2015 will be a year of change in design spheres. According to Paul Boag, co-founder of Headscape, there are some big digital rumblings afoot that will change the landscape of web and graphic design jobs for years to come, and the key to future success is being able to adapt. So dig into these 5 graphic design trends and get ready for the future...
5 Graphic Design Trends
- A Bigger Picture—There are two ways to look at this. First is the “tangible” trend of using well-composed full-screen background images and even video to immerse visitors into the experience of a website. It started last year, but will continue to grow in importance over 2015 according to advisors at Insight180. For AIGA, however, the bigger picture means that graphic designers will also have to broaden their educational and practical experience in areas like the humanities, social sciences, cultures and languages in order to create designs that speak to problems in the global marketplace. In either case, the trend is to think big.
- Typography Takes Over—Ryan Arruda says the beauty of well-designed fonts is finally becoming more than just an afterthought in all forms of media and on multiple screens. The trend into 2015 shows more web-compatible handwritten fonts, mixed fonts and big type for big ideas. Typeface is becoming as much of a focal point as any other graphic element. AIGA also says one reason for this may be the end-users’ shrinking attention span and the communicator’s need to convey meaning faster than ever.
- Flat…ish Design—Last year, flat was all that, thanks to the dictates of Apple and Microsoft. And nearly everybody in the world went there. But Make Use Of notes that Google’s Material Design manifesto is starting a push to refine flat design with more dimension-like shadowing effects. A throwback to a different kind of realism? Stay tuned for future developments!
- Magical Realism—Make Use Of also gives a nod to the trend of injecting a little fantasy into everyday life with designs and images that put elephants in the palm of your hand, bring music box ballerinas to life, or let kids float around a classroom with seahorses. They point to magicleap.com as a prime example of this technique (and a couple of others mentioned here too; see if you can pick them out).
- Co-Creating with the Audience—A big part of becoming a well-rounded graphic designer in the future will involve a different way of thinking about the relationship between the designer and the audience or end-user. And according to AIGA, a more collaborative approach will be in order, particularly as the “audience” increasingly drives what happens in the market place through social media.
Of course, there are no easy ways to tell where graphic design trends will take us this year, or into the next, so flexibility and adaptability and the willingness to re-think the world and how it’s designed will always be on trend.
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