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Looking Ahead: Graphic Design Trends Predictions 2020

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Looking for top modern Graphic Design Trends and Predictions for 2020? Discover new font trends, illustrations, color trends in web and logo design in 2020 and what's more exciting check out trends to avoid in 2020! Design helps us to better understand the world, and its trends allow us to keep up with the times. Whether you are a designer or working with it - you should always be aware of the latest trends. One wrong step in styling your project and it is considered boring, just like the creator.

Understanding the essence of changing styles helps to keep your work at a high level and receive positive feedback. I tried to consider not only the templates but also the individual elements of graphic design. And here is the main highlight of the near future: it is almost impossible to make a mistake since contradictory trends are coming. We've wrote an article about the top graphic trends of 2021 and check our conversation about graphic trends of 2022.

Graphic changes: Topmost Graphic Design Trends Predictions 2020 are:
  1. Color theme trend
  2. Interactive Development
  3. Visual deformation
  4. Gradients in graphic
  5. Futuristic design patterns
  6. 3D design
  7. Asymmetric patterns
  8. Isometry
  9. Creative serif on the font
  10. Images in space
  11. Animation
  12. Minimalism

Color theme in graphic

The first thing I was able to highlight: users were bored with plain web pages, mobile applications and posters. Global brands like Apple, Tesla, Samsung, Hublot, as well as top instant messengers like Telegram understood this. We'll see new design predictions. Just take a look at the following quick video explaining graphic and web design trends companies already use.

Therefore, in graphic design and logo design it is increasingly possible to see bright and colorful elements. It has long been no secret that colors play a big role in creating the impression of a project. But right now this fact is beginning to be used to the full.

Top 10 Graphic Design Trends 2020 bright color scheme

An example of using a bright color scheme

Here is the first contradiction: dark is also in fashion. However, it is more about black shades than blue or dark green. An elegant black tone combined with minimalism attracts a very large number of users.

Top 10 Graphic Design Trends 2020 users

The site of Everest designers’ community is a vivid example. In 2019, it received the title of « Best Design of the Month» according to the Awwwards. Telegram X, Messenger, Skype are examples of instant messengers who have added a dark theme. And now let's see the top graphic trends for 2020, styles in colors, typography, illustrations, and others.

Top graphic design trends in 2020 to use in illustrations and pictures
Style Graphic Design Trends in 2020
Colors Bright
Interaction Animation, Transition
Focus on UX Design
Patterns Futuristic
Graphic Handwriting style
However, with the trend "Darkness", as many have called it, you should be careful. First, it is picky about bright colors. You can add warm colors like red or yellow, but:
  • they must be dull;
  • color elements should be small and in limited quantity.

Interactive Design and Development

The next trend that continues for several years is animated elements. Straight-lined transitions between pages and the opening of working windows are in the distant past. Slides, change of sharpness, turns and much more makes projects and sites more interactive, which attracts the user.

Top 10 Graphic Design Trends 2020 A good example

A good example is Sterling, also ranked by Awwwards. It may take a long time to describe the capabilities of this site, but better go yourself and try.
One of the objectives of the design is to attract the attention of the user. Show at least one interactive opportunity site or poster, and he wants to explore all the others. This will arouse much more interest in the product. Therefore, interactivity is a constant and we've seen it in UI trends.

Visual deformation

Once again: good UX design attracts attention and does not allow to look away. How to achieve this? Making the audience consider all the elements in order to understand the essence of the picture. In other words, you can play with the optical perception of a person.

The fact is that our brain is largely built on patterns. One of them is symmetrical, straight pictures. But if these rules are violated, the brain will not pass by but will want to examine and understand the message. So, it sends us signals through which, in 90% of cases, we stop looking at deformed pictures.

Top 10 Graphic Design Trends 2020 graphic design

Visual deformation examples in graphic design

The peculiarity of such a design is that it creates a sense of dynamism of the picture, when it is actually static. Somehow it adds playfulness and draws the user to view the image, even when it becomes understandable.

Gradients in Graphic Design 2020

In the beginning, I said that people were tired of boring designs. One of these is monotony. Therefore, over the past few years, gradients have been developing more actively, or “color transitions,” as they are called today.

Top 10 Graphic Design Trends 2020 color transitions

Since this is a fairly new trend, it is passing through an experimental stage. Therefore, now we can see many ways of its implementation. It can be a simple separation of a picture into several colors or a smooth transition from one color to another.

Top 10 Graphic Design Trends 2020 smooth transition


And now it does not matter whether you use the expected combinations (white with black / red with orange / blue with violet) or colors that are incompatible at first glance. Gradients are one of the key trends in graphic design. Because today it can be used in almost any form.

Futuristic patterns

Still remember "Back to the Future 2"? It is quite old and then fantasies could be the most unimaginable. Nevertheless, this is a cult-favorite film that created futuristic images in many heads.

Today we have most of the devices that were shown in that film, including hoverboards and Nike sneakers with automatic lacing. So it's time to use futuristic images in graphic design.

Top 10 Graphic Design Trends 2020 graphic design


These can be single graphic elements, or the whole image. Anyway, the next few years it will help brands to create truly unique content. Moreover, even large corporations can finally upgrade and keep up with the times. For example, this is what the BBC Two design looks like after a relatively recent rebranding.

Top 10 Graphic Design Trends 2020 BBC TWO Design

BBC TWO Design. Source of the image

This is how it looked before:

Top 10 Graphic Design Trends 2020 Previous graphic design

Previous graphic design BBC Two

Obviously, the new version looks much more colorful and really corresponds to modern trends.

The main highlight of this trend is that we will never know what the future will be. Therefore, in this direction, you can give full imagination. The wider it is, the more unique the design will be. If you still can not decide how to design your project, choose a futuristic one. It is almost impossible to make a mistake.

3D

Three-dimensional compositions, above all, is a mountain of work for the designer. But as a result, we get an exquisite picture that you want to plunge into. At the same time, 3D projects are increasingly filling our world. Films, drawings on asphalt, logos and much more are becoming more voluminous.

Top 10 Graphic Design Trends 2020 voluminous


Remarkably, it fits perfectly with most other trends. Futuristic 3D box? You are welcome. Three-dimensional animation with a gradient - the top of skill. This is a great platform for the realization of the most insane people. People will love it anyway.

Top 10 Graphic Design Trends 2020 gradient


Asymmetric patterns trends

A very popular trend of the 21st century in any area is erasing borders and deleting patterns. For example, see how gracefully designed skyscrapers or museums today. Twists and turns, roundness - all this was unimaginable in the last century. Now it is a trend. The more sophisticated the idea, the more color trends n web design.

Top 10 Graphic Design Trends 2020 pages

Agree, you do not so much see the same design on the most visited pages? Because the lion's share of your visits is made up of news sites, online stores or social networks. As a rule, they were created 5 or more years ago.

Now a similar destructive appearance looks unique. Square grids are already losing their relevance because they become boring. And this is unacceptable in the field of graphic design.

Asymmetric layouts require more attention. Users may have an extraordinary curiosity about where the new picture or text will be located, how the graphics look down the page. It creates a sense of interest and surprise.

Isometry in 2020

Drawing a three-dimensional object in a two-dimensional dimension is another trend that began to develop this year. Thus, it becomes possible to create a whole universe in a tiny space. It takes more time to explore the universe, right?

Top 10 Graphic Design Trends 2020 universe


The picture seems quite simple and clean, does not require much time to study. But it has a depth with which a flat design cannot compete. Using isometry, you can more clearly demonstrate the effect of a program or a general view of the terrain.

Again, an isometric design goes well with most trends. The picture above shows a rather simple gradient of blue and purple. But you can add a little futuristic to it, for example, by changing the appearance of buildings. This picture is very eye-catching.

Creative serif on the font: trends 2020

I want to draw attention to the smallest element of graphic design, which we sometimes do not think about. Remember how you wrote in elementary school and what your handwriting looks like now. Interesting curls appear anywhere and the font becomes much more pleasant.

Let's return to the history of the greatest inventors of the 21st century, Steve Jobs. He once worked with his team on a simple text editor for the Macintosh. He wanted to pay a lot of attention to the variety of fonts. After all, the user's attention is often focused on the text. So it needs to be entertained even while reading.

Top 10 Graphic Design Trends 2020 reading


In a simple text, we do not pay attention to this element. But if we are talking about a slogan or a company name, then every part will be appreciated. Imagine that the letters in the logo in the picture above are written in the usual Times New Roman. No creativity and zero brand.

But a similar view of even one letter “Q” immediately creates an easily remembered associative array. If you give a business card with such a logo, then the person will definitely consider it for a few seconds before finding the phone number and address.

Thus, creating more sophisticated fonts and serifs is another 2020 trend. It will help build brand reputations and attract more audiences.

Images in space

Images in space will be popular next year. It gives an effective visual effect that focuses on the subject itself. Futurism and minimalism give the image a certain lightness. This trend should be used primarily by manufacturing companies that want to focus on their products. This style has proven itself and is actively used in the design of outdoor advertising.

Images in space

Animation in Graphic

The trend for logo animation will continue in 2020. It is bright, beautiful and elegant. Some companies implement animation in the first load of the page and then the logo becomes static. In my opinion, this is a clever step and show their effectiveness for the companies and business websites like a sports betting website. But everything should be professional, as a rule, sophisticated animation allows a company to emphasize the features of the brand and its uniqueness. I suggest to consider a few examples:


Source of the image Dribbble


Source of the image Behance


Source of the image Dribbble

In most cases, animation relates mostly to web design as we talked before. Tools like javascript frameworks or libraries in 2020 help a lot with a sleek and nice animation. However, you can do a lot of things with modern languages in 2020.

Minimalism

This trend has not subsided for many years. But to graphic design, and in particular - the design of web pages, it came relatively recently. Now this is the main trend of most developments.

Top 10 Graphic Design Trends 2020 principles

One of the principles of design - to attract attention is 8 seconds. Minimalism is aimed at the implementation of this principle. Attention focuses only on the main elements that give the key message to the user.

However, there is one more contradiction, directly in this trend. Stereotypically, part of minimalism is a limited number of colors, namely black and white. But today, on the contrary, several other shades are increasingly being added. Moreover, Milkside is one of many examples where the color scheme may be completely different.

Thus, the so-called “subspecies of minimalism” develops, which expands the possibilities of creators rather than restricts them in a narrow direction.

What will go out of fashion

In the end I want to focus on elements that are losing their popularity.

Excessive Diversity

For a while, websites or posters were often filled with a mass of different fonts, shades, and geometric shapes. Now, this bulkiness pushes away. The image looks clumsy as if a little of everything was stolen for it. No sense of originality. Therefore, no one will sculpt everything "at random".

Complex, lush compositions

Above, I wrote that it is worth paying attention to details. But everything has a limit. Too embellished pictures are no longer worth anything. The user needs to tighten in your project, but you cannot impose anything. He needs a quick result. In essence, all splendor is replaced by minimalism.

Top 10 Graphic Design Trends 2020 detailed

An example of a detailed image

Muted shades

They will remain popular in some styles of photography, but certainly not in graphic design. As already mentioned, the main trend in 2020 is bright and colorful colors or elegant black. No fading. It creates a sense of the past, which is incomparable with the concept of "trend". By the way, even QA and testers doing their job checking graphics and illustrations to make sure it's nice, however, it's a manual way. Other, automation options described in this article.


Looking Ahead: Graphic Design Trends Predictions 2020 key takeaways:
  1. Color theme in graphic
  2. Interactive Design and Development
  3. Visual deformation
  4. Gradients in Graphic Design 2020
  5. Futuristic patterns
  6. 3D
  7. Asymmetric patterns trends
  8. Isometry in 2020
  9. Creative serif on the font: trends 2020
  10. Images in space
  11. Animation in Graphic
  12. Minimalism
  13. What will go out of fashion
Merehead does professional development of graphic design trends 2020. If you have questions, contact us for a free consultation.

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Yuri Musienko
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Merehead is a design agency

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