With 2018 drawing its last breaths, it’s time to look ahead and see what the graphic design trends of 2019 have in store.
Every year, as the months go by, we watch fashion and the cutting edge in graphic design evolve down several paths at once.
It’s never clear exactly where graphic design will take us, but with this article we’re going to try to shed some light on what the graphic design trends of 2019 will be.
Graphic design trends 2019
Glitch
For 2019 we’ll see effects like glitch on the rise and trending in graphic design.
Glitch is a visual effect that mimics a digitally corrupted or damaged file.
From there it gets applied to create content like photography, animated gifs and so on, but simulating a file that is digital, made of 1s and 0s, and corrupted.
The result is very interesting, contemporary and with an underground edge — perfect for bold, youthful designs.
Where?
- Web design
- Graphic design in general
- Illustration
- Advertising
- Publications
Ruined
Another effect similar to the previous one is the ruined effect.
Ruined had its brief moment during the 1970s, but next year it will be one of the graphic design trends.
Broken images, montages, elements folded into one another, content emerging directly out of breakage and destruction, in a clear metaphor for creation and for birth out of death.
Where?
- Web design
- Graphic design in general
- Illustration
- Advertising
- Publications
Colour channel
Colour channel will be another of the web design trends of 2019.
It’s about separating the channels that make up an image, and applying that technique not only in photography but to any kind of image and creation.
What’s more, this technique pairs with double exposures, which produces an attractive and distinctive result.
It’s a perfect way to convey feelings and sensations and bring them into our graphic design.
Where?
- Web design
- Graphic design in general
- Illustration
- Advertising
- Publications
Typography
It’s wonderful to watch type make a comeback: after a brilliant birth at the dawn of graphic design and its later decline, the moment has come to see this indispensable element rise from its ashes and reclaim the place that belongs to it.
We’re going to see designs with extra-large type, direct messages.
Type will become another visual element: it will bring text and form together.
All at once, to give us something new.
Special typefaces, created expressly for the project, wild, made by hand.
Depending on the kind of project, we’ll be witnessing one of the most appealing graphic design trends of 2019.
Where?
- Web design
- Graphic design in general
- Illustration
- Advertising
- Publications
- Logos
- Copy
- Brand identity
- Catalogues
An explosion of colour
This one speaks for itself, but let’s break it down anyway.
One of the graphic design trends of 2019 will be the return of unapologetic colour.
Bright colours will fill our designs and presentations.
Colours that speak of a very appealing year for graphic design and for our work.
Very eighties metallic colours that we’ll see combined with 3D elements.
And gradients — yes indeed, gradients are back!
Smooth colour transitions we’ll be moving through in image design, magazine covers and website design.
Where?
- Web design
- Graphic design in general
- Illustration
- Advertising
- Publications
- Copy
- Brand identity
- Catalogues
Illustration over photography
In keeping with the other points but no less important for it, illustration over photography appears on this list of graphic design trends for 2019.
Illustration over photography is what many of us did in the hairdresser’s waiting room with the fashion magazines and a biro.
Drawing a moustache on a celebrity’s face.
Well, it’s the same thing but with quality, graphic design training and rather more technique.
This is where we’ll see who’s who.
Where?
- Web design
- Graphic design in general
- Illustration
- Advertising
- Publications
- Catalogues
Conclusions:
Having listed all this, we can form a general picture of what the graphic design trends of 2019 will be.
Taken together it amounts to a return to the eighties, the retro era that for many was their youth, now reinvented with great judgement by all the young graphic designers and creatives of the moment.
They take the imagery of the era and carry it into today’s visual language.
All to give the public a look that’s very fresh and easy-going, full of life.
All that’s left now is to wait a few months and see which of these graphic design trends lands hardest and brings the most joy to the graphic design world.
