8 New Graphic Design Trends That Will Take Over 2017

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So we’re already into the middle of 2017, in case  you haven’t noticed. That means you probably have already broken one of  your New Year’s resolutions. Don’t worry, my resolution to get better  sleep has already been dashed. But one of my resolutions that I will  not be breaking is to become a better graphic designer in 2017. And  this is great news for you, because I will help you also become a better  designer in the process.  If you have read any of my other  articles, you’ll know that I am not a traditionally trained  graphic designer. I am, instead, a writer who enjoys design enough to  immerse myself in it and learn all that I can, using simple graphic  design tool to help me along the way. And that quest continues into this  new year.

 A great place to start is to see what  the graphic design world will look like this year, and what trends will  take it by storm. And we think that 2017 will reject some of the past  graphic design trends completely.  It is going to be an interesting year, to say the least. This guide will prepare you for those changes. 

Graphic Design Trends You Should Know for 2017:

1. Louder and Brighter Colors

Over the past few years, many tech  leaders used muted, safe and easy to digest colors. This was in an  attempt to create a very clean and controlled design scheme. It was  almost an attempt to show people that the sleek, functional future they  have seen in science fiction movies was already here.  But now that everyone and their mom have seen this design style work for Apple, the copycats have killed the power it once held. Now, in 2017, there will be a shift away from neutral colors like whites, grays and black, to bolder and brighter colors.  Some companies are already doing it and have been for a while, like the music wizards over at Spotify.  In fact, they are already leading the pack, using bold colors mixed  with professionally edited photos to create in-your-face designs.  This kind of color usage has become  part of their brand, which means that their images are instantly  recognizable. And when you are fighting for real estate on social feeds,  powerful branding like this will help you win 2017. Just because many companies will be  ditching their boring color schemes in 2017 doesn’t mean there needs to  be a color revolution in your company. Some companies will be adding  just a bit of color, and it will make all the difference. Using bold color accents will also  help many brands cling to their minimalist roots. By infusing bright  colors with traditional neutral backgrounds, companies can give their  branding a fresh new look without straying too far from what made them  great.  For example, we already saw this type of redesign from Instagram a few months ago.


This simple redesign helped bring  them into a whole new era and unified all of the different apps under  one color. And just like with Spotify, this type of bold color usage is  recognizable across the web. A large driving force behind the trend of bold and bright color usage in design comes from Google’s Material Design.  Their design language focuses on flat, organized, and intuitive design.  They use  “unexpected and vibrant” colors, as well as fonts and images  that are as functional as they are pleasing to the eye.

 Actually, a lot of the things that will be trending in 2017 are influenced by the adoption of the Material Design principles. We took their advice when designing this graphic to promote a new ebook. It has been an insanely popular featured image!

If you need some great examples of color palettes that fit this bold scheme, check out this article that helps you choose the best colors for your designs. Don’t be afraid to use colors that contrast starkly against one another.   

2. Bold Typography

In 2017, bold typography will also fight against the ever-dwindling attention spans of readers, and the saturation of content. Big and daring fonts will be used to grab the eye.

One of my favorite examples of this  would have to be Wired. They use a mix of fonts to emphasize individual  titles and establish a hierarchy of information on the page. Just take a look at some of the examples from their homepage below:

A great example of using in-your-face fonts to grab the reader’s  attention on social media comes from HubSpot. They make sure the text is  front and center, with the graphic used as support:

HubSpot know that the time we  allocate to digest a tweet is nearing zero each year. They combine  concise, punchy copy with bold fonts to capture your attention. Additionally, the shift to mobile and  extremely high definition screens will also increase the need for bold  fonts. Obviously, more and more people will be using their phones to get  content, and the way that content is presented will need to keep up.   

Want  to take your infographic design to the next level? Download our  interactive guide on The Dos and Don’ts of Infographic design!

Buffer uses strong headers in the body of their articles, not just at  the beginning, to give them a backbone and make it easier to read  across different devices. I would recommend using this approach to help  people navigate long reads, no matter the screen size.  We also took a similar approach, when creating this infographic template. Mixing bold font choices with interesting colors to create an eye-catching graphic:  

 

3. Google Fonts

I have been using Google Fonts for a  while now because they are so versatile. If I need to design one thing  online and then add it to my slide deck, I am confident the fonts will  work together. And they play nice with about every blog or site you  could build. Oh, and did I mention most of these  810 different fonts are free to use? Yeah, people like free. And they  like things that are insanely easy to use. Like this example that uses a mix of a few popular Google Fonts:  

 Some of our most popular fonts on Venngage are bold Google Fonts, like Roboto from above or Open Sans.    

4. Authentic Photos

As the amount of content created each  year continues to increase, the need for quality images has increased  as well. And to maximize the shelf life of some of these images, the  creators have had to make them as generic as possible.  The only problem is that the best  generic images get overused by everyone. If you have been active in tech  or marketing scene lately I am guessing you have seen the following  image:

It has been used in landing pages on,  blog headers, and even some Instagram posts. To be fair, I even used it  for one of the sites I was building a few years ago. But because of the  popularity of this image and other stock images like it, the  authenticity has plummeted.  The need for clean and perfect images in everything has only exasperated the problem as well. As reader seeing this image for the  hundredth time, I would think that the writer or creator does not care  about making their work original. So why should I read it? That is why you need to start using  authentic, original images that represent your brand. Stop using the  most popular images and start making some of your own.  I am guessing everyone on your team  has a camera phone in their pocket. Why aren’t you using them? Snap a  few photos of your office or some fun pictures of your logo and use  those instead. Or if someone on your team is a budding photographer, give them a day or two to shoot some images that you can use for a year!  For example, we took a picture of some of our employees for our new website and could not be happier.

By doing this, we added the human element back to our images, that so many of these stock photos are missing.    

5. Hand-Drawn Graphics and Icons

The need for more authentic images  will also influence icons and graphics. Recently we have seen brands  embrace this wholeheartedly as they look to differentiate themselves  from the pack. This will also add a personal or fun element back into  your design or content work. And this can’t be done with off-the-shelf  icons or graphics.  Many may see this trend as childish  or unprofessional, but it will definitely help you stand out online.  Like many of the trends in 2017, this is a push back on the clean and  almost clinical nature of design in recent years.

For example, Dropbox has adopted the  use of hand-drawn illustrations in everything they do. It has become  part of their brand now and is easily recognizable.

Plus, it puts the user at ease,  appeals to the child in all of us, and makes the product seem more  accessible. This is especially helpful if you are a large tech company  like Dropbox.  Another great example of hand-drawn  icon comes from Casper, a mattress company. They use illustrations on  almost all of their landing pages Like this interesting one below:

MailChimp also got into the spirit and used hand-drawn illustrations in their 2016 annual report!

And finally, for one more GREAT example, we look to Moz. They use illustrations in their blog headers, like this one: 

We also have introduced more hand-drawn illustrations in Venngage as well. I am particularly a fan of some of the ones below:  

And our love for hand-drawn icons sometimes makes its way into other projects as well:  

6. Minimalism Will Get Back To Its Roots

If you were to describe what  minimalism was to a stranger, you would probably talk about a lack  adornment in design, with a focus on functionality. You would probably  also think of a neutral color palette of blacks, grays, and whites. It seems that the true spirit of  minimalism–pared down, functional design elements–has been lost and,  instead, replaced with boring black and white color schemes. I suspect  this was done to make up for the lack of processing power and screen  size on mobile devices.  In 2017, that will all change. This  is the year that minimalism, hopefully, gets its groove back. And that  involves using a lot more color. Mobile devices are now just as powerful  as computers and some even have better screens. One of my favorite  minimalist-influenced designs would have to be Medium’s logo. They were  able to include a bunch of different colors but still create a very  minimalist logo.

Another logo redesign that influenced  minimalism with color happened a few years ago with Google, who happens  to be a catalyst for many of these new trends. They shaved a little bit off their typeface but also debuted a whole new “G” logo, which I am still a fan of.

Everything about that screamed minimalist but there was not one mention of it in the press  because true minimalism has been lost to the general public. Because it  did not look like it was created before color was invented and only  used one shape, it was not a minimalist logo. Instead, it was more colorful and  popped off the page–but it was still a minimalist logo. And following  that redesign, like so many things before, people followed Google’s  lead. We have even started emulating a more minimalist style with our featured images for blogs.


The simple design clearly communicates the message of the graphic.   

7. Useful GIFs

Everyone (well, almost everyone)  loves GIFs. They are the perfect little conversation helper that  expresses emotion when text won’t do the trick.  Plus, they do not require any special software to run, usually have a small file size, and can be embedded just about anywhere.  So they are better than videos and  images, in most cases when loading time or data usage needs to be  minimized. And I think that versatility is what will make them even  better and more useful in 2017.  One of my favorite ways to use GIFs is as featured images for your blog posts or article. Instead of using boring stock images, invest a few minutes of your time in creating a GIF 

It does not have to be a work of art,  but it definitely will draw attention to your post when shared on  social media. One of the best examples of using a GIF as a blog header  is this post on The Next Web 

8. Duotones

Duotones are simply the combining of  two colors on an image, usually using very bright or contrasting colors.  They require a bit of design work but it is most definitely worth it.

Only a skilled designer can really  create an amazing duotone. It is honestly past my skill level but that  does not mean you should not include it in your 2017 design plans!

Spotify was one of the first to really push this type of design into all parts of their branding, and many other brands have followed their lead since. Like below:

They have been able to use this approach to color to stand out in not  only the streaming space but music in general. And you can use it in  the same way for your industry! This bold use of contrasting color  will also bring some originality into your design. And hopefully make it  pop on the white backgrounds of the many social media sites.    

Conclusion

The driving force of design this year  is the rebellion of designers against the overly clean, white  everything and almost too perfect aesthetic that the titans in the tech  industry have pushed for the past few years. Now we will see design take a whole  new approach to things they have been doing for so long. And it will be  intense, innovative and beautiful.  But I think that just like with other  design trends in the past, most of the innovating will be done by the  top tech companies like Spotify, Google and Apple. They are the ones  that have the bandwidth, money and talent to test a bunch of ideas to  see what works best. And that is great for us, because we can only use  the winning ideas.  I hope this article will guide you in taking on some new design challenges and getting ahead of your competitors. 

By Ryan McCready.