The year 2019 is about to end and everyone, graphic designers in particular, is wondering which new graphic design trends will rule the year 2020.
Unquestionably, graphic design trends have reached a remarkable landmark and are at the threshold of a new era. The next evolution is about to come, and graphic designers across the world are experiencing blank page anxiety, asking themselves — where do we head from here? Every graphic designer, both experienced as well as fresher, who is working as a professional designer wants to stay ahead of the curve. They want to know everything such as how the graphic design industry will look like in the coming year.
In fact, they don’t want to be unaware of any development in the industry as it may push them out of the fierce competition. Every designer wants to stay abreast of the trending designs, but where can they get updates from?
To overcome the blank page anxiety of graphic designers, we have conducted deep research in order to find the rising trends which are expected to rule the graphic design industry not only in 2020 but years to go.
Table of Contents
Here are 10 inspirational graphic design trends for 2020
Shiny metals
The use of shiny metals in graphic design is rampant. This practice has established as the most popular trend for product design and branding identity like logo design. Because the focus falls on the metallic effect alone, the trend needs a minimalistic overall design.
You may notice that graphic designers use gold in most of their designs to give a sense of class and luxury. Nevertheless, you can also achieve a metallic effect by making good use of shiny surfaces on matte surfaces.
With a view to making the effect even more attractive, branding gurus combine this popular trend with relief engraving for various physical brand identities, especially business cards.
Typography
Typography is a basic principle of creating a compelling design. Designers experiment with different typography for creating modern and innovative compositions. And this trend is surely going to rise in 2020.
Artists will love to use artistic typography to grab eyeballs as it contains beautiful flowers, geometric shapes, and other creative design elements. Combining with the maxi typography trend from the last year, artistic typography is expected to flourish in 2020. Also, designers can be able to split the words into multiple lines in maxi typography.
Other typography trends that will rise next year are:
- Heavy fonts and lettering to be used in logos, on web designs, on posters, and on packaging designs.
- Drawing shapes — 2D and 3D
- Semi transparency in different forms such as overlapping of words etc.
Paper cut-out collages
Cutting papers in different shapes for creating striking collages will keep attracting people in the coming year. The technique simply opens up to new sceneries and unforeseen relationships among the design elements.
Designers mix images that actually do not exist, like photographs and illustrations. By ditching seamless image manipulation, designers leave photos with the angular edges and white outlines that come from quick & dirty cutting and pasting.
The year 2020 will see designers combining contrasting elements — geometric shapes with traditional patterns, vibrant colors with soft pastels. This trend will give composition youthfulness, multiplicity, and fun.
Ultra-thin geometric design
Ultra-thin geometric design, as its name suggests, is a sleek, abstract and hard to pull off in the absence of a computer. That’s why this design trend is widely used for branding tech and industrial products. This style of graphic design appears to express the future of technology.
The line is a fundamental element of graphic design that expresses the form and nature of an object. While a geometric line illustrates an object which is technological and man-made, a curvy line expresses more natural and organic forms. In 2020, we can see designers merging these line styles to create an unimaginable shape.
Patterns & Textures
Patterns and textures were not much in use when the flat design was very popular on the web. But today, we can see that the patterns and textures are gradually becoming designers’ favorite; however not essentially used in the traditional way. No wonder if we see a combination of many patterns in a single design or merely sections of pattern covering the screen.
Cyberpunk color schemes
Cyberpunk color schemes erect surreal experiences for onlookers that they’re not able to experience in real life. As per the industry experts, futuristic color schemes and designs will rise next year, keeping the isometric trend and introducing colors such as purples and blues and hot pink to give that futuristic glowing feel to designs.
Continuous animation sequences
Although animation requires huge capital investment, it is one of the mightiest tools to bring a brand to life. It has grown to become commonplace online and if there’s someone who wishes to push the boundaries beyond the commonplace, it’s the graphic designers.
Instead of simple motion graphics, it’s expected that animation sequences will make headway to be more of a story, consisting of continuous movement where every part of the graphic is related to the next scene.
3D Depth & Realism
The 3D trend reached its top in 2019 and it’s expected that it will continue to reign in 2020; it is not going to fade away so early. With the advancement in software and technology, the trend will surely rise and we can see more creative, artistic 3D graphic designs.
Simplified illustrations
The use of illustration in graphic design is not a new thing. Usually, graphic designers incorporate illustration to their designs to strongly convey their message. In 2020, a simple illustration is expected to be a top choice for designers.
Image & Text masking
Despite the fact that the image and text masking technique has been around for years, it still seems modern and will continue to grow in 2020. Since this technique of graphic design is unique in which a significant portion of the image remains hidden creating mystery, designers will continue creating compositions combining images with text masking.
These graphic design trends are predicted to dominate in 2020. What do you think? We would appreciate it if you write your opinions in the comment box below. If you’re a professional graphic designer and want to participate in a design contest, Designhill is a great place for you where you can earn handsome bucks from the comfort of your home. Participate in the contests and start earning today.
The final word
It’s exciting to see what the graphic design trends will be in the year 2020. But no doubt, the year is going to be super diverse and magnificent where we would see awesome design masterpieces with the attractive color combination, typography, retro-style designs from the past, doodling, and line art and so on.
Cheers!
