The current means of presenting graphics has shifted to digital designing in almost all domains like newspapers, television, textbooks, advertising, product design and so on.
Digital design is changing the dynamics of traditional arts from a large-scale business advertisement to personal consumption. According to Blue Corona’s statistics of 50 small businesses in the US, 80% of internet users have their own smartphone. You can just imagine how convenient it is today to convey graphics or a message to a particular person. This is what makes digital marketing competition serious.
Listed below are currently the top five trends of digital designing that will definitely push you or your development company to the next level.
Diversifying Color Schemes
Companies traditionally promote their brand logos with a single, two, or few color schemes. Anticipating the digital hype of 2018 and beyond, this conventional method is already outdated. A few years back, Spotify ventured into this concept by applying assorted color schemes on their wallpapers while maintaining the logo. Last 2017, Dropbox also left their old palette and explored other colors as part of their rebranding strategy. Another company that applied this concept is eBay, which is apparently effective for the company as it offers diverse products to the public.
Improved Gradient Manipulation
Gradients are not just things of the past. Their simplicity has created more flexible room for innovations. A gradient is a combination of different colors that fill a particular arrangement or position. Social media like Instagram and Twitter have applied it to their themes and logos for the past few years. Unlike flat colors, gradients emphasize a different feel because of the color blending. Skype and Dropbox are likewise adaptive in applying gradients. If you visit websites like those of Stripe, Mapbox, and Customeed, boring will never be a word.
Duotones
Duotone or an image of two colors occurs when you overlay a color on a grayscale image using a graphics software like Adobe Photoshop. The combination results in a vibrant and retro look. Duotones can be applied as a dominant image, a background, or an accent. Adidas’ website utilizes a green and blue theme to make its appearance visually appealing. Spotify’s Year in Music showcases a dazzling duotone of purple and turquoise green which is impressive and attractive.
GIF’s & Animations
GIF or “Graphics Interchange Format” is a digital object that supports animated and still images. It is not only a fun way of presenting an idea or marketing a product but an effective method of engaging the audience. For example, Kate Spade introduced their new handbag collection named “Joanie” through an amusing GIF. The bag continuously changes color according to the variant. During the 2017 Black Friday, Amazon advertised all on-sale devices with an animated fireplace GIF on each device screen.
3D Typography
Not only images and objects can be made three-dimensional, it can be applied to typography as well. While this idea was not intended to promote text readability, it makes the graphic text alive by superimposing the usual 2D texts and giving it a third dimension. UPS (United Parcel Service) for example released a marketing ad that features a 3D “UPS” word made of carton. The characteristics of 3D would include shadows, adding textures, and changes in perspective. In the movie The Lorax, you can see the emphasis made on the title because of the 3D art.
The above list is not exhaustive because the trend for digital design is continually evolving. In most companies today, digital design is already a part of their core competency.
