s where this one word brand trend came from. All the brands out there attempt to say as much as they can in a single word. While this is great for fashion, I’d like my mattress company to be a little more descriptive.
I am currently working on a 30-day program for paid subscribers to help find your Art Director’s DNA, something that can help you guide with decision-making, career choices and developing your style. At the moment I have a Christmas deal for gifting season, available until the end of this year. As a paid subscriber you also get access to the archive, monthly briefings with feedback from January and visual playbooks and concept labs.
In the new year I am shifting my focus to try to give more focused feedback on paid subscriber’s projects and career questions, including giving them the tools and projects to bring their knowledge to practice.
Viktoriia Vasileva
Viktoriia Vasileva is a freelance marketer, specialising in brand campaigns, copywriting, content, and strategic comms. She is also the writer of Vik’s Busy Corner - a weekly newsletter about creativity, brands, and business. You can find more of her research and curations here.
Ins:
Indie print media. While big fashion and beauty titles, especially in the US, are struggling to put out a compelling cover, smaller publications are bursting with creativity. They aren’t afraid to engage up-and-coming buzzy talent, lean into the niches, and take creative risks — all of which contributes to compelling visual storytelling and really strong communities forming around them.
Issue Issue Magazine Digging through the archives for inspiration (bonus points if they are not digital). Everything you can easily surface online can be easily surfaced online by someone else. If you are shooting to find/curate something special, you’ve got to dig deeper, or better yet, go to a physical library/archive.
Building strong local communities for yourself and your brand. This has never been out per se, but for a little while there we got distracted trying to speak to everyone on social media FYPs. Especially in cities, people are hungry for memorable experiences, beautiful spaces, and meeting cool people in their area.
Outs:
Jumping on visual trends. Something really terrible for creativity happened when social media trends and art direction collided. Airport bins, what’s in my bag, paparazzi shots, branded newspapers, office core - let’s leave it all behind.
Green screen creative director videos. I just think we can do so much better.
Casting big celebrities in your campaigns and doing absolutely nothing interesting with them. It’s very rare to come across celebrities who are loyal and picky about the brands they choose to work with. And it’s equally difficult to find brands who are strategic about their casting and loyal to talent - a lot of them are simply chasing the latest and hottest pop stars. As a result, “celebrity” in itself is quite ubiquitous and meaningless unless it’s supported by strong creative direction.
Jaskaran Saini
Jaskaran is an ex-social media marketer who accidentally started a newsletter curating all marketing news and data. You can find his work on the Social Juice.
Ins:
Brands doing virtual/internet trends in real life: If a brand is recreating a meme or a visual trend that everyone else is doing and it looks the same, it won’t cut it. Brands either need to scale it or remix it. Loewe recently did the “Blender 1 face vs 1 million faces” meme. The first version was very similar to the overall trend, and it gathered 133K views. The second version was them executing the meme in real time, and it gathered 1.1M views, and the product was more visible.
Ex: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNewFpmbb/ https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNewFVtc6/
Use of brand activation imagery as ads and social media posts: As we all know many brands have given up on use of outdoors and art direction. They are into white backgrounds and focus on products. The most we get is Accessories being used as the highlight of the cover and social media content. There’s not much hope in terms of editorial content going back to art direction roots. Some of the best visuals and most shared images that I saw this year were from brand activations. In 2025, we might see more of that. Event directors and fashion photographers joining forces to give people what they want: visual storytelling.
Niched and Instagram brands starting Substacks: The brand-side marketers and creatives are already pretty active readers on substack. It’s very likely that many brands will soon start a substack. Even if they don’t use substack, newsletters are in. Brands should also start treating their sales newsletters like a Substack. Fewer promotional emails and more conversations + visuals. This is possibly the next step to brand teams’ being interviewed by many fashion and non-fashion Substack newsletters.
Outs:
The templated memes of the past: Brands have squeezed the juice out of certain memes and shows like Sex and the City and The Devil wears Prada. They need to be more active and present in the fashion space. Use recent cultural moments from Met Gala, Fashion Week and other recent shows to make more recent statement. You can’t use Carrie Bradshaw for 999th time, there are new icons and memes. Get your pop culture knowledge up!
The white backgrounds: It’s weird that everyone is having conversations about Third spaces, Gen-Z loneliness and mental health concerns. But at the same time, fashion brands are all about hyper-individualistic visual marketing. White-backgrounds, one model in the focus. There is no story, it’s always either a thirst trap or cash grab. We need more variety and stories being told through fashion ad campaigns and editorial content. The all-white-backgrounds are boring.
Brand-on-Brand collaborations 2024: was like the peak of brands collaborating with either each other or different IPs from Hasbro, Mattel, Disney, and so on. While some brands like Kith and ALD will continue to dominate these brand collabs because their own brand is selling out pretty well, I am not so sure of brands like Kate Spade. They have been collaborating with other brands a lot while their own brand’s identity is under threat. 2025 will be about fewer collaborations and more establishment of brand identities and messaging.
Giulia
Giulia is the writer behind the Inside Pocket where she shares all things inspiration and fashion. She’s also an editor, fashion lover and works for NET-A-PORTER & MR. PORTER.
Ins:
Meeting in real life you never know who you’ll meet! Say yes to that event, catch up with friends, and be open to new connections. Networking can transform your career in unexpected ways.
Buying better invest in quality over quantity. A functional wardrobe made of great fabrics will not only simplify your life but also last longer.
Reading more, knowledge is power. Inspiration is everywhere, and reading fuels creativity like nothing else.
Image from the Inside Pocket Newsletter on Power Suits
Outs:
Polyester goodbye, plastic! It’s time to prioritise the planet.
Minimalism the fashion world has entered the age of extra!
Worrying about being copied imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Save your energy for creating, not stressing.
Noam Kaestner
Noam is the writer behind a newsletter dedicated to educating on all aspects of creative writing. He has worked with clients like Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, Porsche, Estrid, and many more, and he is also the author of a novel called STORM. Currently, he works as a copywriter at AKQA Berlin, while also sharing his entire process on making a short film from beginning to end on his Substack.
Ins:
Authentic, almost imperfect writing: Perfect writing doesn’t stand out anymore. With AI creating flawless sentences everywhere, people and brands are starting to write in ways that feel more real and unexpected. I see deliberate mistake-making becoming a style choice to let more personality and individuality shine through. It’s about finding a voice that feels human—connection over perfection.
Interactive narratives: People don’t just want to read or watch; they want to feel involved. The best content asks something of the audience—to reflect, participate, or just think differently. Probably, we’ll see more ways of doing this as the industry becomes more savvy.
Niche creativity: The ideas that stick feel specific—focused on a local story, a small community, or a unique point of view. Brands are teaming up with niche creators or celebrating hyper-local culture to make things feel personal. The idea of reach is changing; it gets more about how to reach the right people.
Outs:
Low effort/Spam writing: There’s the misconception that creation has become easier with the tools that are everywhere. But using them is becoming a skill, and there is increased misuse, leading to an incredible amount of content created with too little effort. At the same time, readers are catching on, becoming more critical and frustrated.
Cheesy, over-the-top advertising: The trend of purposefully over-the-top ads designed to grab attention is getting old. The constant stream of exaggerated, in-your-face campaigns feels forced now. Audiences are getting used to this approach and are getting better at not paying attention.
Writing to perform, not to say something: Having spent some time on Substack, I’ve experienced the hype. It brought a lot of people on the platform, hoping to quickly gain subscribers and write what they thought would perform well. But this will settle. I already see more people that are expressing their opinions or creating something artistic just because they want to, not because they think it’s what others want to read. That’s what ultimately resonates because audiences connect with honesty.
Laurent Francois
Laurent François runs the luxury practice and creative strategy in a global creative agency. He's also a Substack writer (internet culture, digital identities) and author, and a visiting lecturer in various business and fashion schools in Europe.
Ins:
Digital sanctuaries: As online spaces become noisier and more performative, there will be a rising demand for quiet, intentional digital experiences—virtual sanctuaries where users can log in for solitude or meaningful connection without the pressures of likes or engagement metrics. Platforms fostering slow conversations will thrive.
Emotive interfaces in visual communication: The resurgence of human emotion in design—think hand-drawn elements, emotional AI, or sensory-focused interfaces—will combat the sterility of algorithmic feeds. Visual communication that feels alive and messy, reminiscent of early internet aesthetics, will outshine overly polished, corporate vibes.
The rise of AI curator: Curators will leverage AI to provide better content mapping, deep exploration of arts, with a growing interest for history (in an internet which is actually losing tons of web-pages). It will become a sought-after resource and key job for image direction, luxury houses or pop culture crafter.
Outs:
Forced Digital Intimacy: The era of over-sharing and hyper-curated personal branding is waning. Users are growing tired of manufactured authenticity and feeling overexposed. Boundary-driven online personas will replace the exhaustion of "living your life online."
Uniform Virality: The one-size-fits-all model of virality is losing relevance. Instead, the internet will celebrate micro-virality—content that resonates deeply within niche communities rather than aiming for mass appeal. It’s about going deeper, not broader.
Delulu and regressive trends: With adults becoming adults (maybe?), vanilla trends won't make the cut in creative reviews nor media outlets, so we'll start allocating time and attention to more powerful actions to generate civic change, in design and in politics. At least I hope so.
Bobbie Notcutt
Bobbie Notcutt is the founder & head agent at photography & talent agency Dust Bunnies, a London based creative cohort of rising talent in the industry. In her Substack she educates and helps creatives navigate the space of photography & creative.
Ins:
Phone calls: The love of my lives, the cream of the crop, the good old fashioned telephone. The amount of times that I have ‘hopped on a zoom’ to only stare at people’s faces for no other reason than habit is quite ungodly. Unless we are sharing a screen, showing a pitch or have a lot of people on, there truly is no natural reason that I should be looking at you. Give me a bell and let me use that time to hit my 10k steps.
Photo from my Pinterest @zoeyasemin0 Loud shoes: I absolutely adore it when I walk on to set in the clickiest, loudest lil shoes possible. NOT when recording sound as then I truly am a scoundrel. But if it’s a photoshoot, a pre-light or a lil meeting. The loudest lil clickity clacks I think are just so attention demanding, give such boss energy and show you really don’t give a damn what anyone else thinks. Cool chics wear noisy kicks.
Humorous campaigns: I fear we have stopped being funny. And I don’t know if it’s the need to not be cringe, or the fear of it landing flat on its face. But so many campaigns which had the opportunity to use joy & levity to sell their product, are either being serious or sexy. Which both have their time and places. But a properly executed joke is what makes the memorable.
Outs:
Fish eye lens: Whoever thought that I would want to an image to be in the POV of a fish’s eyeball was sorely mistaken. It ain’t cool, it ain’t edgy. If anything it’s quite disorientating.
Whatsapping an email: The amount of people who see my number in my email signature and deem it appropriate to send me a cheeky lil text as opposed to a well structured email pisses me off. Also, you silly goose, I check my email way more regularly than my WhatsApp’s- ask my family.
Gen-Z being used as a form of aesthetic description: Please people, like every generation Gen-Z spans and covers a vast amount of groups, trends, looks and aesthetics. So find the sub-group you are looking to target if necessary, look at the adjectives that describe those and build your brief around that.
I hope you enjoyed reading the perspectives of these wonderful creatives as much as I did. You can subscribe and follow the Substacks by clicking on the names in the introductions. Let me know if the comments if you have any major ins- and outs predictions for 2025, would love to hear your thoughts.
Love,
Zoe
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Loved this SM Zoe!! This certainly helped to drag me out of my post Xmas slump 🫶🫶
Amazing read! 🤍