Graphic Design Trends for 2016

A Tale of Polar Opposites

The graphic design trends that we are seeing in 2016, are a tale of polar opposites. It’s illustration versus realism, and minimal versus bold. Here are Conveyance’s top ten graphic design trends to watch for 2016:

1. 2D Animation and Cinemagraphs – 2D animation is simply old-school animation - think Disney movies like Cinderella and Fantasia. Cinemagraphs are still photos with minor movements. The resulting picture comes in either GIF or video format and gives the illusion of movement – just enough to catch someone’s eye. These have been all over Facebook as of late.
2. Illustrations – Illustrations are extremely popular and vary from traditional to whimsical – with everything in between.
3. The New Retro – Mid-Century is out and the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s are in, with a definite emphasis on the latter two. Being unpopular is cool again – and the nerdier the better. Artists are taking iconic items like boom boxes and putting a modern spin on them with a clean, minimalistic approach.
4. Big, Bold Colors – Take the bright neon from the ‘80s and kick it up a notch. You’ll find neon everywhere, as well as other bold, saturated colors. If they are using color, you’ll notice it. (Take a look at our logo development blog to see the bright colorful palette our client selected.)
5. Geometric Shapes – Again with a nod to the ‘80s, geometric designs are popping up all over the place. This trend isn’t just taking over the web; you’ll see it in designs from wedding invitations to wrapping paper.
6. Material Design, aka Flat 2.0 – You can thank Google for the continued push for material design. It’s all about making the digital world look real. Shadows and lighting effects are being used for depth and movement. Material Design also tends to lean towards minimalism, with lots of white space and clean lines.
7. Card-based or Modular Layouts – This may seem like more of a web design trend, but it falls into the graphic design category, too. Cards and tiles create clean, geometric spaces to place content. Apple is still utilizing a modular layout on their homepage, and so is Dell.
8. Negative Space – A really cool trend this year is emphasizing the negative space in the design. You know how it works – you look at an image and see one thing, and then realize the negative space is showing another image altogether. These designs are so creative and unique; it will be interesting to see where they go in 2016.
9. Exciting Typography – It’s all about being daring, lively, and theatrical. The bigger and bolder, the better.
10. Minimal and Abstract – We’ve saved the biggest trend for last. Clean lines, white space, and abstract shapes are everywhere this year. Some of the abstracts remind us of the art from the ‘80s – go figure.

It’s hard to know what we’ll see when 2017 starts to knock on the door. All we know is that 2016 is the year of beautiful juxtapositions. We can’t wait to see what designs we come up with this year.

Conveyance Marketing Group is a marketing and web development company with a passion for delivering strategic, sustainable and affordable marketing and web solutions to start-ups and small businesses. Our service offerings include video, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), inbound marketing, branding, graphic design, logo design, advertising and web design. Our creativity is limitless, let us help accelerate the growth of your company! Contact us today for more information on how we can help you.