should you be following and even caring about design trends within graphic
design we're going to look at graphic design trends how important they are or
if they're important at all and then some insights into some interesting
graphic design trends in 2019
so is it worth keeping up-to-date with graphic design trends or is it entirely
overrated as human beings we want to appear to be in the know rather than
behind in the times either positively or negatively speaking humans are very
social animals and trend-following appears to be most radically in our
youth and our early adulthood this is when we're most self-conscious about our
social standing with our peers and our groups
so we're drawn to new things that provide a feeling of change and also
progression following trends can bring people together for discussion
activities and socializing in general as an example a huge graphic design trend
in 2019 has been duotone which can be seen across a magazine and editorial
designs advertising campaigns UI and UX designs respectively
so that's all well and good but how do trends fit into the graphic design world
and is it even important to your graphic design career trends in graphic design
help allow the industry to remain in a Ford progression as well as also to
maintain a visual interest but this isn't just for consumers and clients
it's also for the designers as well there are some very good instances to
keep in mind graphic design trends for your career but there are also some
instances where I would suggest it's a very bad decision to use or incorporate
graphic design trends in your projects so we're now going to look at those
times where you should be using them and when you probably should just drop them
so one of the first instances where a graphical design trend can really come
into play in a positive addition is when you're on social media as a graphic
designer now this can be simply for fun or when
you're promoting yourself on social media it is a great way to establish
yourself as a competent designer by creating artwork that falls in line with
a graphic design trend in this point I'm not referring to graphic design client
work that you are working on but more geared towards day to day pose on social
media on your graphic design business accounts so for example you can have a
selfie or a picture of your workstation with a duotone overlay furthering your
ability to connect with the graphic design trends you can even use relevant
hashtags so for example hashtag Jew attend social media as a way to come
together as a community share ideas and express yourself
utilizing design trends is a great way to become part of a larger group and
firmly place yourself as an established content creator and graphic designer so
that's using graphic design trends more or less for fun but let's get serious
and dive down to brass tacks and head into the business side of things
as the internet and social media become more and more accessible as well as an
integrated part of human society people have become more aware of design trends
and more often than not your clients have done too
so your client might want to have a design solution that is completely in
line with trends if they are aware but they also might want something
traditional or vintage or they might just want to be going for something
completely against the grain and away from current trends but one of your jobs
as a graphic designer is to establish the style of a design
within the context of your clients industry brand and their brief simply
throwing some design trends at a project and hoping it works out for the best is
far from practical and is not a slightest bit professional trends are a
tool and you wouldn't use a spanner to tighten up a screw if for a good example
you need to really have a strong grasp on the function of a design and then you
can begin to apply the design style from there after so the first area where you
really want to refrain from using graphic design trends is for a logo
designing quality logo design is timeless or at the very least you should
be trying to lengthen the lifespan of a logo design as long as possible so with
that in mind slapping a graphic design trend onto a logo design it's probably
one of the worst ideas that you can come up with sure it might look neat and
pretty cool now and it might even look pretty neat and cool in ten years but
it's probably going to look horribly dated as well your client is not going
to want to have to rebrand their design or logo every other year that's gonna
cost them money and it's also damaging to the brand identity because if it's
constantly changing is not going to stick in the mind of the consumer
think about the Nike swoosh that logo mark is imprinted in the minds of so
many people globally speaking and it is near enough timeless however also right
now with the introduction of smartphone technology many companies are
simplifying their logos down to a single logo mark purely for mobile devices so
when designing a logo do you think about this and do keep it in mind
so still keeping within the subject of branding it is a good idea to note that
an extension of a brand can be used in lying the graphic design trend however
the brand itself should still remain firm in the aesthetics of the art style
one recent trend to be incorporated into branding has been custom illustrations
or custom icons now using illustrations on say an advertising campaign or on a
brand's website design you kind of get to see their personalities represented
in a design and after all modern consumers in today's age don't want to
buy a product or service from a nameless corporation today's consumers want to
build a real connection with their favorite brands and cust
administration's is a really neat way to be doing this I'm sure you've seen the
mid-century art style of illustrations in some of your favorite websites over
the last year or so one that springs to mind for me is free big and they've
heavily used this on their websites and their promotional design work but yeah
that's not their brand identity and it is important to distinguish between the
two another heavy hitter so far in 2019 and also going back in 2018 has been
isometric design now again many web sites have been using this on their
designs and I feel the artwork for a website is easier to interchange over
time than an entire brand it's also more widely accepted to be doing but yet the
website should still incorporate a brand identity so things like the color
palettes the typeface choice their layouts and all these things should
remain in line with the brand itself but you can experiment with the design
trends in certain areas of the web sites and this is where knowing the function
of a design comes into play
what you really need to take away from today's video is that you should always
keep in mind who you're designing something for it's for a clients and
it's not for yourself guys the best design meets our clients and needs and
leaves the designers ego way out of the equation at the very start of the
project take onboard the brief and everything it demonstrates to you and
keep in mind the function of your design and then you can contemplate whether or
not a design trend can be used in some way or another or even if it should be
design will continue to evolve and trends will come and go but constantly
honing your ability to prove a great work based on exactly what specific
clients need and require it's probably one of the most valuable things that you
can have in your toolbox as a graphic designer
so there is today's video on design trends and if they're important or not
what are your views on graphic design trends and what trends are you really
liking at the moment in 2019 if you want to keep boosting your skills and your
awareness as a graphic designer make sure to subscribe to my channel for
weekly graph design content and of course until next time design your
future today peace