Your Business and the Cricket Effect
You put your work out there, your designs, your case studies, writing, podcasts, maybe even videos - and it can feel like you’re reaching no one.
There’s a cricket in my basement.
He's been doing a lot of singing lately.
I’ve named him “Tex.”
Why Tex?
Because he reminds me of a lone cowboy singing on a dark, empty prairie.
Down in the basement, there are no other crickets to keep him company. So, it’s likely he thinks he’s singing to no one.
But what Tex doesn’t realize is that everyone upstairs can hear him.
Me, my wife, our dog, even the cat. His chirping drifts up the stairs and fills the house.
And you know what? It makes us smile.
Tex, doing his thing down there in the dark, has no clue that his little songs brighten our days and nights.
He’s having an impact on us, even though he thinks he’s just singing into the void.
Sometimes I've felt like Tex. I wonder whose life I am affecting with all the content I do.
But then, just this week someone alerted me to a post on LinkedIn because a woman, Haley D. included me in a video she did called "3 YouTube Videos That Helped Me become a Creative Business Owner".
She'd seen my video called "How To Be More Confident" and said it really helped her.
(Turns out she has 626k subscribers on YouTube! I'd love to think I had something to do with that!)
This bit of a humble-brag illustrates my point perfectly.
I had no idea who Haley D. was. Never met her.
But I now know I've made a difference in her life.
As a creative professional, you might feel like Tex sometimes, too.
You put your work out there, your designs, your case studies, writing, podcasts, maybe even videos - and it can feel like you’re singing to no one.
But people are listening.
Even when you don’t realize it.
Your audience is out there, and your content is resonating.
You might not always get feedback, but you’re making an impact.
So, like Tex, just keep singing. Put your content out into the world without worrying about who's tuning in.
Share your expertise, build your personal brand, and let your voice be heard.
It might feel like you’re alone in the basement, but trust me - your song is reaching people.
And it’s making a difference.
You may just not know it yet.
Something You Don’t Know About Me
I want to share something from my past that you might not know about me.
For years, I had a section at the very bottom of my resume that I titled simply: “Personal”
This two sentence paragraph strayed far from the typical bullet points of job history and skills.
Here’s what it said:
“I’ve worked on an archeological dig on Crete, paved Colonel Sanders' driveway, ridden out a hurricane on Senator Gerald Ford's lap, and canoed the entire Suwannee River, 365 miles, from the Okefenokee Swamp to the Gulf of Mexico.”
I tucked away these little nuggets of uniqueness at the end of an otherwise very professional document.
A document I was hoping would land me an interview - and a job.
High stakes to be sure.
And a bit of a gamble.
But guess what?
It paid off.
In every interview, without fail, this was the section that interviewers would bring up first.
For some reason, it was usually the Gerald Ford bit that people fixated on.
(Truth be told, I was just a baby at the time, so not quite as weird as it sounds.)
It wasn’t my years of experience or the list of achievements that piqued their curiosity—it was these odd, personal facts.
Why did this happen?
Resumes, like many things in our professional lives, can often become incredibly boring and cookie-cutter.
Like pitch emails, proposals and website About pages.
They’re filled with the same jargon, the same structure, and the same safe, conventional highlights.
But in a sea of sameness, it’s personal, human stories that set you apart.
They make you memorable.
In a world where designers and agencies are often just carbon copies of each other, it’s this kind of storytelling that will differentiate you.
It makes your potential clients or employers just a little more curious about you.
It makes them want to learn more.
When you share unique aspects of your personal history, you create a narrative that sticks in people’s minds long after the interview or pitch meeting is over.
So, I want you to take a moment to reflect on your own journey.
Dig into your past and unearth some moments that are uniquely yours.
What are the quirky, interesting, or downright odd things you’ve done in your life?
Maybe an early job that’s given you an unconventional skill.
Or you’ve had unusual experience that’s shaped your perspective.
These stories are gold.
They humanize you and can make you stand out in a crowded market.
Now, how can they be woven into your professional story?
Use them to break the ice, to add color to the description of your offering.
Leave them laying about in your web copy, or a piece of content you post, like a hidden Easter Egg for a prospect to find.
Being memorable isn’t just about what you’ve done in your career—it’s about who you are as a person.
It’s about how your unique experiences shaped your approach to work and to life.
In a world of sameness, let your individuality shine.
And take a bit of a gamble.
Because, it can pay off.
~ Philip VanDusen
If you'd like to work with me, here's how:
If you'd like 1-on-1 coaching. Go Here.
If you're a business that needs branding, or consulting. Go Here.
Explore the BONFIRE mastermind community. Catch Fire.
15 Graphic Design Trends for 2024
Let’s dive into 15 trends in design that I've recognized in the market that will influence the creative industry in 2024.
But first a little context: I was in the fashion industry for 15 years and travelled the globe shopping for trend 4 times a year, Tokyo, London, Milan, Berlin, Paris, etc. Trend hunting was my job. I’ve worked with a host of the major trend houses like WGSN, Stylus, JWT, Pantone.
The one thing I’ve learned over the years is that trends are never limited to specific periods of time and are very fluid in how they appear.
Trends are revisited, altered, revised, new perspectives are added, they disappear and then they come back over and over - particularly in the fashion industry. The design aesthetic called Russian Constructivism is over 100 years old and it never really seems to go away!
Some trends may take a few years to grab hold and become recognizable as popular.
Some of you reading, who see and recognize trends early - may have mentally registered them long before seasoned folks do, so these trends may seem ‘old’ to you already. But to many, who have no formal training in design history these trends are totally new.
What I recommend is using trends to stay inspired, possibly use as a jumping off point in your work and then making that design your own.
Or, you can choose to consciously react against these trends. It's totally up to you, but knowing what the trend is is critical to informing your work one way or the other and to keeping your clients informed as well.
Now let's look at some trends!
Trend 1: Heatmapping
Trend number one is called “Heatmapping”. This trend is characterized by blends of color often depicted as a rainbow of colors emanating from a source object or creating some kind of abstract shape. These colors suggest the kind of heat map that you would see if you used infrared imaging to look at or scan an object or a scene.
It also suggests the result of eye tracking evaluation software that's often used in consumer research. The subject matter can be figurative, or an abstract shape, or something organic, like a flower, as in the packaging on the upper left.
This technique is being used in a wide range of places, from apparel, to home furnishings, app design, print media and web design.
Trend 2: Activist
Trend number two is called “Activist”. The geopolitical landscape has been particularly intense in the last year and will continue to be unfortunately through 2024.
Now, I want you to understand I'm not trivializing violent conflicts by calling them a ‘design trend’. They aren't and they shouldn't be.
But what we need to recognize is that throughout history, designers have led the way when it comes to highlighting injustice in the world and inspiring action and change.
And when it comes to having both the imagination and the creative means to communicate in a motivating way, we designers are perfectly suited to the task.
Let's celebrate the amazing work of thousands of designers who will be flexing their superpower of visual communication in 2024 and continue to be a global voice for good.
Trend 3: Anarchist
Trend number three is called “Anarchist”. This trend is reminiscent of the two trends that have frequently been called ‘maximalism’ and ‘glitch’, that have been combined in a visual mashup.
This trend is characterized by a complete visual anarchy in imagery, color, and typography, hence the name. There also seems to be a sense of nihilism in this visual style.
Very little true design communication is intended or achieved. Instead, the intention is to create complete visual chaos. This technique can take the form of digital static or complex photographic collage or compositing.
And this trend relies almost entirely on imagery, although it often incorporates a Deconstructivist use of typography as well.
Trend 4: Botanica
Trend number four is called “Botanica”. In stark contrast to the pervasive visual design trends that are heavily based in digital technology, the Botanica trend brings us back to physical reality, plant life in particular.
I think this trend is a reaction to the political and cultural strife in the world today and is trying to create a sense of peace and calm in the viewer and the consumer.
There's a timeless beauty in these natural forms and colors that are a real delight to the senses. The color and imagery can be realistic and true to life. Or, conversely, it can be hyper real and futuristic, taking the form of AI generated, alien plant life forms that have no basis in reality.
Botanica will be used heavily in product packaging, spirits, print, advertising, and can even be found in way-finding.
Trend 5: Scrapbooking
Trend number five is called “Scrapbooking”, and is essentially a modern twist on collage, with the update being that the colors that are used are often brighter and more cheerful.
In this trend, we're seeing a vibrant and eclectic mix of imagery, the range of textures that often juxtapose radically disparate sources and time periods.
This trend nods to the historical art of collage, dating back to the early 20th century, and used by the Dadaists and Russian Constructivists to challenge the traditional perspectives and create layered meanings.
Brands that are looking to convey modernity with a touch of nostalgia can leverage this trend to create memorable designs and resonate on multiple levels.
Scrapbooking's uses include traditional print media, magazines and posters, web design, editorial illustration, and advertising.
Trend 5: Digital Deconstructivist
Trend number six is called “Digital Deconstructivist”. This trend is a digital homage to the Deconstructivism movement, which fragmented and manipulated ideas of structure and form.
Mirroring the architectural rebelling of the late 20th century, the Digital Deconstructivist trend shakes up graphic design with layered complexity and unexpected juxtapositions of forms and layers, often relying on slice or pixelated typography.
Text elements are overlaid and reassembled. They challenge readability while pushing the boundaries of conservative design conventions.
It creates a visual language that speaks to the tech savvy and the avantgarde, and it's perfect for interactive media and motion graphics and brands that want to communicate cutting edge thinking.
Trend 7: Environmental Typography
Trend number seven, “Environmental Typography”, is about breaking out of our digital confines and embracing the physical world. It's a blend of graphic design and architecture, where typography becomes an integral part of the environment on a human scale.
This trend harkens back to the days of sign painting, but with a modern approach using bold, towering letters and numbers to create an engaging experience.
Its applications include way-finding in corporate buildings to immersive brand experiences in retail spaces. or bringing an exhibition to life.
Think of it as functional art that not only informs, but also transforms our physical spaces. As brands vie for attention, environmental typography offers an impactful way to communicate messages, whether it's a colossal headline wrapping around a building or a scrolling message that guides you through a space.
Trend 8: Geometrica
Trend number eight, ‘Geometrica’, celebrates the simplicity and harmony of geometric forms.
With roots in the Bauhaus movement and Swiss style, which both emphasize the beauty of clear, precise geometric shapes, this trend brings those principles into the digital age.
This trend is characterized by bold, youthful colors and shapes interacting in a way that's both playful and meticulously organized. It's a balance of form and function, where the clean lines of geometry meet the limitless possibilities of digital design.
Because design trends can sometimes reflect the extremes of the aesthetic spectrum, this trend is a noticeable reaction against the design chaos that we see in the ‘Anarchist’ and the ‘Digital Deconstructivist’ trends.
Applications for this trend would include mobile app interfaces, web design, print, packaging, and editorial layout, among others.
Bring Your Own Laptop: Adobe Training with Daniel Scott
I want to take a moment and mention that I often get comments on my blog posts and trend videos asking how to achieve the aesthetics in the trends that I'm featuring. So I want to share with you a not-so-secret secret.
Daniel Scott, who in my opinion is one of the best Adobe app trainers out there, has an Adobe training site called Bring Your Own Laptop. The site's subscription based and it's an insane value at only $12 per month, or $84 per year, for access to all the training on the site.
Daniel sometimes even uses the trends that I feature in my YouTube trend videos as examples in his trainings.
So if you want to get better using your favorite Adobe apps, or learn a new one, I suggest that you head over to https://byol.me/philip and check out everything that he has to offer. I hope that you'll use this affiliate link if you want to support my continuing trend-hunting work here, as well as on my YouTube channel.
Now, let's get back to the trends.
Trend 9: Golden Era
Trend number nine is called “Golden Era”. Golden Era is a trend that exudes luxury and sophistication, reminiscent of the Gilded Age and Art Deco's opulence.
Gold has always symbolized wealth and exclusivity, but one of the key intentions of using gold in this way is to differentiate from the heavy use of silver, chrome, and brushed titanium that's so common in digital graphic design and technology design.
This trend is perfect for brands that want to convey a sense of premium quality and timelessness. From packaging to branding, it carries the weight of tradition and can set a product or service apart in a saturated market.
Whether it's a minimalist design that uses flat gold color, or a full blown shiny foil spectacle, Golden Era has applications in print, packaging, fashion, digital media, and environmental design, among others.
Trend 10: Kiddieland
Trend number 10, ‘Kiddieland’, is a playful trend that taps into the joy and uninhibited creativity of childhood.
With all the cultural strife and seriousness in the world, it offers a bit of refuge in its bright colors and whimsical illustrations, and fun typefaces that make the designs feel approachable, and fun.
Kiddieland uses a fusion of simple shapes and bold primary colors that evoke a sense of nostalgia and play, and actually really relates to the ‘Geometrica’ trend that I mentioned previously.
While it's obviously appropriate for companies targeting the kids market, it's also perfect for brands that are young at heart or aiming to communicate simplicity and fun in their messaging.
This style is particularly effective in consumer packaging, education materials, and interactive design. It can also bring a light hearted touch to marketing campaigns and inject energy and life into social media content.
Trend 11: Better Red
Trend number 11, ‘Better Red’, captures the power and intensity of red, a color that's always made a strong statement in design. It's bold, energetic, and typically paired with black and white, so if you want to command attention, use red.
In this trend, the color red is used to create impact and focus. It can be an uninterrupted color backdrop for a minimalist design, as a way to make content shine, or as a part of a more complex pattern that energizes an entire composition.
Better Red is ideal for brands looking to take a powerful stance, whether it's through a website, a poster, or product packaging. This trend can be particularly effective in print, where you want to grab attention quickly, and in packaging where it can also communicate luxury and prestige.
Trend 12: Elasto-type
Trend number 12, ‘Elasto-type’, is a dynamic trend where typography isn't just read, it's felt.
It's characterized by taking fonts and extending them beyond their usual limits, adding a sense of motion to the static page. This technique gives words a visual rhythm that can be seen as a standalone graphic element in their own right and is often used that way.
It's a style that works well for brands looking to convey innovation and can be particularly impactful in digital uses like web design, to animate a static layout or guiding the eye's movement and engaging viewers.
It's also effective in print, offering a fresh perspective on posters, book covers, and any medium where you want the typography to make a really bold statement.
Trend 13: Flaired Fonts
Trend number 13 is ‘Flaired Fonts’, a trend that brings a dose of whimsy and character to typography.
Fonts take on a life of their own with curves and embellishments and a tangible sense of movement. They're a modern take on the days of Art Nouveau's ornamental stylings.
It's almost like they're sans serif fonts, who are trying their hardest on the dance floor to become serifed!
They're versatile enough for creative poster designs, editorial headlines that need to sing, and are perfect for brands that want a unique voice and a personal touch.
In digital applications, where they achieve a level of visual animation, they're a great choice for brands that are looking to express individuality, and as the name says, ‘flair’!
Trend 14: Vintage Americana
Trend number 14 is ‘Vintage Americana’. Vintage Americana is serving, this time, as a rejection of the modern. That is, all-things-AI, technology or anything digital.
It's a feel good, nostalgic nod to a classically American design aesthetic, reminiscent of the mid 20th century. This timeless style uses retro fonts and warm color palettes, imagery, layouts, that conjure up the good old days.
The Vintage Americana trend is perfect for brands that want to establish a perception of heritage and tradition - and those looking to evoke a sense of comfort and reliability.
It works really well virtually anywhere, from print to digital, apparel, spirits, out of home, just to name a few. It can be particularly impactful in packaging, where it can evoke a sense of quality and craftsmanship of bygone eras.
Trend 15: AI Assimilation
Trend number 15, ‘AI Assimilation’ marks the evolution of artificial intelligence from the novelty it's been in 2023 to a fundamental aspect of creative design in 2024.
It's no longer just about producing fantastical images to share with your friends, it's now a crucial tool that can be used in designing tangible products, items that we interact with every day in our lives.
This trend shows AI's power as an ever expanding reality that's reshaping entire industries as we speak, enabling the creation of objects and spaces that were once impossible to conceive or to visualize.
The aesthetic of AI Assimilation is characterized by its mind bending detail and precision and its ability to radically push the limits of form and function.
Applications include the fine arts, industrial design, product design, transportation, architecture, fashion, accessories, packaging, layout, animation, and that list is just growing longer every single day.
I hope you were inspired by these 15 trends and design for 2024, and if you were, please take a moment and subscribe to my newsletter, Brand•Muse, so you can stay up to date on all the news, trends, resources that make the creative world go ‘round!
As always, I'd also really appreciate it if you'd forward this post, or the associated YouTube Video to a friend or a colleague so others can be inspired too.
Stay creative and bye for now.
How Can We Can Help Your Business?
Is your brand rockin' like nobody elses? Or is it a little tired? Maybe it's just being born. You want to do it right. That's where we come in.
We create new brands from scratch. We fix broken ones. We have all the brainpower, creative chops and marketing magic you’ll ever need and a ton of loyal clients to prove it.
You want nimble? We're the new agency paradigm. We scale up and down depending on your needs so you never pay for resources you aren’t using.
We’ll put the power of brand strategy, design and the most contemporary marketing techniques to work for you. Let’s talk.
Design Rush Features Verhaal in Best Beauty Product Packaging Designs for 2023
The popular design website DesignRush is honoring the work of Verhaal Brand Design by featuring the brand identity and packaging design work we did for Marie Bertrand, Founder of SkinScience in launching the private label line of products, Aliquote Skin.
We’re proud of the work we did in developing the Aliquote Skin line and are happy to be receiving the recognition of our branding and packaging expertise.
You can access DesignRush’s feature of our work by visiting this page..
Here is just a sample of our Aliquote Skin work. You can view the full case study here.
Ground Control, to Major Brand
Avoiding branding failures: lesson from a rocket launch.
Last month in the town of Port Isabel, Texas they had a bit of a problem.
SpaceX had just test launched Starship Rocket, with the most powerful engine they’d built to date.
SpaceX expected the event to go down in history.
It did.
But not for the reason they were hoping it would.
The rockets engines ignited and a massive cloud of debris and thousands of basketball sized chunks of concrete were blown in all directions.
One of the chunks damaged the rocket causing it to explode moments after lift-off.
The good news is the rocket was unmanned.
The bad news was that for nearby Port Isabel it meant being blanketed in a gritty layer of sand, dirt and concrete.
It all happened because SpaceX, in its rush to launch, had not engineered the launch pad with a trench system to divert the rocket’s energy away from directly impacting the ground.
Months before, NASA had told SpaceX that their launch pad design could mean disaster.
But SpaceX ignored them.
So the launch pad got blown to smithereens destroying the rocket, and leaving Port Isabel buried under the remains of SpaceX’s crater of failure.
In my agency work, I’ve seen a number of brand launches follow a similar story line.
The client (SpaceX) is in a rush. The branding agency (NASA) recommends a proven approach. The client ignores it.
The launchpad (the brand) gets pulverized and the customer target (Port Isabel) gets covered in a lot of crud.
You usually refrain from telling your clients outright that ignoring your branding recommendations could mean disaster.
You might not tell them you’re the rocket scientist in your role as launch partner.
But when it comes down to it, you are.
And it’s your job to act like it.
Advocate for what’s right to create a successful launch.
And if you’re ignored, it might be a good idea to take a few steps back.
Put On Your Squirrel Suit
Have you ever seen those people who jump off cliffs in squirrel suits?
Have you ever seen those people who jump off cliffs in squirrel suits?
A squirrel suit (or ‘wingsuit’ as Wikipedia calls them) is basically a big onesie that has fabric panels sewn between the legs and between the arms and torso.
When you jump off a cliff, if you hold your body just right, you can achieve a sort of gliding flight, as opposed to just, well…free falling.
The first guy to try using a squirrel suit was a 33 year-old Parisian tailor named Franz Reichelt, who in 1912 jumped off the Eiffel Tower to test his invention.
Witnesses say he stared over the edge for quite some time before jumping.
It didn’t end well for Franz, but that’s beside the point.
It got me wondering about these more modern day squirrel suit flying people.
My big question is: “How do you practice this?”
That is, before jumping off a cliff.
I’m sure there is some way. A wind tunnel, doing it with a parachute, maybe.
But the real answer is…
You don’t. One day you just jump.
Eventually you just have to decide that this is the day you’re going to jump off the cliff.
Joey Cofone, the author of “The Laws of Creativity” once said, “Jumping off cliffs is the only way to grow.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Additionally, I’d have to add this: It’s also the only way to find out if you can fly.
Just last week, Lauren Williams, a member of the Brand Design Masters Facebook group from Australia had been staring at the edge of her personal cliff and thinking about it for quite some time.
“…literally months.” Lauren told me.
She made the fortunate mistake of posting a comment in the group about her hesitation and fear of starting to post content.
I say “mistake” because of course, I seized upon it and challenged her to post something by the end of the day…ok, it was a little encouraging push closer to the edge.
But that’s my job, right?
I told her I was going to check up on her about it, too.
And guess what happened?
She put on her squirrel suit and did it. She jumped.
The most amazing thing about her first flight was that her first post was about…wait for it….being terrified about posting!
Honest, authentic, funny (I mean, come’on there’s a cat and a cucumber involved…) and IMHO totally brilliant for a first post.
If you’re curious about the cat and the cucumber, here’s the post. Maybe you can follow her to give her a little encouragement.
The other Facebook group members cheered and congratulated her for leaping.
And flying.
Today I went back on her Instagram profile and there’s a 2nd post up there now!
This time it’s a beautiful reel of her portfolio and her services. A higher cliff. A more ambitious flight.
So, if you’ve been anxious, procrastinating, and staring over the edge of your personal cliff for quite some time.
Don’t think about the jumping part.
Think about the flying part.
And put on your squirrel suit.
15 Trends in Graphic Design for 2023
I often get asked:
"Phil, how do you come up with these trends?"
As far as my trend hunting CV goes, I was VP of Graphic Design and Trend at Old Navy for 11 years and traveled the globe shopping for trend 3x a year, Paris, Tokyo, London, Milan, Berlin etc. I’ve worked with major trend houses like WGSN, Stylus, JWT and Pantone. Trend hunting was my job. Since those formative years, I've been a trend watcher for Fortune 100 clients in the agency world for another 15 - so now 26+ years in, it's kind-of in my blood.
Lots of people get all bent out of shape that they have seen these before. That they feel "old". But what is a "trend" is not a crystal ball. Trends are really about the past - a style or technique that has gained frequent enough usage that it is recognizable as a 'movement' of sorts.
Some people expect trends to be the newest thing - but in reality they are currently POPULAR things - whether they have been around a short or (in some cases) a very long time.
The one thing I’ve learned is that trends are never limited to specific periods of time and are very fluid in how they appear. Trends are revisited, altered, revised - new perspectives are added - they disappear and then they come back over and over (particularly in the fashion industry) Russian Constructivism is 100 years old and it never really seems to go away. Some trends take a few years to grab hold and become recognizable as popular.
TLDR: The short answer is: I observe and collect.
I keep my eyes open for patterns of usage and gaining mass usage. Then I gather, collect images and at the end of the year I categorize them into themes and name them (like I did in my fashion industry days). The names aren't what the whole world is calling them. Often they haven't been 'named' yet by the wider design community or public - so I have to call them something.
I suggest you take a look, just keep yourself informed. You can choose to emulate or propagate these trends, OR you can consciously act/design against them.
It's up to you.
One way or the other I hope I've provided just a little fodder for inspiration in 2023.
Trend #1: Systematic
I don't know any designer who doesn't love working in series. Creating multiple variations on a design theme offers really unique challenges as well as exciting opportunities to expand on an idea in a really visually compelling way. Working in series or in systems are particularly well-suited to the food and beverage category as you can see here, but opportunities also exist in apparel, in hard goods, in posters, promotional materials among others. The idea is to maintain an aesthetic thread between the range of items through things like illustration or photography style, color, or typography while maintaining enough consistency for the system to hold together as a group.
Trend #2: Midjourney and AI
Artificial intelligence has been taking the design and the illustration worlds by storm this year, and it will certainly continue and expand as we move into 2023. Mid journey, the AI illustration tool has been garnering a ton of attention with the quality of work that it produces. Now, while it has deep strengths in imagery that's more fantastical or has a science fiction or a fantasy leaning to it, it can also create work that has fascinatingly inventive when it comes to static objects like the wolf statue on the left or the electric guitar just to the right of the wolf.
Trend #3: Collage
Collage has been around for decades and it finds its roots in Russian constructivism and the data movement at the beginning of the last century. With the invention of digital tools, it became incredibly easy to create collage, but what's harder is how to make it hold together aesthetically and thematically so that it serves the strategic communication required of the design that it's being used in. Collage can be surrealistic, but it can also be used to communicate complex topics in an inventive and multifaceted way, for example, the Netflix History 101 image on the center left or the Adobe Creative Cloud promotional image on the upper right or the Cougar Paper 50th anniversary promotional image on the upper left.
Trend #4: Holo-morph
Holographic imagery requires complex blends of iridescent electric colors rooted in cyan and magenta and green and turquoise. This design trend creates a sense of movement and ongoing evolution as something morphs into being. It communicates a futuristic and a high tech aesthetic that's being used in everything from app design to advertising, poster design, even apparel and packaging. The shapes use dare often amorphic, undulating on a dark ground to accentuate the electric glow of the color blends, and also advances in metallic printing techniques have made it easier to reproduce this look on physical materials and products, which is succeeding in keeping it in the trending category.
Trend #5: Military Inspired
Trend number five is military inspired. Now, the design used in military materials and in generic utilitarian packaging has always held a special allure to designers. The simplicity of these typography driven layouts are made possible by the use of san sera fonts, simple linear dividing lines and strokes, abbreviations, numbers, and technical information. Imagery, photography or illustration are really rarely used and tended detract from the ability to achieve the aesthetic. White open space is really important to maintain as well as severely restricting the use of color and relying mainly on black and white to achieve the look. This design trend is being used heavily in the spirits and food and beverage category, but also in men's accessories and products because this design style has historically been really attractive to male consumers.
Trend #6: Dark Mode Typography
Probably the biggest trend in color in typography that we've been observing is a usage of white text on a black ground, particularly on websites and on mobile. Now historically, designers have been discouraged from using reversed text on black because it can be notoriously difficult to read, particularly if used in large blocks of copy. But as computer monitors have increased in resolution combined with the trend of having significantly less copy on websites, it's made this aesthetic practice more realistic to use. Also, dark mode has infiltrated the preference settings on a lot of computer operating systems as well as web browsers making this typography treatment increasingly acceptable. It also has the added benefit of creating a mysterious and dramatic mood in the designs that it's used on, as well as carrying the perception of premium that people instinctually associate with black and dark rich colors.
Trend #7: Neu-Brutalism
Brutalism refers to the brutalist architecture movement in Western Europe that lasted between the 1950s to the 1970s. It featured raw concrete and was really devoid of paint or decoration. In graphic design, it has roots in the earliest web designs when the internet was only basic HTML and decoration was often clunky and ugly. What I call neu-brutalism vacillates between the unadorned black and white simplicity of the early internet, like the Soft Pillows webpage on the upper left to the intentionally ugly, crowded, and often glitchy functionality of early websites as in the California College of the Arts Career Expo catalog in the upper right. The neu-brutalist design aesthetic is unapologetically aggressive and visually striking, and it's surprising in its simplicity. It's great for use in digital media and apps and websites when you want to stand out from the pack.
Trend #8: 70s Typography
Increasingly, fun is returning to typography and graphic design. More and more designers are using vintage '70s style fonts and type treatments in their design work. We're seeing it in print and packaging and mobile apps, marketing, and even animations. The fonts being used can be bubble like balloon fonts or bold, rounded sera fonts once popular in the golden age of magazine advertising, or they can be trippy swoopy sera fonts that feel simultaneously liquid and psychedelic, ala the '70s illustrator Peter Max.
Trend #9: Lensa-tion
Well, unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard about Lensa in recent weeks. Lensa is a design AI app that digests 10 or so pictures of you and then spits out remarkably polished, and in some cases totally gorgeous illustrative portraits of you. It's amazingly fun to play with, and I expect to see this kind of illustration showing up everywhere in personal brand websites, the music industry, entertainment, and of course social media profiles.
Trend #10: Geo-simplicity
The simplicity of basic geometry is the mama that the design community always runs home to when things get too crazy with technology and visual complexity in the design industry. That's what's happening now with geo-simplicity, rooted in the use of bright, often primary colors, super simple geometric shapes of circles, squares, hexagons, and rounded cornered rectangles. This trend has been gaining steam over the last couple years, and as popular culture and society becomes more complex and difficult to navigate, we welcome the simplicity and the cleanliness and the restfulness of this design style. Geo-simplicity is being used in everything from an environmental design and wayfinding to print, packaging, food and beverage, spirits, you name it.
Trend #11: Cyber Wave
Cyber Wave is simultaneously an illustration style and also a design layout style. The combination of heavily manipulated and colorized imagery, photography or illustrations combined with high tech fonts, digital interface and control panel design elements. With nods to techno punk and steampunk and game character design, this trend is heavily used in the music industry, particularly in the Asia-Pacific countries, also in professional gaming culture and cosplay subcultures.
Now, the sportswear industry is embracing this trend heavily because it aligns with the high tech functionality of their products and their shoes, as well as speaking directly to their younger street-wear loving customer demographic.
Trend #12: The Blob
The blob is recognized by the use of amorphic puddle-like shapes as the main visual design element in a layout. The shape can be used as a simple striking vehicle for a field of color, or it can be used to mask illustrations or photography in a visually interesting way. The shapes can be simple or they can be longer and more convoluted. They can also become really inventive type treatments. They can be hand generated, or they can be obviously computer generated. The range is really broad. This design style is a great way to offset simple typographical layouts and inject a level of fun and lightheartedness into a composition trend.
Trend #13: Vaporwave 3.0
I know, I know. Not vaporwave again! But that's why I'm calling it vaporwave 3.0. It's a design trend that is just not going away, so I have to mention it. Look no further than the "new" Twitter blue logo that was released just last week on the left side in the middle. Sure, it's not bleeding in its design anymore, and it's making its way into larger usage, but actually that is the definition of something that's trending. Characterized by the '80s Miami vice type and technicolor sunsets and palm trees, it leverages magenta and cyan heavily to achieve the design aesthetic. It's also showing up in social media, sports wear, gaming, and now even into the realm of fine art and gallery settings as in the image on the top center.
Trend #14: Global Voice
Please understand, I am not trivializing the war in Ukraine by calling it a design trend, because it's not and it shouldn't be. But what I am doing is celebrating and showcasing the amazing work of thousands of designers who've used their superpower to be a global voice for good. Throughout history, designers have led the way when it comes to giving voice to the oppressed and speaking out against injustice in the world. And when it comes to having both the imagination and the creative means to communicate in a really motivating way to the world and speaking truth to power, designers are perfectly suited to the task, and we have to own that responsibility. The war in Ukraine has sadly given the design community another opportunity to showcase that strength, and they've done it in amazing form, shining a global light on a tragic conflict.
Trend #15: Viva Magenta
This is not actually a graphic design trend per se, but a color story trend. But color is an incredibly important part of graphic design. Pantone's Color of the Year in 2023 is called Viva Magenta. It's a bright red with a slightly magenta cast. Last year in 2022, Pantone named “Very Peri”, a periwinkle, as the Color of the Year, which was definitely softer and more muted. But the zeitgeist of popular culture has moved to embracing colors that are more vibrant, leading to this year's Pantone choice. This color trend is already being heavily adopted in the beauty and fashion categories, as well as sporting goods and advertising.
I hope you were inspired by these 15 trends in graphic design for 2023! If you were, make sure head over to my YouTube channel and subscribe for more videos and content on branding, marketing and graphic design.
You also might want to subscribe to my newsletter, “brand•muse” where I share all the latest news, trends, resources and must-read content. Subscribe Here. As always, I'd really appreciate it if you'd share this post a friend or colleague or link to it on social media so others can get inspired too. Thanks for reading, stay creative!
Want to learn how to create the techniques used in these trends?
Check out: Bring Your Own Laptop – with Daniel Scott
I often get comments on my videos asking how to achieve the aesthetics that are in these trends. So I want to share with you a ‘not so secret’ secret with you. Daniel Scott, in my humble opinion, is the best certified Adobe trainer out there, and he has an Adobe app video training website called Bring Your Own Laptop. The site is subscription-based and it is an absolutely insane value at only $12 a month for access to every training he has on his site. Daniel even sometimes uses the trends that I feature in my annual videos as examples in his training videos. So, if you want to get better at using your favorite Adobe apps or even learn a new one, I suggest you head over to:
https://byol.me/philip
(use this affiliate link to support my work, thanks!)
How Can We Can Help Your Business?
Is your brand rockin' like nobody elses? Or is it a little tired? Maybe it's just being born. You want to do it right. That's where we come in.
We create new brands from scratch. We fix broken ones. We have all the brainpower, creative chops and marketing magic you’ll ever need and a ton of loyal clients to prove it.
You want nimble? We're the new agency paradigm. We scale up and down depending on your needs so you never pay for resources you aren’t using.
We’ll put the power of brand strategy, design and the most contemporary marketing techniques to work for you. Let’s talk.
Build That Wall
The Newhouse Wildlife Rescue in Massachusetts had a video go viral last week. The video features Nibi, a resident rescued beaver who recently got a new beaver roommate, Ziibi.
The Newhouse Wildlife Rescue in Massachusetts had a video go viral last week.
The video features Nibi, a resident rescued beaver who recently got a new beaver roommate, Ziibi. It seems that Nibi and Ziibi didn’t immediately hit it off.
In fact, Nibi hated Ziibi’s guts.
So the Newhouse staff decided to separate them for a while to cool things off and took Ziibi out of the room they had been sharing and put her outside in an attached enclosure.
As soon as Ziibi was outside, Nibi couldn’t stand still.
Let me set the scene: The internal enclosure is room with a tiled floor with cages, food bowls and toys to keep the beavers occupied. They also keep a bunch of sticks laying around, because...beavers like sticks.
Nibi immediately started gathering every stick she could find and started to build a dam in the doorway to keep Ziibi out.
One by one she’d pick up a stick and flip flap her little beaver feet across the tile floor and start stacking them upon the doorway.
She had to build it. Now.
It wasn’t perfect.
It wasn’t pretty.
Maybe it wouldn’t even work.
But she had to start because this was her chance to carve out her territory.
Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
When we have a troublesome new competitor or business challenge, we often hesitate, doubting whether we have exactly the right answer.
We weigh whether we are in exactly the right place in time to work on it.
We might spend hours pondering the decisions we have to make or the resources that we might need.
We’ll take an inordinate amount of time designing what will be the perfect solution.
But to carve out your territory, you just have to start.
You do what you can.
With what you have.
Where you are.
It’s not going to be perfect.
Or pretty.
Hell, it might not even work.
But starting is better than standing still.
How Short-form Content Is Taking Over the World
Let me ask you a question: Why are you reading this? Probably because you’re interested in content marketing, but also my guess is…because it’s short.
Let me ask you a question:
Why are you reading this?
Probably because you’re interested in content marketing, but also my guess is…because it’s short.
Well, short-er as far as blog articles are concerned.
I mean it’s certainly not a 5000 word keyword-packed bloatware piece that’s going to require your entire lunch hour to consume.
You wanted some fast, actionable, bite-sized pieces of information to make your business better, to get your marketing mojo pumped up again, something you could use to help your clients.
Let’s call it ‘snackable content’.
What else is snackable? Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, 5-minute podcast episodes.
It seems like short-form content is taking over the world these days.
The 800lb. Gorilla
So, why is this happening?
The bigger sociological trend influencing short-form content is that we are all strapped for time. Folks want their content delivered like they were running out to the 7-11 for milk. A quick in and out.
But the bigger influence is that there happens to be a new 800lb. gorilla in the room that everyone is freaking out about.
TikTok
TikTok recently became the most heavily trafficked website in the world. They now get more traffic than the Google’s search engine. A stat that is blowing a whole lot of people’s minds.
And everyone wants a piece of TikTok’s viewership pie.
YouTube is trying to compete with YouTube Shorts. Instagram has Reels. There’s also Snapchat Spotlight, Triller, Byte, Hippo Video, and others jockeying for position.
Instagram has started leaning so heavily into promoting ‘Reels’ that they’ve begun taking ‘regular old’ images users are posting and are turning them into reels – without the person who posted it even knowing it’s happening.
Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram, recently posted a reel acknowledging that many O.G. Instagrammers are pretty upset about what is happening to the platform. So much so that he decided he needed to respond to their concerns in a post, explaining how “Instagram is still committed to its account holders who mainly focus on posting images.”
Personally, my ears perked up when he used the word “still”.
In my experience, tech leaders have a tendency to say they are ‘“still” committed to something just before it goes away.
Time will tell.
On the audio front, many podcasts are experimenting with short-form podcasts that are 5-8 minutes in length.
With short-form audio, as a listener, it’s easy to slip from one episode to the next when episodes are so bite-sized. You get to hear more topics with less fiddling with your podcast app interface.
Much to marketers glee you also happen to get exposed to more ads and sponsored endorsements in a shorter amount of time.
Faster Pussycat
Our collective attention span has decreased to the extent that people are even getting impatient with the long-form content they’re consuming.
YouTube notes that viewers often skip ahead many times during a long-form video. The platform recently introduced ‘chapters’ functionality to try to address this fact, so people could self-navigate, or curate longer-form content to reduce the time it takes to consume it.
YouTube viewers are also increasingly watching long-form videos at faster playback speeds. YouTube says 1.5x speed is the most common, with 2x coming in a close second.
Now, for content creators and marketers the tidal shift to ‘snackable content’ has some benefits. It takes less time to create it, so you can create more and post more often.
Because you are posting more frequently, your chances of getting a brand impression are higher – even though that impression might not be as deep.
Also, short form content feels more shareable, so your chances of consumer-amplified exposure are higher, too.
Most importantly, you’re showing your audience that you value their time, that you are paying attention to how they want to have value delivered to them.
It Needs a Spark
One important consideration to bear in mind when creating this sort of content is something you might not have spent too much time thinking about.
That’s ‘entertainment value’.
This is another notable side-effect of the TikTok phenomenon.
With short-form content, because your time communicating to the viewer is shorter, your content has to have a bit of ’spark’ to it. It has to have some energy. Maybe even a bit of fun.
Mainly because it could very well be bookended with a video showing the latest internet dance challenge and another one of a skateboard kick-flip fail.
That’s because the algorithms that are deciding what videos to serve up to you are still in the toddler-stuffing-Cheerios-into-the-dogs-nose phase of development. In fact a few of them, Instagram most notably, are pretty broken.
Now, all this is not to propose that long-form content is going away. It’s not. There are some ideas and topics that you just can’t do justice to in short-form content.
Rest assured, the 5,000 word, SEO keyword packed, heavily referenced and backlinked blog post still has its place in the world.
Turning Tides
But when the tides change like this in the world of content and business, it’s best to be paying close attention.
It’s never a bad idea to pause, re-evaluate your analytics and adjust your marketing efforts to be sure you’re still hitting the targets you’ve laid out, both for engagement and conversions.
The data in HubSpot’s 2022 video marketing report speaks for itself:
• Short-form video ranks #1 for lead generation and engagement
• Marketers will invest in short-form video more in 2022 than any other format
• 85% of marketers say short-form videos are the most effective format on social media
With these stats in mind, if you aren’t actively experimenting with the creation of some type of ’snackable content’, you’re very possibly missing the biggest wave in social media since the invention of the Tweet.
Succeed in the Creative Economy - Verhaal Brand Design
Check out this cool profile about us on SubKits Go Solo blog.
Check out this great profile that Go Solo did on us on Substack via SubKit.
If you want to know more about Go Solo and SubKit:
Instagram: @subkit
LinkedIn: @subkit
Twitter: @wearesubkit
The Marketing Miracle Diet
I’ve always been a tall person. But for most of my life I was also pretty thin and could eat just about anything I wanted. It never affected me much.
I’ve always been a tall person.
But for most of my life I was also pretty thin and could eat just about anything I wanted. It never affected me much.
My wife, Beth hated me for it.
But then, I hit middle age.
Slowly the proverbial ‘spare tire’ made an appearance. The progression was sneaky, a pound here, a pound there.
I just hadn’t been paying attention.
At 6’3” I’d always hovered around 185 lbs. But I realized somehow I had ballooned up to 225. None of my pants fit. Something had to be done.
So I asked Beth what I should do. She suggested that maybe I start counting calories.
Calories mattered? Who knew!
So I said to myself what any techie middle aged guy would say: “There’s gotta be an app for that!”
I found an app where you enter in everything you eat and it totals the calories so you can control your intake.
To tell you that I had no idea at all how many calories were in food would be an understatement.
Did you know a Hostess Apple pie, (which up until then qualified as ‘health food’ as far as I was concerned) has over 500 calories? That’s 1/4 of what my TOTAL daily intake was supposed to be!
So I counted. I paid attention. I tracked my numbers and put in the work.
And guess what? In just a few months I lost 40 pounds and got back down to 185.
So what does losing weight have to do with branding and marketing?
Maybe you have been using the same marketing tactics for years.
Running the same ads. The same copy. The same platforms.
Your results slip a little, a couple fewer leads each month,a little less engagement. Nothing dramatic.
Just a slow leak of branding effectiveness.
And suddenly you realize your brand has gained 40 pounds and is eating Twinkies on the couch at 11:00am on a Thursday.
Analytics really matter? Who knew!
So what’s the solution?
You start paying attention. Start tracking your numbers. Put in the work by changing some behaviors.
...I wish I could say that there is an app for that.
But there isn’t.
One Man Brand
You may not know this, but I’m not just a design and branding guy. I’m also a musician.
You may not know this, but I’m not just a design and branding guy. I’m also a musician.
I’ve been playing guitar and bass since I was a pre-teen and am now learning to actually read music and play piano.
I’ve done multi-track recording from the days of 4-track cassette machines to today, recording digitally with Logic Pro.
The cool thing about multi-track recording is that you can play all the instruments yourself and sound like a huge band.
Which leads me to a TikTok video I saw yesterday that completely blew my mind.
Maybe you’ve seen it too.
It shows a somewhat chubby guy (hey, I’m not shaming here, the dudes got his bare belly hangin’ out and you can’t not see it) who’s playing the guitar, while he’s playing the drums and singing all at the same time.
He’s actually hitting the drums with a drum stick and strumming chords with the same hand simultaneously.
He sounds like a full-on rock band that’s pretty much kickin’ ass and takin’ names.
But he’s also working really damn hard to do it.
What kicked on my branding brain though was a comment someone left on the video:
“Why doesn’t he just get a couple pals to help out? Can you image how much more awesome he would be?”
When we consultants, freelancers and entrepreneurs first start running our businesses, we need to keep expenses low and take huge pride in doing everything ourselves.
We try to be a one-person band. We do the branding, the marketing, deliver the products and services, we do the books, we do all the admin.
In the beginning, we can kick out the jams solo for the most part.
But eventually one day we realize it’s really damn hard to do it that way.
And then we ask ourselves: What if I got a couple pals to help out?
We have to figure out how to scale.
Because when we do that, we find out how much more awesome we can be.
So Hot Right Now
Hoy Fung Sriracha, also known as "Rooster Sauce”, is a billion dollar brand.
Hoy Fung Sriracha, also known as "Rooster Sauce”, is a billion dollar brand.
The sauce was first produced in the 1930’s by a woman named Thanom Chakkapak in the town of Si Racha in Thailand.
Sriracha started off as a condiment for pho and fried noodles, but it now is also eaten in soup, jams, cocktails, eggs, burgers and even lollipops.
Hell, Lay’s even puts it in potato chips.
Sriracha is one of the most recognizable hot sauce brands in the world.
It has very distinctive packaging. A simple clear squeeze bottle with a white rooster illustration showcasing bright red product inside and a green cap.
But the most remarkable thing about Sriracha isn’t its popularity.
It’s how it got that popular.
It’s that Sriracha became a billion dollar brand without advertising.
Not one dollar spent on ads.
Instead, Hoy Fung relied entirely on word-of-mouth.
A word-of-mouth marketing strategy relies entirely on the quality of the product.
It relies on the brand delivering a remarkable customer experience every single time.
But it only works if your product is so damn good that everyone wants to tell their family and friends about it.
So good that people can’t not talk about it.
And Sriracha is that damn good.
And that’s what Hoy Fung did.
They delivered a consistently exhilarating flavor experience for 90 years.
Of course, word-of-mouth has existed since the beginning of time.
But with the mass adoption of the internet and the social sharing technologies that have come with it, the power of word-of-mouth has become supercharged.
You might even say red hot. *sorry, couldn’t resist*
So if you want your customers to do your advertising for you.
You have to start with the product.
Make it that damn good.
So people can’t not talk about it.
And let the internet take it from there
slip and slide
Something was happening at the house with the slip-and-slide.
Something was happening at the house with the slip-and-slide.
What was happening was that there was a lot less happening.
A few blocks away from us is a house where the kids have a slip-and-slide that was an irresistible magnet to all the kids in the neighborhood when the weather got hot.
That yard was packed with neighborhood kids running around, getting wet, laughing their heads off.
But then it wasn’t, and the kids who lived there were wondering where all the other kids had gone.
What they didn’t know was that the family two doors down from us had recently purchased a palatial bouncy castle water slide complete with rotating sprinkler arms.
But the kids at the slip-and-slide house didn’t know that.
They just knew that no one was showing up to play.
Clients come to me with the same problem.
Customers aren’t showing up like they used to and they don’t really know why.
And they don’t know what to do about it.
When I am assessing a clients brand, one of the things that I am frequently amazed by are blind spots they have in really knowing who their competition is and what they are doing.
A competitive audit is one of the most illuminating phases in a brand re-design project.
How does your brand stack up to others in the competitive landscape?
How are they articulating the problem/solution/capabilities message to prospects in a compelling way?
How are they creating differentiation?
Assessing the competition invariably makes it very clear what the problem is and what needs to be addressed.
Because if you don’t know there’s a new bouncy castle water slide down the street…
You’re just going to be left standing in your yard wondering where everyone went.
Hot Then Not
One minute what is hot, the next minute will very likely be not.
Everything was going great in high school until that new guy showed up.
Let’s call him Fabio.
Fabio was tall, wore the coolest jeans, but what really did it was his hair.
Fabio had long hair and it was driving all the girls to distraction. All they could talk about was Fabio’s hair.
In the halls they were always staring at Fabio.
Fabio was hot.
It goes without saying that all the other guys in school were feeling - let’s just say: under-appreciated.
So what did they do? One by one they all started to grow their hair long.
Even that guy with curly hair. He was the only guy with curly hair. He had to grow it twice as long because it took twice as much to look long.
Now he just looked like everyone else.
Then it happened.
One day Fabio showed up to school with short hair.
Now short hair was hot.
The other guys were now thinking: ‘Damn, I just spent all this time growing my hair out. I used to have short hair! What was I thinking?’
Well, that’s what’s happening in social media right now:
Fabio is TikTok.
Long hair is short-form video.
And the curly haired guy is Instagram.
TikTok recently announced they are going to be accepting 10 minute videos soon
....and everyone else is still deeeep into growing their hair long.
In fact Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram just announced to accountholders that Reels weren’t going to replace photos. He said Instagram is ‘still’ committed to photography.
Even though it certainly doesn’t look like that to anyone paying attention.
The moral of the story is that one minute what is hot, the next minute will very likely be not.
So it’s usually best to hold on to your core competency.
I’m not saying short-form video is going away. It’s not.
But when everyone starts looking just like Fabio...something is bound to change.
The Numbers Game
Creating masterpieces is a numbers game.
Before I was a branding guy, I was a fine artist.
I actually have a masters degree in painting - not graphic design. Graphic design I picked up along the way. But that’s a story for another day.
What I really want to tell you about is one of my favorite artists of all time, Pablo Picasso.
In his lifetime Picasso created over 150,000 works of art. Drawings, sculptures, prints, engravings, murals, ceramic sand paintings.
It could be argued that he was one of the most prolific artists in history.
He banged stuff out right and left. Boom, there’s another drawing.
His studio was literally littered with...well, Picasso’s.
Boom, here’s another one...
He didn’t get caught up in perfection.
Now, let me ask you a question:
How many of these 150k works of art are considered to be masterpieces today?
Probably less than 100.
I know there is some curator out there turning red in the face right now thinking...”But every Picasso is a masterpiece!”
The fact is, less than .5% of the artistic content he produced ever mattered in the long run.
So if you’re creatively stuck and are being a perfectionist about that one piece of content you have had on your marketing ‘to do’ list for weeks...
Bang it out.
Because creating masterpieces is a numbers game.
You just have to start.
All Together Now
Together we can accomplish things we never could alone.
Somewhere along the line when I was coming up in my professional career and just starting to pay attention to business and brands and marketing, I heard an interesting little factoid that stuck with me:
There has never been a major war in a country that has McDonald's.
At the time, this is how I parsed that statement:
Big companies and global capitalism is so invested in making money that they (by hook, crook, or political maneuvering) won’t allow a war to disrupt commerce in any way.
It said that big business controls us all, controls culture, that we exist to serve them.
But something happened a few weeks ago that made me question that assumption.
What happened was that McDonald's announced it was closing 850 stores in Russia in response to that nations unprovoked attack on Ukraine.
For a monolith like McD’s to close 850 stores as a show of solidarity, as a reflection of the will of the people to protest, to sanction, to fight back is pretty freakin’ cool if you ask me.
Cool, because it shows me that big business can serve us.
When we unite, we control them.
And because McDonald's listened and responded to the will of the people, they increased their brand loyalty in the hearts and minds of billions around the world.
It gives new meaning to the words on their signs:
"Billions and Billions Served".
12 Trends in Graphic Design for 2022
Let's look at 12 Trends in Graphic Design for 2022!
Trends are movements in design that have gained wide enough usage that they can actually be recognized as a trend. They aren't necessarily brand new. In fact, very little is. Very few things have actually never, ever been done before.
I recommend using trends to stay inspired. You can either follow them or you can consciously react against them. But knowing what is trending is critical to informing your work and to informing your clients.
Trend #1: Diversity + Inclusivity
Design has always been instrumental in facilitating changes in society. Large, fortune 500 companies are now responding to societal changes in areas of diversity and inclusivity and bringing it into the mainstream.
Ethnic diversity, mixed-race couples and families have been depicted in design for years now, but diversity in gender, sexual orientation, and physical ability are becoming much more prevalent and visible.
We're seeing it grow considerably in traditional advertising media, in VR, in illustration, iconography, and stock imagery. Expect this trend to magnify in 2022, as acceptance continues to grow domestically in the U.S. as well as internationally
Trend #2: Metaverse
Mark Zuckerberg has made dramatic pronouncements about Meta's intention to making avatar-inhabited virtual environments a priority for the company.
It's unclear exactly what this world is going to look like or what you'll be able to do or accomplish there, but it's not stopping designers, gaming platforms, illustrators, and animators from starting to visually predict and to depict it.
Any design that can happen in real life, billboards, products, ads, branded environments, t-shirts, branded products will undoubtedly come to life in the Metaverse, probably things we haven't even imagined yet.
Designers are going to be on bleeding edge of finding ways to leverage this new virtual ecosystem to their advantage for both themselves and for their clients
Trend #3: DataViz
We live in a data-rich, and some may say, absolutely saturated world these days. Infographics have been around for years now, but there's a new trend on how the format is being explored.
But typical infographics have lost their appeal and their thumb scroll stopping power so more radical layouts, more inventive imagery, not just the same old icons and stock characters are being used.
It's being done in order to cut through the infographic noise. Infographics are becoming much more creative, inventive, playful, and original illustration-driven designs.
Trend #4: Muted Tones
This is a trend that's emerging where colors that are being used are much more muted, softer, they're less jarring.
It is a reaction against the intense colors that were being used in last year's 2021 trends like “Electric Fade” and “Bright Geo”. Trends frequently emerge that are reactions against other trends and muted tones is definitely one of those.
You'll see that this trend bears out Pantone's Color of the Year choice that I'm going to feature later in this video. The colors used are soft pastels and cosmetic pinks, taupes, and blues.
This trend shows up in consumer package goods, stock photography, fashion, and apparel.
Trend #5: Vintage Apothecary
Vintage Apothecary celebrates vintage typography, flowing, elongated serifs, and ornate borders. 18th-century black and white etching illustrations are also prominently featured in this design style.
This trend shows up in beverages, in food packaging, health and beauty aids, t-shirt design, candles, and the gift industry. It references the Steampunk Movement and is recognized by overlaying detailed layouts and vintage illustration styles.
Vintage Apothecary hearkens back to a simpler time when things weren't mass-produced by the millions, but instead in small, handcrafted batches with real care and real quality.
Trend #6: Eco Everything
Global warming isn't a debate anymore, it's happening much faster than anyone ever thought possible.
The eco-movement, focusing on sustainability and reducing the human carbon footprint in virtually everything we do, make, or use just continues to grow. It's no longer fringe, it's almost a requirement for companies to stake a claim with their consumers about where they stand on the environment.
The days of “greenwashing”, that is giving lip service to sustainability, are long gone. Designers are leading the charge in finding ever more impactful and engaging ways to communicate and market products and services in the green economy.
You can see this trend in hard, good products, in packaging, physical environments, illustration, books, and in color palettes.
Trend #7: Iridescence
Iridescence is somewhat of a continuation of last year's trend that I called “Electric Fade”, it's also related to the Vaporwave trend of a few years ago. But Iridescence is made possible by new, innovative print substrate materials that have reflective and light amplifying properties.
This trend is being seen in technology marketing, in the sportswear industry, in iconography systems and print, AR and VR. It's also beginning to show up in interface design.
I wouldn't be surprised if it actually finds its way into the Metaverse too.
The shapes associated with it can be curve linear and flowing like neon tubing, or they can be sharp and defined and angular in geometric cubes, in geological crystal shapes.
Trend #8: Modular Geo
Modular Geo is an evolution of the “Bright Geo” trend that I featured in my 2021 trend video.
The color used as flat and unmodulated, many times a primary palette is used of bright reds, blues, and yellows. The shapes used in this trend are circles and squares, triangles, parallelograms, and trapezoids.
The aesthetics of the Modular Geo trend have hints of the work of fine artists like Mondrian and Matisse, as well as the work of early Bauhaus design. This trend is being used in print and poster design, packaging, environmental wayfinding, and editorial illustration.
Trend #9: Trippy Type
Sometimes trend happen in pairs, with two diametrically opposed aesthetics that are polar opposites of each other. This is the case with trippy type, it's the polar opposite of the sharp lines and misstructured, rigid compositions that you find in Modular Geo.
This trend is signified by 60s and early 70s, psychedelic typography. Often it's hand-illustrated in shapes with that type and shape itself becoming the primary element or the main focus of the design.
You'll find this trend in new font design, in printed books, illustration, consumer goods, food packaging, fashion, and even motion graphics.
Trend #10: Moving Marks
It's not like animated logos have never been seen before, but it's the extent at which we're seeing them that has really changed.
Animated logo gifs are showing up on corporate email blasts, on website headers, and in apps on a regular basis now. It's the true definition of a trend, a more fringe movement and experimental one that's gained a lot of popular usage that it can now be considered trending.
What's remarkable is the enterprise-size companies that are starting to use these logos ‘on the regular’, as opposed to only periodically in ads on traditional broadcast media.
It's just another indication that “everything is going to video”, even the simple, static company logo can't be counted on anymore to stand still!
Trend #11: True Grit
True Grit isn't so much of a design style per se as it is a treatment. This trend is recognized by the usage of rough, distressed textures and textural overlays that make images and text look like it's weathered or partially destroyed. It's a reaction against the clean type and stripe design of modular geo or Bauhaus or Swiss Design.
This trend shows up across a broad range of design genres and it's used to add a level of visual interest to a design by aging it, by giving it provenance or history, by adding character.
True Grit shows up in t-shirt design, print and posters, in the music industry, in motion graphics, and also in broadcast entertainment.
Trend #12: Very Peri
Pantone's color of the year for 2022 is called Very Peri, it's basically the color periwinkle. It's not a graphic design trend in and of itself, it's a color story trend. Last year in 2021, Pantone named “Illuminating Yellow” and”Ultimate Gray” as the colors of the year.
But the popular zeitgeist in society has moved towards embracing colors that are more calming and muted like trend #4, Muted Tones, featured above.
Because of the ongoing collective psychological stress of the COVID pandemic, Pantone is forecasting and encouraging a more comforting look for 2022.
This color trend is already being heavily adopted, and you can see it being used everywhere in product design, website design, sports apparel, editorial print, promotional marketing, travel, entertainment, even the financial industry.
I hope you liked this article and the linked YouTube video “12 Trends in Graphic Design for 2022”.
If you were somehow inspired by this trend review, do me a favor and forward it to a colleague or share it on social media! Share the inspiration! I'd really appreciate it and your colleagues will too.
How Can We Can Help Your Business?
Is your brand rockin' like nobody elses? Or is it a little tired? Maybe it's just being born. You want to do it right. That's where we come in.
We create new brands from scratch. We fix broken ones. We have all the brainpower, creative chops and marketing magic you’ll ever need and a ton of loyal clients to prove it.
You want nimble? We're the new agency paradigm. We scale up and down depending on your needs so you never pay for resources you aren’t using.
We’ll put the power of brand strategy, design and the most contemporary marketing techniques to work for you. Let’s talk.
First Off the Starting Line
Bike races are a lot like marketing. I’d started first and finished dead last.
When I was growing up a local newspaper sponsored an amateur bike race to engage the community.
At 13, I had just gotten a new Schwinn 10-speed bike which were the new thing. It was a serious move up from my Schwinn Stingray. Although I have to admit I missed the racing slick, banana seat and sissy bar.
My Dad encouraged me to put my new bike to the test and sign-up for the race. I thought, “Why not, I have a 10- speed now. It’s a piece of cake.”
The race was taking place in a hilly industrial park. There were no age groups. It was mostly adults, I was one of the few kids.
They blew the whistle. I sprinted off the starting line. I left the whole group in the dust.
Everything went great until I hit a hill at about mile 2. My legs were burning. I was sucking air.
And then one by one, over the next 3 miles, every other racer passed me by. Even the other kids.
I’d started first and finished dead last.
I suddenly realized all those other riders had one thing I didn’t have.
It’s something I carry with me to every client meeting and every project I work on today. Whether it’s branding, marketing, product development, competitive positioning or innovation.
To come in first you have to have a strategy.
Then winning is a piece of cake.
Good luck ignoring the alligator
In trying to win in todays market, many brands focus their time and energy trying to create better products or deliver deeper functional benefits or more meaningful emotional experiences.
In 1933 a German psychiatrist named Hedwig von Restorff did a study.
She presented human subjects with a list of categorically similar items, with one distinctive, isolated item on the list.
When their memory was tested about the list of items, the memory of the distinctive item as always better than the rest.
The phenomenon became known as the “Von Restorff effect”.
For example, if you have a list where one item stands out against the others, for example: desk, chair, lamp, table, rug, bed, alligator, couch, dresser, armchair.
“Alligator” will be remembered the most.
It also turned out that the effect happens when you alter things like size, shape, color, spacing, fonts and underlining.
In this case, let’s say you have a shopping list with 20 items on it including: eggs, milk, bread, apples, chicken, lettuce, onions and cheese, etc. Then you color the word “apples” with a yellow highlighter.
Almost everyone who reads the list will remember that the list had apples on it.
In trying to win in todays market, many brands focus their time and energy trying to create better products or deliver deeper functional benefits or more meaningful emotional experiences.
But the fact is - that in the war for consumer attention, the most powerful method of establishing brand recall is to be different.
Just somehow noticeably - different.
We are now all doing business in an “Attention Economy”.
So, if you can just stand out in a sea of sameness…
You win.