Graphic design is more than just brand identity. It provides benefits that go beyond visual design. The right design is a chance to educate and inform your audience and convince them of the brand’s usefulness through colour transitions, personalised fonts and illustrations.

The world of graphic design is an ever-changing landscape. Tens of thousands of styles can be invented here, so trends can replace one another year after year. What does that mean for you? You need to constantly improve your skills and align them with the latest trends to get the most out of them.

In this article, we’ll discuss all the design trends that will form the basis of 2021. From the most popular illustrations and layouts to new approaches that professionals are using, we’ll cover it all. Look for new design ideas and instil visual consistency into aspects of your business.

• 10 Reasons You Need a Graphic Designer for Your Business

1. Minimalism

Is it obvious to you? Great. So your website or product looks attractive. Minimalism is an enduring trend of the last few years. Designers tend to sweep away more and more elements and leave a maximum of ‘white space’.

You must follow minimalism in graphic design. Even if you don’t like this trend. The reason: minimalism has become popular in everything from websites and gadgets to advertising banners and clothing.

Minimalism has penetrated so much into all areas that people automatically feel better about websites with this kind of graphic design. Therefore, your call for 2021 is ‘We are minimalistic’.

Sometimes to fully understand Minimalism within the graphic design, you should check what is Minimalism as a direction all about. If you are interested – totally recommend getting your hands on that.

2. Simple and Personalised Fonts

Speaking of details, let’s start with fonts. Why? Content is the “king” of a website or advertising post. First, without it, the user will not see the point of staying on the page. Similarly, he will not pay attention to advertising without text.

Secondly, content is essential for indexing the site by search engines. But the content must be properly executed. What fonts are suitable for this?

First of all, the fonts will be rich. The last few years, more and more attention is paid to the bold type because it emphasizes the attention. That said, fonts will also tie in with minimalism. There will be no angles or special features.

What’s remarkable is that even in such simple fonts, there will be personalisation. Experienced designers will easily distinguish a specialised Netflix or Mountain Warehouse font. If you don’t plan to design your own personal typeface, we recommend using:

• Roboto;
• Open Sans;
• Zona Pro.

3. Colours

The second element, without which no graphic design lives are colour. As recently as last year, his choice depended very much on the scope of the company. Today, those boundaries are a bit blurred. In 2021, there will be a lot more freedom for colour selection.

Above all, designers and many brands are moving away from bright colours. 2020 was the year of the colour ‘neo mint’. Blue and yellow shades were also popular. However, all palettes were reduced to pastel tones.

Therefore, 2021 will be tied in with muted colours. What does this mean? No adjustments to brightness and contrast. Black and white will be added to the palette to keep the appearance of colour as simple as possible.

But an entire website, app or product doesn’t always perform in one colour. Combinations need to be created to dilute the visual experience.

The number of colour combinations and code-heavy design will most likely put you in a position where fast and stable hosting would be a must. In this case, you can check “Interserver reviews”. By far the best combination is black and white. It has been around since the days of newspapers, and most consumers love it on a genetic level. However, black and white is the backbone of most Apple pages. If you choose this combination for your product, some users might accuse you of plagiarism.

Therefore, designers highlight such colour combinations:

• navy blue and mint;
• mustard and beige;
• black and lime;
• pink and secret moss;
• black and scarlet red;
• soft green and white.

All of these colour combinations have been taken as the basis for most of the sites that have been selected as best by Awwwards.

4. Gradients

The designer knows that there are hundreds of shades for every colour. Every year, this fact is used more and more to create a more attractive product design. Gradients have been a trend in graphic design for the past three years. As polls and experts’ comments show no one has any intention of forgetting the trend so far.

So why are gradients so popular? Firstly, they give more room for creativity. Secondly, the user is ambiguous. They like minimalism but tend to think they’re not working hard when they see just two colours. Thirdly, the gradient creates a sense of movement. It’s analogous to motion design, but without the use of animation.

Some tips for creating gradients:

Don’t choose colours randomly. The good thing about gradients is that you can choose any colour. But it has to match the mood of a particular element of the page or product. If you are afraid of making a mistake, use the Adobe Color Wheel.

Use the colours of nature. It’s pleasing to the eye of anyone. Seeing similar colours on a product, the user will be pleasantly impressed.

To polish gradient mastery to perfection you may check this amazing guide.

5. Simple Illustrations

When designing a website, we very often use stock images and photos. If your brand is several years old, then keep it up. The user is used to this style.

But if you are launching a new project, pay more attention to simple, drawn illustrations. First, you’ll be able to introduce more variety. Secondly, you will make the user love the product.

After all, he is tired of stock images. When they appear on websites that have been around for a long time, the consumer gets a sense of the brand. But if stock images are added to new websites – the user feels like the designer hasn’t contributed creativity.

6. Vintage Effects

Now look outside and notice how all the old trends are coming back into fashion. Baggy oversize clothing, muted colours, old streetwear brands are all most relevant to any audience right now.

Use this in your graphic design. Take your consumer back to the past. Add a burnt-out photo of the city or an image of an old car to your illustrations. A positive effect is guaranteed among the older generation as well as teenagers. Why?

Generation X and Y will immediately remember how good they were back then. You will evoke a sense of nostalgia. Generation Z will be able to touch those “beautiful things” that their parents told them about.

All This is Just the Beginning

Graphic design is a huge range of visual elements. Today you can use them however you like. Why? The lines of ‘normalcy’ have been blurred. The consumer appreciates every design. Today, the road to experimentation is open.

But remember, even in the era of graphic design freedom, you have to stick to certain trends. After all, beyond aesthetic satisfaction, you need to get inside the user’s head. If he thinks your design is “off-trend,” he’ll quickly forget all the animations and colour transitions.

Last but not least, remember that you’re living in the digital age. Besides computers, people have smartphones. So, make sure your graphic design is equally good on any screen.

Featured image by: rawpixel.com