What do you feel when you hear the word “trend?” Excitement, frustration, annoyance? Does the word trigger you? I wholeheartedly admit it causes discomfort for me. I prefer to look at them as patterns not trends. Design patterns have a cyclical nature about them. We see patterns emerge, proliferate, disappear, re-emerge slightly differently, and begin the cycle again.
Me: “Pete and Repeat were sitting on a fence. Pete fell off. Who’s left?”
You: “Repeat.”
Me: “Pete and Repeat were sitting on a fence. Pete fell off. Who’s left?”
You: “Ha Ha”
Brand visual patterns ebb and flow throughout our human visual history. I love observing these patterns and trying to make sense of what it is that causes them to re-emerge, change, and so on. The visual patterns I see daily and peak my interest this year are:
SIMPLIFIED LOGOS
This trend excites me! I’m all about distilling logos to their simplest form. Subtle line art is re-emerging and I’m all in on it. This pattern is about refining images to their most basic line shapes.
Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated. -Paul Rand
Volvo’s new logo is a great example of the simplification in the market.
Volvo recently took this route with their brand identity. Simplified brand identities are my absolute favorite. When designing, I love taking an idea and flipping it around in my head and sketchbook until it is refined down to it’s core.
Minimalism also lends well to animated logos. Eye catching animated logos that tell a story with just a few dots and lines are becoming popular. The movement of the animation has a way of stopping our doom scrolling on social media.
HAND DRAWN (Doodled)
Sketches done with freeform drawing and unique shapes are making a comeback. The informal nature of these brand identities lean hard on the more humanistic approach to their target markets. This logo I designed for Love Notes, a yard sign company, illustrates a recent hand drawn approach to brand design. Hand drawn type opens up a world of possibilities and adds a familiar human tone to brand identities.
WORDMARKS WITH EXPERIMENTAL FONTS
Experimental type is all the rage! Serifed fonts used to be popular, but now lowercase san-serif fonts are making more of an appearance. As shown below I recently rebranded Moonthlies using a lowercase humanist typeface, sometimes known as old-style or Venetian. Humanist typefaces are inspired by traditional Latin letterforms. Fonts in the humanist family are characterized by low contrast between thin and thick strokes, loose letter spacing, and wide counters, making them more legible for small-sized text. Humanist sans-serifs naturally pair well with Old Style serifs and both designs have a strong calligraphic feel that ties them together to be used in the packaging.
TALL LOGOS
This is a newly emerging trend. Personally I think it is becoming popular because of the round and square profile thumbnails that are prevalent now in the digital space. The format lends to tall brand identities being more visible. Polaris Talent’s brand logo as well as my own Jen Cloes Designs Logo are two examples of tall logos that work well in the digital world.
NEGATIVE SPACE
Negative space brand identities are high on my favorite’s list. The Fedex arrow logo will probably remain my favorite forever. The biggest drawback is you just cannot force them. But it is pure magic when it works. Steadfast Autoworx with its negative space wrenches works well. Brand recall goes up significantly. Once you see it, you just cannot unsee it.
NOSTALGIC RETRO
Vintage designs are definitely making a comeback. Whether you love or hate the trend there is no denying the major benefit of doing a throwback is highlighting the longevity of your business. Your company has to have been around a long time in order to be able to bring back a retro brand design.
SATURATED AND VIVID COLORS
I’ve always loved a well saturated photograph. I remember when my iphone first allowed me to easily toggle the saturation on a photo. It was the first time I felt like my photos matched what my eyes were seeing in a nature scene.
This trend lends towards layering of shapes and eye catching gradients. I designed Wings of Fire with vivid colors in mind.
If you are ready to redesign your brand identity adopting some of the current visual patterns. Click the link below to sign-up for a FREE Branding Consult with Jen, Owner of Jen Cloes Designs.
Check out my other blog post(s) with similar branding tips. Branding Mistakes
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