1.Graphic design – the Sans Forgetica font

It’s deliberately difficult to read and designed to help you remember your notes. Sans Forgetica is proven to boost your memory and according to experts, may even help prevent dementia. Who knew a font could do that? It looks pretty good too.

2. Music design – Skygge (shadow in Danish) brings AI and humans together

Touted as the world’s first human-and-AI music collaboration, Skygge’s Hello World is based on a Hans Christian Anderson fable and is distinctly eerie. Funded by the European Research Council, it is uncertain whether AI music producers will develop music without backstories and a creative process.

3. Digital design – virtual influencers

Brands are bypassing humans in favour of virtual avatars, often custom-fitted to a preferred demographic and psychographic. At present, they are infinitely simpler to work with (devoid as they are of human personality quirks) but judging by the speed of technological advancements, who knows?

4. Urban design – Google plays SimCity

Well not quite, but close enough. A new Toronto development on the waterfront has been touted as the first ‘smart’ city and ‘built from the internet up’ by Sidewalk Labs, a sister company of Google. Science fiction utopia or Orwellian nightmare? Time will tell...

5. Editorial design – TIME Magazine’s covers

TIME magazine stuck to their time-honoured masthead and red border but still managed to brush the dust off to become relevant to a new readership. For example, the gun control cover by French artist JR took five months to execute and comes with a moving picture version on Instagram.

Rashna Abdi is Chief Creative Officer, IAL Saatchi & Saatchi.