8 Design Trends To Watch For In 2020

8 Design Trends to Watch in 2020



With an official goodbye to 2019, it's time to glance through the design trends that will invade 2020 and become indispensable artistic touches. While 2019 had some new trends setting the market on fire, 2020 is all about contrast: blending traditional rules of design with modern ones. Let's take a closer look at what each notable design trend has in store for both the industry players and the common man this year:

1. Vibrant and Saturated Color Schemes

The year 2019 witnessed brands following the tradition where they focused on using a few colors across various facets of their design. This helped them stand out individually in the world, on social media and other places online. But this design "tradition" is currently transforming in 2020 with companies like Kruger and UberEats re-branding, using a plethora of color schemes. There shall be an increase in the levels of color experimentation with double exposure, gradients, and photo saturation.

2. Gradient Oriented Designs

This year, color gradients and transitions will be literal dominants - from web designing trends to graphic designing trends - none shall be spared. They shall appear as if we just never stepped out of the 90s era. Following the footsteps of Instagram, brands like Mixpanel, Skype and Stripe have adopted the trend of using multiple such gradient colors thereby enhancing their creative freedom.

3. Thoughtful Animations

Animations, this year, shall prove to be thoughtful movements with intention, created to delight and initiate user engagement for a credible communication approach. Graphics integrated to work with scrolling, navigation or as the focal point of various brand websites can be interesting as well as a revolutionizing design aspect. Smaller animations shall be the primary focus leaving behind the traditional particle ones behind.

4. Individualistic Typographic Choices

Distinctive typography is undoubtedly going to be a powerful visual tool this calendar year. Its ability to empower a brand, establish its personality, evoke emotion and set the tone on different sources of communication designs is in itself a landmark trend. Moving ahead in 2020, more and more companies like Adobe and Adidas shall be turning to big, bold typography to seamlessly blend with gradients, animations and unique color usage to increase their visibility.

5. Asymmetrical Design Layouts

One of the trends that will continue to grow strong in 2020 and stand out in the sea of organized brands are asymmetrical and atypical 'broken' layouts that are unique, distinctive and exploratory. Many popular big brands like Bloomberg are adopting this trend hitting the market with an aggressive design strategy. An increase in standardization of diverse forms of design characterized by such blunt symmetry-defying visuals shall be seen outdoing the other trends this year.

6. Unconventional Color Usage

Bold and intense color usage will be a definite driving force behind several design trends this year. From digital billboards to print ads to TV commercials, all shall observe the incorporation of some risky colors to their color palettes. Being glued to the universal corporate blue palette isn't going to let brands make through this year. Minimalism and neutral color schemes are already on the path to becoming obsolete. Instead, vibrant and unusual colors shall take over. Something new and exciting is sure to govern the competitive space with brands like Bleacher Report, Fast Company and several others opting for this trend.

7. Customized Illustrations

Modernized ways to visually establish themselves are what the brands are looking at this fiscal year. And what's better than customized design icons and illustrations to achieve this? Although this trend was introduced previous year, these illustrations shall become more unprecedented in 2020, as the big names look to differentiate themselves even more. People are in search of authenticity in all aspects of the design field and this delivers justice to the idea with companies like Discord and MailChimp adopting it. The onset of 2020 brings forward designers making their own rules that can be identified with the rise of versatile illustrations and handmade icons.

8. Cinemagraphs

Belonging to the same design family as GIFs, cinemagraphs are frozen forms of videos or GIFs, except for a minuscule area of slight or faint movement that runs on a continuous loop. These might not seem much but unquestionably add a one-of-its-kind charm that attracts eyeballs. Be it marketing or design work, these can be used in all. Using cinemagraphs has become a popular way to add visual interest to the otherwise static form of designs.

Which designs do you see dominating 2020? Please share your views and comment below.