KittlDesign is all around us. It defines culture, and by understanding contemporary design we build our understanding of contemporary culture. Design has always been everywhere – and so it’s no surprise that trends we see today are steeped in a long history. But what never ceases to amaze us is the continuous ability of designers and creatives to add a contemporary spin to creations that nevertheless take some inspiration from the past.
With more than 3 million users and counting, we at Kittl have a pretty good view of what’s trending in the graphic design world. We’ve shared 16 of our insights below with corresponding graphics – all created using Kittl, of course.
1. Nostalgic Editorial Design
Inspired by 1980s advertisements, this trend mixes elegant serif typography with large product cutouts, evoking a sense of nostalgia. It’s widely used in product marketing, social media, web design, and for posters; indeed, many brands are incorporating this style into their ad campaigns to tap into consumer nostalgia.
2. Minimal Utilitarian
The minimalism in this trend is rooted in black and white color schemes – though these designs are not exactly ‘simple’. Precise and cohesive layouts often feature photography or iconography that match the bold geometric typography. Moreover, the clarity and simplicity lend themselves to clear messaging – hence why this trend is ideal for presentation decks, website design, and packaging labels.
3. Maximalist
Maximalism and its subsets, like brutalism and anti-design, are making a strong comeback. These styles often defy conventional design rules, focusing on catching attention rather than legibility. This trend is popular for posters, streetwear apparel, web design elements, and social media posts. Despite its busy appearance, these designs often follow a grid structure.
4. Y2K
The Y2K trend, which surged in 2021, is popular in streetwear, and branded merchandise like stickers. Initially characterized by blocky fonts, the trend is leaning away from futuristic looks and towards bubble letters and shapes. We increasingly see this style in branding and packaging, with younger brands incorporating this trend into their product design as well.
5. Retro Mascot Illustrations
Retro mascot illustrations, reminiscent of the 50’s and 60’s, are making a comeback. These mascots are versatile and evergreen, and are ideal for use on stickers, posters, accessories and apparel – think t-shirts and tote bags. We’re even seeing them on packaging like pizza boxes. We have a ton of retro mascot illustrations in Kittl ready for you to use – and if you can’t find what you’re looking for, you can build your own using our library of retro mascot elements.
6. Bohemian and Mystical
Designs in this trend have more of a bohemian and mystical aesthetic, informed by organic shapes and illustrations, psychedelic typography, earthy tones and more often than not, a crafty look. These are popular amongst wellness brands, and ideal for tarot-inspired t-shirts and other print-on-demand products.
7. Neo Brutalism
Emerging from UI and UX design, neo brutalism combines bold typography with unusual background colors and comic book-style elements for an overall retro style. The primary use cases for this trend are trendy web design, branding, social media, and animation.
8. Trippy-Liquid Type
Liquid-type fonts, characterized by their psychedelic, wavy, and bubbly forms, are perfect for merchandise, brand elements, packaging, and posters. This trend integrates well with other genres like retro, minimal, and organic styles. Kittl’s extensive font library includes many liquid-type options, making it easy to experiment with this trend in your designs.
9. Gothic Typography
Gothic typography, featuring intricate and bold lettering, is increasingly used in streetwear, for title designs and album covers, and in printed media like catalogues and magazines. The medieval- style lettering never fails to stand out with its dramatic appearance – as such, the type speaks for itself and where used, the designs typically won’t require much additional layering.
10. Kitschy Retro
This trend brings older and newer aesthetics together by bridging 80’s retro with brutalist styles. Using muted yet vibrant colors like pinks, blues, purples, and browns, in combination with playful typography, it’s ideal for sticker designs, branding, posters and flyers, web design, and social media.
11. Pastel and Muted Colors
Pastel and muted color palettes are in vogue, often used for packaging designs, social media posts, and event flyers. These colors can evoke a retro or vintage feel whilst maintaining a modern look. Indeed, the combination of these color palettes with old typography styles comes together to create a nostalgic yet contemporary aesthetic.
12. Art Deco
Having emerged in the 1920s, Art Deco remains a timeless trend. Its thin gold framing and geometric sans-serif type make for a popular design trend, with typical use cases spanning event invitations, menus and branding for bars and restaurants.
13. Abstract Shape Masks
Abstract shape masks are gaining traction. Whether using organic or geometric elements, they help create visually striking designs. These shapes are often filled with photography, and are perfect for use in social media posts, flyers and merch, as well as posters, album art and even book covers. Abstract shape masks also work well in combination with other design trends, like retro, elegant and maximalist styles. You can find a vast array of abstract shape masks on Kittl that you can easily drag and drop into your designs.
14. Pixel Art
Reminiscent of video games, pixel art is a nostalgic favorite. This trend also lends itself well to designs for stickers and pins, as well as for wider use in digital art, avatars and spot elements in title or poster design.
15. Eco-Friendly and Organic Designs
In line with growing environmental consciousness, eco-friendly and organic designs are more prominent than ever. Brands that prioritize sustainability almost always adopt nature-inspired color palettes, which are sometimes paired with rugged typography. This style works well for packaging designs and marketing materials, helping brands raise awareness for their cause whilst building customer loyalty.
16. Grunge Design
Displaced ink effects and textures never fail to add a raw edge to grunge designs. Typical use cases stretch far and wide, spanning merch, t-shirts, posters, flyers and packaging – the bleed effect looks pretty cool on cardboard too.
On Kittl, you can enjoy playing around with fonts that have the kind of displaced ink effect that’s typical of this grunge style, as well as other illustrations and textures which you can alpha mask to cut out parts of the background to make it look like it’s stamped on paper.
Feeling inspired by any of the trends above? On Kittl you can browse our vast library of templates by what’s trending – including for logos, labels, apparel, posters, flyers and so much more. It’s just as easy to customize them, with one-click text effects and a growing set of AI-powered features that are intended to bring designers and creatives into the AI age.
Try our web-based tool for free, or use the code TWINE for 25% off any upgraded plan.
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Svitlana Popovska
