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Graphic Design Trends

Graphic design trends have been flourishing in the digital age because everyone needs a practical and good-looking product these days.

Creative professionals use all sorts of tools and techniques to craft artwork that perfectly meet the expectations of clients and their target audiences. This is exactly why we are witnessing an avalanche of new frameworks and approaches in this niche.

Hence, it’s not surprising to learn that there is no one major trend winning over the graphic design industry. An abundance of influences relevant to highly specific niches and industry professionals are available. 

Our goal is to keep you up to date, so here are the 10 biggest graphic design trends for 2020. Let’s take a look!

Organic look and feel

The first trend on our list is all about making design products look and feel natural and organic. It’s a way some graphic designers respond to dominant solutions promoting artificial and robotic features of the 21stcentury. 

What makes this trend so important in 2020? 

Well, it seems like the audience is eager to see more calming color schemes, packaging, posters, logos, and similar details because they strongly feel the effects of alienation. Instead of staged scenes and superficial designs, modern users demand softer and simpler elements that promote a more natural connection to the world around them.

Minimalism

The second trend goes hand in hand with the first one. Although not being a brand new trend in graphic design. Minimalism just keeps reviving every once in a while as a reaction to the growing complexity of the modern way of living. 

Less is more in this case. It’s an ancient minimalistic mantra that underlines core values and neglects everything else that might ruin users’ experiences. 

For instance, a student looking for thesis help or assignment help agencies does not want to spend hours browsing through intricate websites. On the contrary, they want a clear and simple interface that instantly displays the desired feature. That is what minimalism is all about, which is why we once again witness the rise of this graphic design trend.

Type-only design

Who says the graphic design is dependent on colorful visuals and mind-boggling components? A very interesting trend comes in the form of a type-only approach. It’s a brand new mindset that promotes work based on typography and neglects. Pretty much every other traditional component in graphic design. 

Designers are breaking barriers in 2020 and so they are willing to experiment with typography instead of photography. You will see it all there this year, from semi-transparent fonts to maxi typography to innovative text-based compositions.

Cyberpunk design

We already mentioned that 2020 was going to bring a wide range of contrasting trends and the fourth entry on our list is a clear proof of our statement. Namely, it looks like the so-called cyberpunk design is also taking the center stage this year.

What is cyberpunk?

It’s a sci-fi genre that concentrates on bright color schemes and futuristic features. In terms of graphic design, cyberpunk recommends using extreme colors, experimenting with vibrant neon lights, and doing all those extravagant actions that can make the artwork stand out from the crowd of similar products.

GIFs

GIFs are by no means a novelty in the graphic design realm. They are getting increasingly popular among industry professionals in 2020. Brands are not afraid of animations anymore because they want to test different approaches and add a notion of dynamics to their graphic design products. 

After all, is there anything more appealing than displaying a brand logo in such an engaging and actionable way?

The only problem that refutes GIF-based design is rather technical. Namely, many designers are still afraid of using GIFs and animations because the feature might slow down digital products and hence jeopardize the entire experience.

Gender and sexuality become a graphic design thing

The world we live in drastically differs from, let’s say, the 1970s or the 1980s. Today, gender and sexuality issues have become a dominant theme in mainstream media and everyday life, which is why graphic design has to take it into account as well. 

It means that the majority of graphic designers will stop creating products for a specific gender. No more pink for girls and blue for boys – it’s an outdated mindset that neglects what matters the most, and that is the human being who’ll end up consuming the final product.

Realistic photography to fend off Insta-perfection

Instagram is the most popular image-sharing network globally, but it does come with a few awkward side effects, too. A lot of users are getting tired of Insta-perfection. This social media phenomenon encourages individuals and brands to publish flawless people images exclusively.

Businesses finally begin to realise how unnatural this is, many organizations now require realistic images of average human beings. Instead of striving for perfection, it’s enough to show the face of a typical person with all of its wrinkles, freckles, and similar. 

It’s a minor improvement, but it makes the graphic design look more appealing in the eyes of the average consumer.

Dystopian aesthetic

Contrary to cyberpunk, dystopian aesthetic focuses on pessimistic predictions of our future and relies on darker colors to describe the fictional world. This graphic design approach promotes heavy elements to express the author’s visions:

  • Cold and dark color schemes to emphasize the overwhelming notion of alienation and loneliness. 
  • Mechanized typography to describe our living in the age of machines. 
  • A merger between organic matter and artificial materials to create a morbid image of the future of humanity. 

Fully responsive design products

Graphic designs also need to take care of technical aspects of their work, with responsiveness being one of the key features in this field. What does it mean?

The answer lies in adaptation to different digital environments. After all, people are using all sorts of devices to consume content and you have to indulge them by designing products that perfectly suit each gadget or screen dimension individually. 

If your audience is using mobile phones, you will have to concentrate on smartphone-oriented design. The same logic applies to all the other devices such as laptops, desktop computers, and tablets. 

Uncertainty 

The last trend on our list is uncertainty. If this sounds very strange, that’s because it is. 

After everything you’ve seen so far, it should be clear that no one can really predict future trends in graphic design and claim to know the next big thing in a given niche. Anything is possible in 2020 because graphic designers have the right to experiment and turn everything upside down. 

Although it sounds a little scary and completely disorganized, it might have amazing consequences because work without barriers will help at least some professionals to discover brand new concepts and design solutions.

The Bottom Line

Graphic design is definitely one of the most versatile and colorful industries that keep changing year after year. In such circumstances, only agile professionals can stay up to date with the latest developments and hope to win over new clients using alternative work models and techniques.

In this article, we presented to you the 10 biggest graphic design trends in 2020. Which one of these trends do you believe to be the most impressive? Do you have other relevant and interesting trends to share with our readers? Make sure to leave a comment as we would love to see what you think about cutting-edge graphic design trends!

AUTHOR’S BIO

Kurt Walker is a graphic designer and a part-time essay writer from San Francisco, California. Kurt is a studious analyst of the latest graphic design trends, but he also enjoys writing about web design and other creative industries. He is the father of two boys and a long-distance runner.