The covid-19 pandemic put everything on hold with uncertainty and no resume date in mind for anyone. As a result, advertisers stalled all the campaigns. Initially, digital advertising was at a disadvantage as it was closely working with print media most of the time. But, soon, the digital world took to storm.
The pandemic caused all physical stores owners to create online stores, with the destination skyrocketing profits. In addition, it led the graphic design industry to boom in a way no one could imagine. We used modern designs and the latest trends in graphic design to create websites, online brochures, apps, and more. As a result, almost everything is available for sale online, and all businesses focus on online advertisements and website footfalls.
Table of Contents
- How has the pandemic played a crucial role in the graphic design world?
- Why are Professional Graphic Designers Irreplaceable In New Design Trends?
- Vintage Logo Design
- Flexible Web Design
- Magnified Exposure
- Motion Graphic Design
- Just GIF It!
- Uncommon layouts
- Quotes
- Social Screen Capture
- Pop Art Design
- Destination Branding
- Authenticity
- Conclusion
How has the pandemic played a crucial role in the graphic design world?
The pandemic has pushed graphic designers to think outside the box and push the boundaries. As a result, the stereotypes in beauty ads or other powerful business ads have ceased to exist. Instead, people believe in inclusivity and authenticity. There is zero tolerance for any discrimination in design.
In today’s day and age, graphic design is not just a luxury but a must-have for all businesses. As a result, designers play a significant part in attracting customers to websites and buying products. The main idea is to focus on the artistic taste of the brand, grab eyeballs and skyrocket profits. So must be daring and take risks in merging different design elements and trying to convey the message most attractively. People feel nostalgic and want to return to the pre-pandemic era. They want to feel optimistic, lively, and hopeful. So graphic designers should make colour choices accordingly. The themes should also be related to similar emotions.
Many people lost their jobs, so they must rethink their lifestyles and careers. So the designs should be inspiring and hopeful. These emotions will attract more consumers as people relate to these products pitching the most. During the pandemic, people got used to super short visuals. Think of the reels. Hence, they quickly become bored with what they have already seen. It brings in new trends in design. Graphic designers need to upskill themselves continuously to stay relevant and in trend.
Social Media Influencing Modern Design Trends In E-Commerce World
Post-pandemic, the world witnessed social media in a whole new way. It wasn’t only for connecting with people. Social media and video marketing is now a powerful advertising medium for several e-commerce businesses. By imposing tools like Sales Navigator to export leads, businesses can efficiently cultivate cold leads into regular customers. With just one click, whether on a phone or laptop, these leads are directed to the website, significantly boosting foot traffic and fostering long-term customer relationships. It increased immense opportunities in the graphic design world. Online shopping for anything is highly flexible, less time-consuming, and economical as you can shop from home or anywhere and get free delivery most of the time.
Why are Professional Graphic Designers Irreplaceable In New Design Trends?
As discussed earlier, social media and e-commerce websites are going hand in hand post-pandemic. Therefore, professional graphic designers are crucial in top-notch advertising. They have a thorough insight into the history of graphic design and keep up with the latest trends of it. As a result, they are in sync with what’s hot in graphics and create eye-catching designs that attract consumers, and the latter becomes aware of the brands and associated with them, turning them into consumers. As per Finances Online,
” The size of the global graphic design market is predicted to reach $45.8 billion.”
New Design Trends Shaped By Pandemic
The pandemic has evolved graphic design to a whole new level. New trends, modern designs, and exciting graphics shape the thriving advertising industry. The change is evident in colours, patterns, textures, typography, design, and animation. Even the editing styles have changed for the same. As a result, a large number of animation software programmes are emerging. Graphic designers are boldly experimenting with creativity and technology like never before.
Let’s have a look at the design trends.
Vintage Logo Design
The 1960s was a time of heavenly consumerism. The vintage designs of the time relied on royal stamps, seals, and fancy scrolls. These designs had a beautiful richness and depth to them, screaming luxury. Just as we relate antique to solid quality, these logos symbolize quality, trust, and distinctiveness. The latest trend in design is to move forward with the elements of the past. The issue with trends is that they keep on losing novelty from time to time. It makes the graphic designers keep going backward, maybe back to the 15th century, to search for inspiration and mix them with modern technology and styles.
Flexible Web Design
Post pandemic era is seeing the massive work-from-home culture on the rise. As a result, people shift their digital devices to the comfort of their homes and the nature of work. Hence, the website that looks good on the computer might not look good on a laptop, tabs, or mobile phone. As a result, web designing has become tricky, and one needs to stay updated and keep all gadgets in mind while designing.
Things one needs to be mindful of while creating a flexible web design
- HTML templates that are mobile friendly
- Identical look and feel on all devices
- Assess how the elements appear
The same goes for the case of designing your brand logo. There must be uniformity in its appearance. The brand logo must be redesigned to be more flexible and responsive throughout all devices.
Magnified Exposure
Magnified exposure has become a trend of late, and rightly so. However, the prime reason behind this pattern is that it implants a luxurious look in the product images. Intense exposure applies to industries like fashion, beauty, lifestyle, automobiles, etc. Moreover, it is trendy in nature and wildlife photography as it profoundly impacts the image and resonates with style. Top businesses providing graphic design services swear by it.
Motion Graphic Design
Animation is a powerful way to grab eyeballs. However, a functional design is more engaging than a static one. Moreover, we are in a visual learning world, and incorporating movements in design will attract more attention in modern times. Remember how we used to love when our teachers used to show videos in class to teach something, and we would sit back and relax and learn? Therefore, this technique applies to industries like education, corporate presentations, entertainment, advertising, films, etc.
How do brands benefit from motion graphics?
- Interesting crisp storytelling tool
- Passive relaxing experience
- Filtered information to understand easily
- Explain the whole idea in just a few seconds.
This modern design technique will also spread to other industries because the outcome is entertaining for the viewers, making it profitable for the companies.
Just GIF It!
GIFs are enticing. They are known as cinemagraphs. It is challenging to look away from funny dog GIFs or human expression GIFs. GIFs were there in the recent past. However, it is getting increasingly popular and is now in our mobile phones, and we can reply through these already existing GIFs. We can also create GIFs to express ourselves. People resonate with GIFs so much that they send them straight away instead of using abbreviations anymore. By the 2030s, GIFs will become a recognized art form on billboards, websites, and all advertising platforms, not just on social media.
Uncommon layouts
There are millions of websites expecting to catch viewers’ attention. Hence one needs to be highly distinctive or uncommon in one’s website layout. However, an average individual spends at most ten seconds on a website to decide on a purchase and move on to the next one. So, having a unique layout is of utmost importance. Symmetrical designs for a website have been on trend for a long time, and now top companies are looking to experiment and reinvent their website design styles. Asymmetrical designs are on trend, and graphic designers constantly experiment with new styles and ideas that look attractive and become viral. Print designs are also going to the same changes. They remove cliches, unnecessary borders, and boring fonts and colours to appeal to their audiences. Splitting content is highly in fashion. The idea is to split two or more images with intricate designs and structures. Then, separate or mix texts and images to convey the message to the audience, where half of the page contains text and the other half images.
Six Trending design ideas for websites
- Asymmetrical layout
- Split Screen Layout
- Magazine Layout
- Fullscreen image layout
- Horizontal Strips Layout
- F-shaped layout
Quotes
The pandemic saw a lot of layoffs. It made people feel stressed, anxious, depressed, and lonely. It was difficult for many people to reach out and seek help. Since people are always on their mobile or laptop, they watch videos or see images that convey something inspirational and make them feel at ease. Previously quotes were overused and fizzled out of people’s minds as they lost interest. The pandemic has renewed people’s interest in motivational and inspirational quotes. Businesses have taken the opportunity to use such quotes to make their products look inspirational, and consumers are digging it. They educate people about their products by using winning quotes; they feel like a winner when they use them. Usually, the adverts include an aspirational individual with a quote.
Social Screen Capture
As discussed previously, social media is not just a place for virtually connecting anymore, post the pandemic. Instead, it is a place to generate massive profits for all businesses out in the market. The announcements first happen on social media platforms for any product launch or new business launch. The screenshot of the announcement made on Twitter is posted on Instagram and Linkedin. This design element is not just a simple screenshot. It is a strategy to create awareness and bring consumers from multiple social media platforms together to increase the number of followers and footfalls on the website. It is an exciting trend for building brands, creating hashtags for any contest, increasing referrals, and minting profits.
Pop Art Design
Reading comics online was one of my favourite things during the pandemic. The pop-art design glued me to the screen and made me read more. Of course, pop art was always there, but it rose to shine, especially post-pandemic. Graphic designers often incorporate grainy colours and heavy inks in their post-pandemic designs. Web designers follow this trend by playing with shapes, textures, and slanting panels to create the required drama and movement feel.
Trending Themes for Pop Art in your Graphic Design
- Celebrity and fashion
- Mass media
- Ordinary objects
- Collage
- Overlayed images
- Sharp and intense colour
Destination Branding
Travelling is one thing many of us missed during the two years of the pandemic. The tourism industry soared when people could travel again, post-pandemic. They wanted to promote travelling to make up for all the losses they had seen in the two years; as a result, the travel industry collaborated with several brands. The logos have names of cities or districts and even stations. In addition, brands are holding contests to promote travelling. There are several marketing communications based on this design trend. We can see popular brands putting their enormous digital banners at the prime locations of famous cities. It is also a part of destination branding. Several tourists worldwide will visit the place and see the digital hoardings, and there is another clever brand awareness strategy.
Authenticity
The pandemic hit us more brutally than anyone could have ever thought. But one thing that it taught us is to be authentic. As a result, families, and friends got together more and appreciated each other’s company. Such emotions did not miss out on any professional graphic designer’s eye. As a result, unfiltered authentic human images on websites and brand marketing are rising to shine. Hence products that showcase human images connect more with the audience making the product seem more reliable.
Conclusion
As rightly said,
“When times are good, you should advertise
When times are not good, you must advertise.”- Anonymous.
Combining your uniqueness with the above design trends will increase consumer engagement and make you lead in the business. So, follow the above and get started on your creatives now to stay at the top of your game.