Graphic design trends in 21st century

Graphic design is an integral part of marketing and a demanding need in many industries. It supports the ultimate objective of generating more and more leads for businesses. T is a form of art to convey strong messages through visual elements that depend on two key areas. They are the technological advancements and the creativity of the designer to influence the decision-making of the target audience. Keeping up with the latest trends and delivering values in a fresh perspective enables any graphic designer to get off the ground. Having that motivation, we’ve listed the top 7 graphic design trends in the 21st century to give you a kick start in what you do. Stay tuned!

Use diverse visual elements for inclusive design

A more representative marketing strategy is everything that a brand needs to approach a wider and diverse audience. By embedding diverse icons or images, you can reflect your values and workforce practices. Visual elements that reflect different genders, races, and so on do this job easily. Let’s see how Slack.com uses diverse visual elements to convey the message that they are for everyone and not restricted to a group.

Using bold colors in the background is trendy

Muted colors (colors with low saturation) in the background were the thing in the past couple of years. However, the emerging graphic design trends focus more on bold backgrounds. The right combination of light fonts and bold backgrounds lets the visuals pop out. Nonetheless, as a designer, you need to be careful not to overwhelm the content with bold backgrounds. To determine whether your design is effective, check if the text is readable, the visuals pop out and if your message is conveyed with clarity. Spotify.com has not failed using the following two bold colors together to speak to the mind of the readers.

Colorful illustrations are trendy

The impact of the bold background can be immensely heightened by using colorful illustrations. Icons are prominent elements in graphic design as it’s a universal way of conveying knowledge. If you can engage the readers’ eye in the content within milliseconds, then your design is a hit! This immediate eye engagement can be enabled with the right combination of colorful icons with a bold or even a muted background. Also, the design trend now goes as a combination of flat icons and 3D icons. Let’s take a look at sproutsocial.com to see their strategy on bringing out the colors to life!

Incorporate memes for fun data visualization

Memes are definitely a thing nowadays that many of us don’t dare to ignore. Using memes has become one of the main graphic design trends in the 21st century. Well, it’s true that almost everything can be turned into a meme with the right level of creativity. Nonetheless, it’s simple designing! Long-lasting memes are always simple, yet convey plenty of knowledge without much context at all. On the other hand, good memes are easily memorable. You can take memes to a whole level as GIFs too. Reddit.com has always been a good destination for funny memes and you can learn a lot there.

One of the top graphic design trends is quoting

We all know that quotes have been a thing in designing for some considerable time in the past. But, we all were fed up with the quotes eventually due to the monotony of them. Embedding quotes nowadays is nothing about conventional inspirational quotes. Quotes are stepping into a new dimension today in the form of teasers and social proofs. A quote coupled with an image of a real person acts as a great means of social proof nowadays to influence the buying behavior of your target audience. Nonetheless, a fun teaser coupled with the picture of an individual can convey a strong message to the audience. The key importance does not lie in the fame of the person, but the relevance and the authenticity of the quote in the context. Take a quick glance at the following teaser to determine its effect on you!

Convert simple charts into fun data visuals

Until the beginning of 2021, graphic designers tend to represent data in the simple forms of charts and graphs. However, the graphic design trends of data representation go in a new direction now with the incorporation of fun data visuals. The fun spirit was much needed for us due to the Corona pandemic and that may be the case that we are more engaging with fun data visuals than the basic ones nowadays. This trend works the best when you embed visuals that are subject-sensitive and simple. Take a look at the following two graphic data representations and feel the difference for yourself!

Embed Social screenshots

Social screenshots are not only aesthetically appealing in the design context but also are a great means to communicate with the audience authentically. And, it’s very easy! In situations when you find it difficult to alter the same content to be applied to different designing materials with different tones, social screenshots come in handy. Also, you can obtain more aesthetically appealing screenshots of video content along with captions.

Wrap Up

Graphic design trends in the 21st century are taking a sharp turn towards new directions. However, it makes the design paradigm more easily dealt with up to some extent. As trends are made based on the desires and expectations of the majority, ignoring them and going ahead solely on your judgment may not always work the best. Start your next graphic design project by including a few trends discussed above and feel the difference! Would you like to learn more stuff? Read more detailed articles on trending tools and techniques here to know better what you do.