In 2019 were laid a few trends which will keep gaining in importance within the next year. The idea is that most of them reflect the current approach to design. Finally, we stopped focusing on the visual aspect and now think more about the user experience and the role of every component in the system designer — product — user.
That’s why our review of the design trends 2020 is rather a reminder of the humanity in the entire industry — and that user care should always go #1, whether it’s branding, web design, or any sort of printed production.
Typography
Last year typography focused on serif fonts — which will remain popular next year. However, it’s not all, and the great news is that the versatility is on the new level now. Geometric & outlined fonts, variable fonts, hand-written fonts, gradients, and animated typography (which supports the general rise of animation) make sense. It means creators don’t have to strictly follow something definite but design the way they feel. Yay!
Web Typography in 2020: What Will It Look Like?
Voluminous and diverse, geometric and eclectic — these are only some of the characteristics, applicable to the typography trends 2020. Some movements are still the same as they were, others only gain their power to be transformed into another typographic phenomenon.
3D Art and Illustrations
The Best of Behance gets weekly filled with pieces of 3D art, and across 2019 we’ve been watching this artistic style evolve greatly. The objects aren’t just dimensional, they are tangible and touchy, with ultra-realistic textures. Teams like Google, Nike, Apple build up 3D characters, scenes, and mechanisms to get closer to the customer, improve the user experience, and simply grab their attention with stunning motion design. So, obviously, we expect even more 3D and low poly art.
Featured Articles
Low poly art wonders by Roman Klčo
Scroll through his portfolio to squeak from pleasure in seeing so many familiar scenes!
What does 3D art in 2020 actually look like?
Too bad we can't cover every single amazing 3D project we’ve come across!
Character design in the new Nike collaboration
When Nike shoes don’t come only as a fashion statement but as a whole lifestyle!
Flat Illustrations
Flat illustrations have been really fast and decisive in conquering UI, and it looks like they won’t just remain all the rage in 2020 but stay with us in 2021 too. The key to their speedy assimilation in the creative workflow is their flexibility, responsiveness, and strong personality. There are many packs and tools delivering flat & abstract illustrations (and I’m sure there’ll be even more), and this incredible variety is really helpful in building powerful, human-oriented design.
Flat Illustrations, a Design Trend for 2020 and Beyond
When observing the trends for the year 2019, many curators and teams drew your attention to the rise of human design: better writing, user-friendly microcopy and accessibility. As 2020 approaches, we can speak of these trends coming to the peak of their influence — flat illustrations in particular.
Animations
Motion design has become so natural that we can hardly remember the times without it. The animation feature makes the digital product look more complicated and involve the user in a longer interaction with the website or app. So will there be more animation in 2020? Definitely. Motion design will go more intuitive both in micro animations in UX and as animated illustrations for websites and apps.
Featured Articles
Rubber hose animation in vintage cartoons by Tony Babel
Goofy characters in this 1930s cartoon style animation send you back to the childhood memories.
Japanese animation on what it costs to make perfectly good sushi
Was worrying for the 3d character and craving for some delicious sushi at the same time.
Prescribing you the portion of proper brand strategy with Nurx redesign
From new logo to the brand identity itself — the company has risen like a Fenix in the world of healthcare supplies.
Zero waste brand identity design for YORA
Eco-friendly lifestyle nowadays is picking up the stream very fast for the environment’s sake.
Insightful Texts and Microcopy
The more complex the websites and apps are, the more in-depth copywriting should be: users need guidance, where you’d speak their language. This makes UX writing matter — sometimes even more than the design itself. Once you attract a user, it’s not the visual aspect that decides whether they’ll stay with you, but your understanding of your audience’s behavior shown via the onboarding process and microcopy.
Featured Articles
Using microcopy to build a human website
A brief about why every site needs microcopy and how you can write it — even if you are not a UX writer.
Care about user onboarding, they say your service’s success is at stake
Think hard of how you will welcome new users aboard and help them to see what's what in your app.
Accessibility and Inclusivity
One of the major merits of modern design is that designers and developers are more and more reflecting on people they create their products for. Their personal features, age, gender, possible disabilities — these are serious points to consider turning to inclusive design. And the crucial point is that to create a barrier-free digital environment while working over contrast, size of elements or layout is no longer enough. Mind the microcopy, too and keep in mind you address different people with different needs.
Did This Website Just Assume my Gender?
Living in modern society, constantly rushing to global equality in everything, requires taking into account every single persona ’cause integrity is precious — it’s a rule of thumb. The piercing topic here is: how to cover all the existing movements, beliefs, and self-identification variations? Applying this question to the design field would reduce its construction into something like “how to come up with the universal user-friendly design?”. This is basically what the inclusive design deals with.
Mobile Design Apps
The high rollers like Adobe and Procreate have shown the general tendency to making mobile software as productive as the desktop one. Fresco, Illustrator for iPad, and the newly-introduced Procreate 5 are going to make design processes smoother and easier, so the year 2020 may become the time of the massive switch from desktop to mobile devices.
Featured Articles
Adobe releases Illustrator for the iPad in 2020
Adobe Illustrator is going to the series of Adobe apps for iPad in 2020.
Procreate 5 update goes live in 2019
It will include a new graphics engine a bunch of recent color-focused tools.
A sneak peek at Adobe Fresco, a free app for the iPad made to beat Procreate
Autumn 2019 is made for changes, as the creative world will finally have Adobe Fresco, an app for digital artists,...