With the turn of the year, every industry looks to the future, focusing on the upcoming trends of the next twelve months. The graphic design industry is no different, and just like any other sector, it’s important to preempt the changes in the popularity of certain design aspects. 

The year 2024 promises to be a canvas painted with vibrant colours and bold strokes of creativity. Keep reading to discover our favourite upcoming graphic design trends of 2024, setting the stage for a year where playfulness, bold minimalism, and bespoke creations take centre stage.

Playfulness

Setting the tone for our list of graphic design trends to look out for in 2024 is playfulness, which is all about using vibrant colours and simple graphics to evoke a sense of fun. We can expect to see this become particularly popular in industries which have traditionally been more serious, such as banks. This trend will often come hand-in-hand with frank, honest phrasing - for a lot of these businesses, the hope is to build trust with younger generations who value transparency and see right through corporate jargon.

Barbie Pink

As soon as the Barbie movie came out in July 2023, graphic designers everywhere knew they’d be seeing a huge uptick in the use of this iconic pink. As a colour, pink ties in perfectly with the playfulness trend we’re expecting to see more of in 2024 - it’s often associated with youthfulness and affection. Whilst pink is most often used by brands in the fashion, beauty and lifestyle industries, the popularity of the Barbie movie means we should expect to see other industries dipping their toes into this charming colour.

Bold Minimalism

Once again, we can expect minimalism to continue as a popular graphic design trend in the new year. Minimalism in graphic design is all about simple, uncluttered design with lots of white space, a limited number of colours, and simple typography. Despite - or perhaps because of - the style’s uncomplicated nature, it endures year on year, becoming a vehicle for showcasing the evolution of graphic design. This year, it’s all about big, bold types, vibrant colours, and clear messaging.

Serif Fonts

Have you heard of the ‘Sans Serif Invasion’? There’s been a lot of discussion in the last couple of years as to whether or not the popularity of the typeface classification in branding is causing brands to become indistinguishable from one another. Choosing an overused sans serif font such as Helvetica is a graphic design trend you should probably avoid - and the now increasing popularity of serif fonts is a direct response to this.

3D and Motion Graphics

3D design and motion graphics have both been up-and-coming trends for a while now, but until recently, they’ve been largely inaccessible to the average graphic designer. The software (and hardware - try running Cinema 4D on a £300 HP laptop) was expensive to acquire and time consuming to learn. Now, tools like Blender are becoming more popular - meaning we can expect to see a lot more 3D designs in 2024.

Bespoke Illustrations

The last few years have seen a rise in the use of illustrations in branding and marketing materials as a whole. There’s a huge range of premade doodles and drawings available, especially from design tools such as Canva. However, as these elements are used more and more, they’re losing their individuality - meaning brands who use them struggle to differentiate themselves from their competition. This is where the idea of bespoke illustrations come in: a set of elements in a unique style which have been created specifically for your brand.

Custom Type

Custom fonts are another way brands will be setting themselves apart from the rest in 2024. There are hundreds of thousands of fonts available in the world, but there’s no guarantee the one you choose will be yours and yours only - unless you get one custom-made. Creating a font specifically for your brand gives you creative freedom over every little letter, as well as giving you full ownership over what the font represents. You can get to a point where consumers look at the font and know it’s yours, rather than having to fight half of the Fortune 500 brands for ownership of Helvetica.

Natural Materials

Nowadays, consumers are placing more and more importance on the sustainability of the brands they choose to buy from. In fact, 78% of consumers say that sustainability is important to them, and almost a third say they’re more likely to buy from companies who are committed to making their products more environmentally-friendly. Whilst products don’t necessarily need to use earthy colours like browns and greens in order to be sustainable (and the use of those colours doesn’t automatically mean they are sustainable) there is, nevertheless, a strong association between these natural materials and sustainability. In 2024, we can expect to see even more brands ditch the plastic and turn to natural alternatives.

Stickers

Playfulness strikes again with this next trend, which involves using small graphics to create the appearance of stickers. This gives the impression that a brand is down-to-earth and fun, rather than all business and no play. Once upon a time, physical stickers were all the rage (my sticker-covered GameBoy can attest to that). They went out of fashion, but the rise of social media also saw the rise of digital ‘stickers’, especially on platforms like Instagram. This graphic design trend for 2024 makes use of this to bring a bit of silliness back into brands.

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