My Favourite Graphic Design Trends for 2024 so far

From nostalgia warmth to Hyper - surrealism and more, discover the most popular tendencies to level up your creative projects this year.

As a graphic designer, having an awareness of trends will allow you to better appeal to those who encounter your designs, whether it be on screen or in the real world. It’ll also help you to understand how you can upgrade your current style to feel more modern, fresh, and new.

Graphic designers should be aware of trends, but they shouldn’t strictly follow them. Trends come and go. They’re like fads, and when you get too caught up in fads, you might find yourself getting caught up in them as opposed to trying to solve real problems for your clients.

Let’s take a look at how businesses are using these design trends, and discover how to make them work for your own branding in 2024.

Maximalism:

Maximalism and its subsets, like brutalism and anti-design, are making a strong comeback. Maximalism is characterized by vibrant colours, lavish textures, intricate patterns, and a lack of white space; it encourages designers to embrace the mantra of “more is more.”. Gone are the days of the sharp borders around graphics and text and images staying in their defined areas; maximalism encourages the use of every bit of space possible, resulting in an immersive experience for the viewer. These styles often defy conventional design rules, focusing on catching attention rather than legibility. This trend is popular for posters, streetwear apparel, web design elements, and social media posts. Despite its busy appearance, these designs often follow a grid structure.

Neo-Mixed Media

Mixed media is nothing new.

Simply put, it refers to a combination of media to create something altogether different than the sum of its parts. These days, we’re mixing and matching all over the place. With each iteration, the effects are exponential, most recently leading to the rise of the multiverse, virtual reality, and augmented reality. Things that used to be distinct are blurred.

Reflected in the design front, it’s more and more common to combine not only simple elements (think, photo + text), but to combine multiple asset types, genres, media, and even dimensions. Animation is leading the way for intensely sensory experiences that jump off the page and blur the lines between design and reality. Practically speaking, this design trend is all about motion. Whether we’re stretching one genre or style to another or more literally, portraying physical movement through animation, we’re on the move.

Natural materials

Sustainability goes beyond simply selecting eco-friendly materials, it’s about infusing designs with a deep connection to nature. Graphic designers increasingly draw inspiration from the world’s organic beauty, crafting visuals that resonate with the serenity and authenticity of the great outdoors. From woodsy textures to recycled paper goodness, these eco-friendly gems are adding a touch of organic magic to everything from logos and packaging to websites and even fancy pants signage.

But why the sudden love for nature’s bounty, you ask? Well, it’s not just about the earthy vibes. It’s about embracing sustainability, reducing our environmental footprint, and creating designs that are as good for the planet as they are for the eye.

Bento box layout

This one is everywhere. You know those Japanese trays, used to serve separated mouthfuls of tasty morsels? It’s exactly that — but in design form. It revolves around the artful arrangement of boxes in varying sizes to house fragments of information or graphics.

This design approach finds its applications in diverse formats, from flyers and brochure layouts to digital, web and mobile design. The primary emphasis lies in establishing information and visual hierarchy, as well as structuring and organizing content to guide users or highlight specific elements. This style offers a dynamic way to showcase numerous elements in a small space.

It’s an experimental and expressive method akin to storytelling, where information is presented in snippets, similar to the experience of reading comics.

3D design

This exploration of the 3rd dimension has a general quirkiness and playfulness that’s allowing 3D design to make its comeback in a new and exciting shape. The broader direction of this trend is simply about having fun and not taking ourselves, or our designs, too seriously. The projects we’ve seen so far are (literal) head-spinners! This graphic design trend serves as a playful nod to the 2000 era of bubblegum pinks, blues and iridescent color schemes. It harnesses nostalgia to help brands establish a heartfelt connection with their audience by crafting feel-good designs.

In the realm of inflatable 3D, bubbly fonts and shapes take center stage, creating a playful and bouncy design aesthetic that’s bound to leave a memorable impression.

Gradients

Gradients are making a bold comeback. This graphic design trend is all about seamlessly blending colors from one shade to another, creating mesmerizing transitions that add depth and dimension to designs. Gradients are versatile, lending themselves to a variety of applications, from backgrounds to typography and logos.

Gradients are the perfect way to spice up your backgrounds instead of going with a plain background color. The visual of a gradient is so strong and recognizable that it can even be a main element in your brand identity. So, whether it’s a subtle fade or a striking color shift, expect to see gradients adding an extra layer of visual intrigue to design projects in the year ahead.

Nostalgic Warmth

Remember the 90s and Y2K? Gen Zs do, and they’ve brought those vibes back to life with a twist. Whether seen in graphic design, interior design, technology, fashion, or the American obsession with thrifting, our culture is celebrating and venerating our experienced history. Because of nostalgia, the world of graphic design celebrates popular and iconic styles from the 1950’s onward. Whether bubbly, energetic typefaces, a rebirth of film photography, “worn-out” textures, or retro color palettes, this trend is quite broad as it doesn’t focus on one style of design. This nostalgic trend adds a touch of warmth and familiarity to modern visuals.

The trend toward nostalgia, however, isn’t as simple as it sounds. We like the idea of the past, yet want it on our own terms. We can’t shake our cultural addiction to progress, so we take nostalgic elements we like and merge them with futuristic concepts, resulting in Retrofuturism.

Doodles

Doodles are hand-drawn, often whimsical, drawings that do not follow the rules of graphic designing; that’s why they are so personal. Hence, doodles are a great way to add a personal touch to your designs and authentically deliver your brand’s message.

This trend reflects the charm of handcrafted graphic design styles in a digital era, emphasizing the spontaneity and engagement of design. With AI rising high in the design arena, it is important, not to leave the human touch in the designs. Because sometimes, a simple doodle can speak volumes and touch millions of hearts, where no algorithms work.

Fluorized

Vibrant colors like fluorescent yellows, blues, oranges, and greens are taking center stage, making designs stand out in a fresh, modern way. The use of striking colors is all the rage now, so in 2024, it’s all about letting your designs speak loudly and vividly, using colors to tell powerful visual stories that leave a memorable mark.

Serif Fonts

Serif fonts are a graphic design trend that features classic and timeless font choices like Times New Roman, Didot, and Garamond, along with other typefaces that have a polished look and excellent readability. Although the Serif font trend seems to situate itself at the opposite end of the spectrum from the dynamic type trend, it’s simply a case of “different strokes for different folks.”

The small decorative strokes adorning the end of the letters are said to help guide the reader’s eye along a line of text, which is a win in terms of clear communication and accessibility. Serif fonts have always been a safe option for brands that want their messaging to communicate trust and reliability.

Pixels

How to emphasize your brand is modern, innovative, and maybe even a bit futuristic? Maybe not the most innovative way of doing this but the use of pixels is something we’re seeing more and more of nowadays. These tiny, square building blocks of design are taking on a new life and purpose, offering a unique blend of nostalgia and modernity. The art of using pixels is no longer confined to retro video games as it’s now a creative choice for web design, animation, illustration, and branding.

Wrapping up: 2024’s favorite design trends

There you have it! Get ahead of the curve and start thinking about how you can incorporate these trends into your own work. You can get back to this guide for visual reference to get inspired, to experiment with new styles or to learn the basics about new design trends. Feel free to share it with your designer friends or clients to get them inspired as well.

Rooting for you to become a trendsetter!