8 Graphic Design trends of 2018
What are the things you should focus on?
In 2017, we have seen the rise of the following trends
Louder and brighter colours — Apple-like muted, safe and easy to digest colours, that everyone was copying needed a change;
Bold typography — you needed to regain reader’s attention span;
Google fonts — 810 fonts that worked well with every blog or website you could build;
Authentic photos — differentiation from the influx of stock photo designs was a must;
Hand-drawn graphics and icons — as from above, to bring more personality and fun into the designs, off-the-shelf icons and graphics weren’t good enough;
Minimalism — boring black and white colour schemes needed to be replaced with functional designs and bunch of different colours;
GIFs — to help out the bold typography, GIFs were a perfect tool to express emotion when text didn’t do the trick;
Vibrant duo-tones — contrasting colours in duo-tones were needed to make images pop on the neutral background of social media sites and blogs.
So, what did 2018 prepare for us?
You can forget about shapes, colours, icons and fonts. In 2018, the world’s gone mad. It is all unicorns, dab, slime putty and babies using Instagram.
For real, how did the trends shift this year? What’s new?
Multiple brand colour schemes
Companies used to have only a handful of colours in their brand identity. It helped them send their message and be recognised from far away. But that’s not the case anymore. Starting with Spotify, and their colourful look already a few years ago, now more and more big brands are re-branding following their steps. Dropbox and eBay are two of those.
Colour gradients
Raise your hand if you haven’t seen Instagram’s logo. Instagram is using gradients for their branding and logo for a few years already. The rest of the world is catching up now. You can expect 2018 to be the year of gradient designs.
Responsive logos
Mobile interactions are more and more prevalent, and with it, the limited design space. Until now the trends were to simplify logos, so they were readable and looked well minimised, now, everyone is starting to develop so-called responsive logos, that adapt to screen size.
Unconventional colours
Corporate blue you say? Forget it. It won’t cut it in 2018. In the year of unusual colours, brands need to pick few “unofficial” brand colours and use them all over their projects. *Disclaimer: If you are sensitive, please skip the next sentence* You need to show you have balls in 2018!
Bold and handwritten fonts domination
Not only the trends are moving away from the minimalism, but also away from overused fonts. Making your font handwritten and bold, will make you work stand out from the rest and be unique. It is a bit more work, yes, but it’s worth it.
More custom illustrations
As for the custom and handwritten fonts, in 2018 you can also differentiate with hand-drawn illustrations and icons. No one will be able to recreate your efforts with stock images, and, when someone takes so much effort for a graphic element, the content under should be good, right? *Wink*
Better GIFs, less text
You cannot ignore the widespread of memes and GIFs. As in previous years, also in 2018, we see an increase of both. When there is an emotion which would be hard to describe and show in text, use GIFs. And make them yourself!
Cinemagraphs
They are a GIF or a video that is completely frozen, and only a small portion of it is subtly moving. They are gaining traction for quite some time now, and they are here to stay. Even if the movement is small and subtle, it certainly will grab people’s attention.
My digital unicorns would like to bring you some emails. 🦄
You love unicorns, don’t you?
