A new year dawns, and it somehow seems the same—of course, with design trends being an exception. As a person, I still love mulled wine, dogs, and doodling on any given surface. But as a designer, trends that I favor have shifted. Perhaps it’s an indicator that I am too caught up in trends or not enough; below are some things that I have started appreciating more than ever.
Texture: I have always been a fan of flat, sleek design when going digital. However, I enjoy that even the smallest amount of texture can amplify different elements within a design.
Relaxed typography: I feel like the last few years have beckoned an era of font appreciation; the market exploded online with tons of font marketplaces offering a place to find variable, refined typography from artists around the world. But the more I worked with different font creators and customers, the more I realized how much I enjoy a simple, nuanced approach to font combinations and compositions in projects that I personally work on. No shame in the beauitful script game, but I think that those styles should be kept for the most special and elegant of projects and only sparingly so.
Lo-fi: Man, what a year for lo-fi goodness. This is most apparent in motion graphics and photography, but I leaned hard on manual, low resolution styles purposely. This year was the year of carrying a 35mm camera around my neck for all occasions, including photoshoots. The beauty is in spontaneous frames and relying on beauty outside of precise execution. #rollwithit
Referential material: The most amazing part of working within the design sphere is when old trends reappear; even more than that, I love to use references to certain trends, artists, or pieces and invert their intent. So with something high brow and refined, reinventing it into something low brow and campy. Something campy into something highly nuanced and restrained. It has made me open up more as an artist and makes that creative eye open up to a world of possibilities.
I hope that everyone enjoys the new year incoming, and don’t forget to reflect on all your accomplishments, lessons learned, and relished moments of 2018.
Hasta luego,
Alisa