Graphic design trends you can apply to your business in 2023

The significance of graphics design in our contemporary world and day-to-day dealing can never be overemphasized. The world is moving at such a fast pace that businesses that fail to keep up with the emerging trends and technologies fall out of the race to growth and diversity.

The recent happenings in the world with the pandemic and global unrest have immensely accelerated the digitization of brands and the integration of graphic design into brand development and management.

Lending credence to the popular saying that “pictures speak louder than words,” so many brands have incorporated creative design in their business strategy to showcase their values, cultures, and solutions in a way that evokes the interest of their audience to build relationships with customers.

With all these developments, what does 2023 have in store for the graphics design industry? And How can businesses leverage this for their success in 2023? This guide will give you a walkthrough of the 2023 graphics design trends and how you can apply them to your business.

Image: Medium

Almost every industry has experienced technological advancement in areas of its operations, product or service delivery, and customer relationship management. The growing digitization of global businesses has transformed how businesses and customers interact and communicate with each other. Because many customers are now more aware of their pain points and how they can solve them, businesses have to go the extra mile to satisfy customers’ needs without any lapses.

The drastic shift of business operation from traditional to digital and the existence of a wide range of advanced digital technologies like Virtual Reality (VR) headsets, Augmented Reality (AR), sophisticated smartphones, smartwatches, etc., are used to view and access the designs, requires that graphics design is flexible and adaptive to work across all touchpoints - digital and traditional.

Image: Usersnap

It is not new that the majority of business activities and operations are carried out remotely due to the pandemic. People have gone through so much in the past few years with the wars, Covid 19, and other personal issues that businesses see the need to create emotion-filled designs with colors, illustrations, and images to arouse their customer's interest and connect with them on a deeper level.

Creative designs are now designed to get people’s reactions to the subject matter. Gone are the days when businesses use basic designs with abstract ideas and are straightforward, nowadays, businesses add humor, characters, attention-grabbing colors, and relatable texts to evoke the emotions of their customers and compel them to react to the design. Check the example below:

In the past when we talk about 2D and 3D designs, we mostly discuss them individually, however, the recent developments in the creative design industry have seen the growing combination of 2D and 3D elements in a design.

In their separate forms, 2D designs are used to create and edit technical drawings and illustrate designs while 3D modeling is used to create eye-catching designs that would ordinarily be difficult to achieve with basic 2D designs alone. The recent trend of combining 2D and 3D designs adds 2D lines and 3D models to create stunning designs and improve their accuracy.

Image: Campaign

Let’s face it, the use of common fonts - serifs and san-serifs in logos and designs has dominated the graphics design industry for so long now and the creative community is calling for diversity in the use of fonts in designs.

In a bid to break away from the “consistency and uniformity” of fonts mostly used in branding and creative design projects, hundreds of creatives from all over the world joined hands in celebration of individual backgrounds, cultural diversity, and extensive experiences to contribute unique letters to create the world’s most diverse typeface - Diversity Fonts.”

Image: UserGuiding

The concept of user experience has gained more prominence in recent times with more businesses and graphic designers focusing more on creating designs that appeal, are useful, and are easily accessible to customers and the target market.

In 2023, we are beginning to see more graphics designs personalizing the messages and customer interaction in diverse ways. Judging by how informed customers are and the high competitive scope of modern businesses, many companies, and graphics designers are now so passionate about customers’ experience with their designs that they include and address different viewpoints in the designs.

Image: The Guardian

Y2K Aesthetics is the use of popular bright, bling, obnoxious colors, and kitsch textures like faux fur, metallics, and plastic to create fun, grungy, and futuristic styles. They are mostly used to trigger feelings of nostalgia among audiences, followers, and customers to connect with them on a personal level.

A lot of businesses and designers are adding Y2K aesthetics into graphics design to create expressive, engaging, and purposeful designs.

Image: Uxdesign

The issue of climate change and global warming are increasingly becoming more and more relevant in contemporary discourse. The consciousness and growing awareness of these issues have greatly influenced brands’ and graphic designers’ stance on sustainability.

Eco-friendly and sustainable designs aim to reduce the negative effect of product packaging and non-recyclables on the environment, people’s health, and general wellbeing. Graphics designers in 2023 now focus on creating designs that reduce the use and consumption of non-renewable packing materials to minimize waste and create a healthy environment.

Image: Behance

One of the most common graphic design trends among designers this 2023 is the use of friendlier tones to connect with customers and target audiences across various platforms. Under this trend, designers use elements - typography, color, shapes, lines, textures, etc., characters, illustrations, Gifs, etc., to improve emotional connection and communication.

To incorporate this in your designs, try to be more informal, less strict, and uptight, and include a sense of humor in your graphics copy to achieve a mutual connection with your customers.

Image: Kiyoshi

Ukiyo-e is a form of Japanese art widely used in woodblock prints and paintings of beautiful Japanese women, wrestlers, and actors between the 17th and 19th centuries.

Tapping inspirations from the old-centuries Ukiyo-e prints and paintings, graphics designers and artists create minimalist designs that feel comfortable, and rougher around the edges to create a little bit of nostalgia.

Image: Behance

The world is changing so fast and people are becoming more socially active and involved in topics of their interest. As a result, forward-thinking and success-driven organizations must be socially responsible and involved in topical issues of global interests.

In line with this trend, businesses must create designs that portray their social stance on topical issues. You can’t afford to stay on the fence with your designs, you must show your audience your viewpoint on critical social issues like inclusivity and diversity, climate change, unemployment, food, national security, etc.

Image: Behance

Brutalism or Antidesign in graphics design is a style with a raw, haphazard, and unadorned outlook. They are generally regarded as honest daring and expressive. Brutalist designers create non-functional and unclear with chaotic outlook, rowdy colors, and disruptive fonts.

Brutalist designs are bright, colorful, attractive, and shaped designs used to give fresh look to designs and gain people’s attention.

Image: Behance

Humans are generally attracted to shiny, attractive, and organized designs. Holography is the structured process of creating three-dimensional images by using coherent light from a laser to illuminate a scene. Designers in 2023 create holograms - shimmering, fluid-like effects to attract the attention of customers and create a hypnotizing effect.

Neon Gradients are regarded as one of the most compelling visual elements used to transform the look and feel of design - give it a modern and powerful look.

Fonts are critical to creating a visually appealing outlook for your brand designs, however, limit the number of fonts that you use to avoid creating a busy and ugly design.

Ensure you always adjust the size and height of your design texts to fit the shape and look perfect on your design.

Image: SeekPNG

A proven way to make your design attractive and compelling is by adding contrasting fonts to light up your design.

Image: Vandelay Design

As the popular saying goes, “variety is the spice of life.” Hence when choosing your design elements, don't be scared to choose large sizes - as the good application of sizes in designs helps to attract more attention to the design.

Your text needs to breathe and to achieve this, add personal space in between the texts to improve its readability and comprehension.

There is a reason they say opposites attract. Similarly, add contrasting colors to your designs to arouse interest and capture people’s attention to the design.

Avoid jampacking texts and elements in your designs and make good use of white space to create a modern and classy outlook that helps you get your message across properly.

Consistency is a crucial ingredient for success in your designs. Ensure you keep your designs consistent across all platforms to improve customer engagement with the designs.

Icons are your best friend when creating visually compelling designs. Use them accordingly throughout your designs.

Your customers and target audience are the lifelines of your business. Ensure that when you create designs, you consider what’s going to favor and interest them and not you. Remember that you are not the main focus of attention but your customers are.

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