The 9 Ultimate Graphic Design Trends In 2018

When it comes to design, although 2017 was a great year, we expect 2018 to be even greater. I’d rather not jump to conclusions right away but believe me; it’s going to be a wild year! And it’s going to inspire us into achieving great things as 2018 will be all about the freedom of expression, about bringing back to life old styles and trends and of course, about dealing with unexpected things as well.

We’re already accustomed with the unexpected, we’re pleased to see old styles coming back to life and we love to let our imagination take us to new highs, conquer new horizons, and contribute to the immense pool of creativity that the liberty of expression allows us to share with the rest of the world. Before getting back to work, however, I invite you all to take a quick look together at some of the most interesting trends we expect to see coming forth during this year.

Let’s enjoy them together:

1. The “Glitch” Effect

Back in the day, no designer would have thought that a “glitch” effect will someday become a trend in this industry. If you would have handed them a similar image, they‘d probably told you that either the photographer was bad, or that the photo has been somehow deteriorated. Nevertheless, anybody would have advice you to avoid such mistakes and maybe, to take a few photography lessons from a professional photographer.

Fast forward to 2018 and we see the same mistake evolving into one of the year’s major trends in graphic design. It has now become a desirable effect, a bohemian reflection of the word “modern”.

Here’s how to create the glitch effect in Photoshop.

2. Double Exposure

Photographers and graphic designer have been working with double exposed images for decades. I’ve seen numerous designs and art exhibits featuring double exposed photographs that came close to what I believed to be perfection in visual imagery. I have also seen designs based on this effect that were nowhere near what they were aiming towards. Double exposure is still a major trend in 2018 but tread softly on this one. It really needs a great eye for details in order to make it work. If you manage to do it, however, you’ll get a great combination of imagination, perspective and in some cases, illusion.

3. Cropped Typography

Typography is and always was an important part of graphic design. Great typography can add style and effect to a banner, a flyer or a poster. A bad choice in fonts however, can ruin an entire design.

When it comes to adding a great visual effect to your copy texts, my mind goes to one of the hottest trends of 2017 that will also be present with us during this year. It’s called cropped typography and it requires some skills to do it without losing in readability. However, if you manage to include it in your designs successfully, you will get them the artistic touch sometimes your clients will ask for, through simplicity and beauty.

4. Chaotic Typography

There’s a certain amount of chaos in our apparently ordered lives. On one hand, we have the chaotic lifestyle of the modern city, on the other hand, the chaos of the modern worker, the constant changes technology triggers in our lives and so on. It would have been sad not to bring some of this chaos into our graphic designs as well. Fortunately, 2018 brings forth a new interesting trend that adds an artistic touch to our designs through chaotic typography.

5. Typography as Real Life Elements

Words have the power to bring ideas and concepts to life. Therefore, why not animating instead the words themselves, through human interaction? Yes, the following images are suggestive for yet another trend I expect to be popular in 2018. Expect to see more of this during the following months.

6. Color Transitions

We got used with color transitions in the past few years. It was a huge and popular trend designers favored until 2007 or so, when everybody seemed to embrace the idea of flat designs. Well, in 2018 I expect to see transitions coming back to life and we can already see the trend developing with iOS, Stripe and Instagram.

7. Illustration over Photos

Nobody likes plain photos. They’re boring. And I believe that there is no designer who did not, at one point, receive one boring photo to work with. Of course, everybody expect you to do miracles with it. You are a designer, isn’t it? You can do it.

Well, if you find the right inspiration, nothing’s impossible. A boring photo can become a piece of art with an artistic touch and the following examples may help you find that inspiration.

This trend combines photos with digital drawings and transforms everyday images into valuable pieces of content, suitable for banners, posters or advertisements.

8. Bold Typography

There are some companies that do not need special artistic designs in order to market their brands. You’d think that this is only available for major brands, such as Microsoft, Google or YouTube but remember the fact that they were not always as big as they are now. Their designs were always based on simple, bold typographies, and yet, they looked powerful and marketable right from the start. Can this continue to be a major trend in 2018 as well?

Well, it can. All you need is to find the right fonts, pair them with the right colors and of course, the right brand.

9. Metallic Textures

If until recently we’ve seen metallic elements as a rather fashion related trend, now, they will step down from the catwalk right into our graphic designs. It’s expected that in 2018 and maybe even the following years, we’ll see more metallic elements incorporated into our typographies and 3D compositions as well. They add style to basic designs and therefore, a positive outcome to even  the most otherwise boring visuals that are going to be created from now on.

Conclusion

The digital graphic design is a vast industry that is connected to almost any other industry of today’s economic environment. Each year comes with new trends and each graphical designer chooses whether or not to follow them or come up with something new instead. The examples I chose to share with you today will nevertheless serve as inspiration for the following months and why not, to help you create some of your best designs as well.

Are there any other trends expected to come forth in 2018 that you know about? What do you think about this list?