This last week flew by. Clayton completed his move overseas, and Oren returned safely from mainland China, somehow convinced to leave the massive fabric mall.

But even with everything going on, we’ve been thinking long and hard about the future of HYPER. What does a newsletter on brand strategy look like in a world with a thousand marketing newsletters?

What can we, with our locations and perspectives, discuss that is important, interesting, different, and actionable?

So this week, we’re taking a new angle and doing a report on the fly, diving into specific topics around how we regard the future from a brand strategy perspective. Then, next week, Oren will formally follow up on his trip to China and the what, where, and why of going fabric hunting and on factory visits in Guangzhou and the surrounding areas.

We appreciate you continuing to open these emails and your continued interest in our perspectives. Don’t take it for granted. As always, feel free to reply to this email with any ideas or input; we read them all.

The Futurist Report

We approach the future with so much trepidation, perhaps because we’re constantly being sold on it.

“This AI will save your company time… and money!”

“It’s LinkedIn… on the blockchain!”

"Did you know this 19-year-old made $2.1m with Chat GPT?”

At the same time, we’ve had more and more agencies and brands come to us and ask:

• What technology should we pay attention to?

• What is everyone else using?

• What’s hype, and what will be in our world soon?

So this week, we decided to give you a primer on technology and how it’s influencing our future. We sort through, everything from wearables design to AI brand tools to autonomous vehicles.

We’ll be covering AI’s role in the creative space more frequently, in part because it’s going nowhere, and second, because—if done the right way—it can become a powerful aid to simplify the creative work you’re already doing.

Here we go!

AI in brand collateral

Nike Basketball x Alien Anthology showed up on creative Josh Tepletz’s instagram, a perfect pairing that shows the potential of “enhanced” art creative.

A blend of photography, brand IP and Midjourney that is both standout and near impossible without this new generation of tools.

Automating your workflows

Claude recently debuted products that allow you to upload documents to teach an AI your personal or brand voice and approach to writing.

While nascent, this concept is the resonant one forming in our minds about the real future of brand marketing. Reach into your brand's customer portal for ideas, words, scripts, graphics, and even 3D animation, taught from the world of assets you’ve already built.

This is being tactically piloted by Air, who we collaborated on with our Creative Operations guide earlier this year.

They recently rolled out Paige, a creative conduit that helps you easily and intelligently search for all your assets in one place, from products and people to video transcripts and custom objects.

We’ve already started dropping our videos and mood boards into the database and watching them organize everything.

Air is preparing for a future where you can generate ad assets and layouts based on your brand’s assets library. You should be excited about this, not fearful, because it means you are able to think it removes business work, for the dream of being able to focus more on creative.

If you’re an org that’s interested in how you and your team(s) can leverage AI to better organize and automate the tedious parts of your creative work, check out the Beta program Air just dropped.

They’re offering 3 months free right now to anyone who signs up for an account.

Learn more here

The next generation of consumer hardware must be an it object, driven by consumer taste

There has been extensive content and conversation about AI wearables after the Friend wearable launched the other week, and it’s a conversation we will continue to have until they’re adopted.

I, like most people who have spent any time in hardware development, believe that the end state for an AI we talk to will simply be in our AirPods or attached to our phones. It’s too seamless of a user experience for an external device to compete with unless they develop something truly groundbreaking.

What we have between now and that moment is a middle ground, but to succeed in it, hardware design must be fashion-led.

I’d followed the Friend founder prior to their launch because, at one point, he had tweeted these mockups, a more interesting vision for an AI wearable (and perhaps a future state they’re still considering). The tweet has since been deleted.

Those graphics remind me of Frank Ocean’s jewelry brand Homer. Homer takes a unique approach to modern jewelry and could easily become a cultural mainstay with a slight push.

I firmly believe that instead of spending $1.8m on a domain, that money would have been better spent on product ID and careful introduction of fashion influence into the marketing conversation. When I look back at wearables that have broken the cycle of adoption, the one that stands out most is the Whoop, with a reserved, sleek design that also made people in the know constantly as “how do you like the Whoop?”

I believe AI companionship will be a thing — picture a creative companion that reminds you of tasks, circles back on ideas, uses common brainstorming techniques or straw man arguments to flesh ideas… or can bring up performance data points for reference, perhaps even gather some image references and email them to you.

Even better, they can remember that meeting 11 months ago with the designer from Berlin where he had that one I deal and mentioned that one campaign…

And bring it right to your phone.

That’s a creative future that is very interesting and enables us in this world where we ask for MORE and BETTER again and again.

I’ve personally been experimenting with Dot. It’s still early, but it’s a life companion you update with what's happening. It basically checks in and offers mild suggestions.

My main adoption hurdle?

It’s an app, and I can’t use it on iMessage. It will never catch on in my life until I can text it or send it a voice note through text or Siri. But the potential is there, and fascinating.

Consumer-Ready Blockchain

While many crypto ideas have died in the court of public opinion (and rightfully so), the ones that survive are particularly interesting.

The need for a community of ideas—a more tribal and deeply online Ted Talk per se—is what FWB (Friends With Benefits) represents in this space with their famed FWB Fest.

Abstract—a PFP crypto project—crossed into mainstream public adoption by making cute toys (its Trojan horse), and now they’ve got 8 figures led by Founder’s Fund to think about developing apps on-chain.

Of course, we have one of the best organic social teams, set to rapidly scale social apps to potential product adoption.

Using AI for placeholder content

For as much as creatives hate the AI talk for how it’s ruining creativity and art at large (while there are valid arguments there!), I love the way designers are using tools to create things like placeholder photography for client projects.

Because there’s nothing worse than needing to create a visually enticing project but not having good visual references!

To have flexibility with placeholder imagery is a huge win for creatives because it helps you focus more on the other elements of design work you need to get over the line instead of keeping you stuck on visual sides.

What does autonomy mean

If you’re in LA… you’re seeing Waymo hit product market fit. More and more people are taking it, appreciating it, and most importantly… it’s cheaper than Uber and Lyft.

This adoption and its repercussions are going to be rapidly put at the forefront.

And with that, we’re going to see a mass change in consumer trend habits—what will that time become, and what apps or strategies will be implemented to maximize it?

Also, a mass workforce needs to transition, enabling a new potential league of apps or a major macro-level shift.

All good future adoptions will inevitably resemble Idiocracy.

Scanning for dupes

On the consumer goods side, dupe culture has exploded in the last few years (thanks, TikTok!).

So much that there are startups literally called Dupe that scan the internet to find customers cheaper alternatives to expensive stuff (or authentic stuff!).

Why pay $10,000 for a Restoration Hardware cloud couch when you can get the dupe for $2,000 and at a much quicker turnaround?

Ideas on using AI for creativity

Back to creatives using AI for their workflows, our good friend Emmett Shine recently gave a powerful talk at the Lead conference in NYC about how creativity is infiltrating AI.

He put it in a (checks notes) 178-page deck synthesizing where we’re at, what tools are compelling to increase productivity, and more.

BYBorre and the future of textile manufacturing

Some of the more fascinating use cases of AI and product development are with what BYBorre is doing in the Netherlands.

They specialize in creating advanced, sustainable fabrics and textiles through unique design and manufacturing practices. Here’s why this matters:

1. Sustainability: BYBORRE’s commitment to sustainable practices addresses one of the fashion industry’s biggest challenges—environmental impact. Their approach to minimizing waste, using eco-friendly materials, and producing on demand sets a new standard for responsible manufacturing. As consumers and industries increasingly demand sustainability, BYBORRE's methods could lead to broader adoption of similar practices.

2. Innovation in textiles: Advanced knitting techniques allow us to integrate functionality (such as moisture-wicking, insulation, or even embedded electronics) directly into the fabric, opening up new possibilities for the design and utility of clothing and other products. This leads to creation of smarter, more adaptive consumer goods.

3. Customization and personalization: BYBORRE’s platform allows for unprecedented levels of customization in textile design. This trend towards personalized consumer goods is growing, and BYBORRE is at the forefront by allowing brands and consumers to have a say in the final product. This could lead to more meaningful and individualized products.

4. Collaboration across industries: BYBORRE’s work is not confined to fashion. By collaborating with industries like automotive, interior design, and even sports, they are demonstrating that advanced textiles have applications far beyond traditional clothing. This cross-industry collaboration could inspire innovation in how materials are used in various consumer goods.

5. Transparency and ethical production: The company’s emphasis on transparency in the production process is in line with the increasing demand from consumers for ethically produced goods. This focus could push more brands to adopt similar practices, leading to a shift in the industry towards more ethical and transparent supply chains.

What are you seeing in AI and technology right now? What are some interesting, compelling use cases for it?

Send us email and let’s chat!