By PINO Studio
From the many design trends that surface, there is a handful that truly stands out. They aren’t just hyped-up fads that disappear after a few weeks or months, but fresh and exciting ideas that can elevate and influence design. More than manifestations of creativity, they are reflections of our ever-changing times: ideals shift, advocacies grow, and designs become more efficient and innovative.
In this article, let’s deep dive into five graphic design trends in 2022 which have defined the current design landscape, both online and offline.
Minimal Editorial (featuring PINO Mag)
In recent years, minimalism has grown more and more. Brands are straying away from doing “too much,” focusing only on what’s essential to produce cleaner, more elegant designs. More than keeping it simple, it’s also about having a unique touch and maximizing impact with minimal effort. For example, you can try to produce your own brand of simple sophistication by marrying your brand’s design elements with a minimalist motif.
Shapes and Gradients (featuring PINO IG)
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If you’re on Instagram, chances are you’ve seen a few of these designs more than a couple of times on your feed. As shown by wellness pages like Still Life, the clever use of simple shapes and gradients captivates the audience through color without being too loud.
These types of animations make for more dynamic communication without complicating the design. They’re well-loved in today’s fast-paced environment because they allow ideas to be visually communicated in a quick and easily understandable way.
Expressive Typography
Recently, designers have been fusing meaning into words through custom types. From Filipino designers creating types that visually express a word’s meaning to brands looking for a way to incorporate their actual products into their logotypes, designers have been crafting types that really say it all.
Cleverly incorporating an object associated with the brand into the logotype creates an image that subtly communicates what they do or who they are.
Minimalist cartoon illustrations
Minimalism strikes again, but this time in the form of illustrations. In particular, simple, cartoonish ones. With visuals becoming one of the main types of social media content, designers and brands have been using illustrations as a way to connect with their audience. It allows storytelling to be much richer, colorful, and alive.
Beyond the social media space, another great use case for this is brand storytelling through print media. For example, recapping a company’s initiatives in the past year in its annual calendar. Married with copy that talks about the projects, illustrations really paint the entire picture.
Sleek iconography
Remember that period when social media apps and companies like Google revealed new logos, seemingly in unison? This new breed of sleek icons was born in the rise of minimalism and the natural evolution of design efficiency. Though they may seem as if they all belong to one big family, there are nuances that make them unique, and their simplicity is actually what makes them timeless.
In conceptualizing a logo with this approach, subtlety is key. When executed well, the simple use of lines, colors, and shapes is powerful enough to distinguish and communicate your brand.
Whether these trends will continue to shape the design landscape or evolve into something even better, who knows? One thing is for sure: creativity will always be searching for the next thing, and each trend offers something unique: a perspective, an approach, or even just a feeling.
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