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Update Oct. 2023: Graphic Design Trends 2024 are officially out. Check them out.
2022 is here and it’s already breaking all the rules for graphic design. Everything is permitted and it’s going to be glorious. If we can summarize the Graphic Design Trends 2022 in one sentence, it’s time to raise the game because the floodgates are open, bringing a mix of the unmixable, nostalgia, movement, and open-mindedness.
What we absolutely love about observing what great professional and hobbyist designers from all over the world create for an entire year is that we can turn this pleasure into personal research. This allows us to see what are the strongest trends that will affirm their position as the signature trends of each year. Now, without further ado, let’s hop right into the chaos of what the popular trends of 2022 will be and enjoy some amazing examples from agencies and freelance graphic designers that never cease to amaze us with their creativity.
Logo Design Trends 2022, Web Design Trends 2022, and Animation Trends 2022 are officially out. Check them out.
Top Graphic Design Trends 2022 Overview:
Microsoft Emojis by Leo Natsume
DESIGN TREND #1
2D/3D MASHUP
The 3D design trend is still ongoing, evolving, and further establishing itself. As it offers limitless possibilities to designers, it gives room for anything you can imagine. From hyper-realistic 3D visuals that blur the line between digital and physical, to highly creative mashups with 2D and paper cutout elements. In terms of the latter, 2022 will show a great partnership between 2D and 3D that gives the best of the two worlds.
Discord Assistant.exe by Kevin Tang for Discord
Scooters, Scooters Everywhere. by bitfuel
This trend is very adaptable to all formats from illustrations and animation, to web design and typography. It’s especially getting popular for app design.
Design Collaboration Illustration by tubik.arts
Creative Break Illustration by tubik.arts
August Days by PopArt Studio
3D Illustration for Altrüus Gifting App by Igor Pavlinski
Pineapple by Xochitl Castaño
Do you know, that you can animate characters with your cam and mic? Meet Adobe Character Animator.
DESIGN TREND #2
FONTS WITH A TWIST
This trend comes with typography that breaks the standards. It follows a similar to Riso print philosophy: something is beautifully off and imperfect. What exactly is that twist? Anything that breaks the order: one single letter might be upside down, bigger or smaller, in a different font, or completely missing. It could be a couple of letters in a small text, following a different pattern than the rest of the letters to reveal a different message. It’s the perfect way to make emphasize and bring attention to something specific.
Also, if you’re thinking of the Squid Game intro, you’re not alone.
Netflix Interface Design (Squid Game) by Ritik Sharma
This twist looks most impressive in kinetic typography where the messages get unveiled through motion. In a static digital graphic, logos and signature graphics often play the role of the “twisted” letters.
Example by Anton Aheichanka
Example by Roman Salo
Example by Hrvoje Grubisic
Example by Helena Stretovych
Example by Luka Marr
Example: www.orderofthegooddeath.com
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Example: sddesignweek.org
Example: www.designedbywomen.org
Example: www.eumray.com
Example by Saad Ibn Sayed
Example by Sebastião Sommer
Example by www.positiveimpact.design
You may also be interested in the best free fonts to use right now.
DESIGN TREND #3
GLASS AND CRYSTALS
Last year, the gold design was a huge trend mimicking realistic physical gold and giving everyday items that extra special feel. The trend has now shifted to glass and crystal with incredible realism in 3D to bring the graphic design to the next level.
NHN FORWARD OPENING by Hayoung Lee
Glass Sculptures by Drake Smith
SLYCES by Stu Ballinger
Crystal by J.King Chou
COLLECTED • Explorations 23 by Wes Cockx
We’re going to see more of these transparent matters that complement the holographic and 3D trends, realistic frost glass backgrounds, and more. Not to mention the new Windows 11 fluent design system also adopts the transparent glass trend.
GLASS-CUBE-7-5 by WantLine
Voice morphing interface by Gleb Kuznetsov
3D Glass Card Illustration by M Wildan Cahya Syarief
Letter Card by Nathan Riley
Logo animation by Sovery
Example by Varun Kumar
DESIGN TREND #4
CANDY COLORS
As we’re constantly bombarded with digital content from all directions, it gets harder for designers to create artwork, websites, and apps that will stand out from the clutter. This is why visual appeal that will grab the viewer’s attention while scrolling is as important as the quality of the content.
And what are the best ways to ensure your design stands out? Vibrant eye-candy color schemes. Skillful designers and digital artists who know their color theory already roll their sleeves to create bold and striking graphic design creations with beautiful candy colors.
Don’t get us wrong. Pastel colors are still our favorite, but if you really want to make a bold statement and spread even more positivity, candy color schemes are a good choice.
海洋#babe by X Five
Creative Minds by Johana Kroft and Maxim Kroft
NoriQ Channel Branding by SangHee Choi and Youngdo Kwon
DASH by Estudio Ronda
Monsters and Creatures 3. by Mariano Garza
Playground Serenade by Mariano Garza
In these examples, we can see how candy colors translate into multiple fields of graphic design, such as illustrations, web design, typography, and animation. It draws attention in a good way, with a strong yet friendly atmosphere, a little bit psychedelic, and quite a lot mesmerizing.
O Meu Lugar by Kenzo Hamazaki
Example by LowFiveBrewing
Do you want to get inspired with these 100 Amazing color combinations
DESIGN TREND #5
RISO PRINT STYLE
As the trends to go bolder and to go decades back in time resonate perfectly, it’s no surprise that the risograph art makes a comeback both physically and digitally as an aesthetic. The decades-old risograph was originally created for office copying and administrative use. However, the model soon became a tool for artists and designers to create beautiful abstract artwork, posters, and ads that are impossible to look away from. There are two reasons for that. First, we have these unique vivid colors other printers can’t produce. Second, the prints often come out with slight imperfections such as ink bleed, inconsistent colors, unpredictable alignment issues, or rough textures.
In case you need a recap, the technique is similar to digital screen printing. You scan an image and first make a paper stencil that wraps around the ink drum so the printer could make a stamp of each individual color and put the puzzle together to greater a slightly imperfect vibrant image. This unpredictability makes the Riso art challenging and adventurous as even if you plan your layers to perfection, you will still get something unique and unexpected.
Graphic designers find clever ways to recreate the risograph print effects digitally and give the style a strong comeback as a trend of 2022.
Santed Tokyo Special Edition by Magdalena Skala, Mox Gebhardt and Kiyoshi Stelzner
501 WORK-SHOP by Mobills-group
36 Days of Type 2021: 80’s Trip by Gian Wong
Risograph Calendar 2022 | Sights of Hungary by Renáta Farkas
Experimental Project_DH001 by Dennis HSU
Almanaque Bate-bola by Paula Cruz
36 Days of Type 2021 by Hiromu Oka
It looks incredible not only in packaging and print but also in animation, typography, and web design. If you’re interested in trying out the Riso style in Photoshop for your design but you’re not sure where to start, let us know in the comments. We might be following with a cool tutorial.
Maison Marou Thao Dien by Daniel Keeffe
SASA LELE by Rafael Neder and team
RISO PRINT – THE TOBACCO by Hiromu Oka
Kaleidoscoping by Carla Lopez
DESIGN TREND #6
ART DECO
Amongst the vivid colors, damaged aesthetics, psychedelic design, and wild movement, one upcoming trend differentiates itself with clean, strong lines as an organizing design principle.
Of course, we’re talking about Art Deco, packing both class and machine-age streamlining sleek geometry.
The art style appeared in the early 20th century as a direct response to Art Nouveau and the old ways. Its philosophy is all about innovation, modernism, and looking forward with sturdiness, quiet dignity, and resilience. With everything that’s been happening for the last couple of years, there’s no surprise such philosophies find their way back to art and graphic design.
So, what exactly is Art Deco?
The easiest way to recognize the comeback of this beautiful style is to look for symmetry, geometry, and simple but aesthetically pleasing works. Art Deco takes the unapologetic and anti-traditional and turns it into geometric forms and bold outlines. Think The Great Gatsby aesthetics.
Hotel Metro – Branding by Brooke Burge
Cocktail Kits Business Cards by Cody Petts
Dinning Deco by Demiana Reda
Metrópolis Branding by Alfonso Pereira
Discover Curitiba (Art Deco-inspired illustration) by Mariana Zanatta
Graphic designers, as usual, found a creative way to bring this movement in decorative arts and architecture into the digital. We see gorgeous posters, illustrations, business cards, and websites in Art Deco, and we can’t get enough.
DYNASTEA Tea -Packaging Design by Wei-lee Cheng
Art Deco style illustration by Dongkyu Lim
Vintage Air Travel by Dongkyu Lim
SWALLY Illustration Project -by Dongkyu Lim
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DESIGN TREND #7
PAPER CUTOUT
Another traditional art that found its way to the digital is paper cutting. The craft has roots in the Han dynasty in the 4th century AD after the invention of the paper by Cai Lun. A simple symmetrical circle seems to be the very first surviving paper cutout, marking the beginning of this form of art. Throughout history, we can find paper cutting in all cultures with one thing in common: each design is cut from a single sheet of paper as opposed to collages. Of course, when it comes to the digital, graphic designers use both techniques to create amazing pieces of art in all forms of graphic design.
Example by Life In Vogue
Paper icons and design for a energy company by HICACTUS STUDIO
ALLURE by Maud Vantours
Georgian Map by Mako
GENERATION Z IN PANDEMIA TIME by HICACTUS STUDIO
Create Wonder by Tommy Perez
Paper Cutouts are most popular for branding, especially on business cards, pamphlets, and package designs. We also see them in wishing cards, books, and recently in animation and web design.
Paper forest fairytale by Elena Cherniavskaia
5 | 36 days of type by Marlena Stawarz
Winter Landscape Papercut by Vera Cotuna
PIANO MUSIC by HICACTUS STUDIO
DESIGN TREND #8
3D CHARACTERS
To complement all the trends with the last one in the style of GraphicMama, 3D characters have invaded the graphic design space in apps, websites, and animation. These characters adapt to 2D design, holographic, candy color design, and everything we’ve talked about in Graphic Design trends of 2022. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are some amazing examples of the 3D characters trends we can all enjoy.
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Characters by Crystal Yumumu
Ready – Brand Characters by Leo Natsume
Task & Project Management App by Conceptzilla
Step-up by Nguyen Nhut
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Social Media Marketing website by Masud Rana
3D illustration by Mike | Creative Mints
Example by Phil Borst
Example by Ben Gregoire
Example by Konstantin Stupar
Example by Konstantin Stupar
DESIGN TREND #9
HOLOGRAPHIC DESIGN
“Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.” is a 3D image of Princess Leia projected by light beams. In short, it’s a hologram. This diffraction of light is very attractive and has climbed to rival the top trends in graphic design.
Recently we all could find the holographic trend in stationery, product design, fashion design (especially bags and shoes), and so on. However, this trend is so appealing, that it’s no surprise it has reached web and animation design as well. Not to mention apps and logos.
3D FLUID SHAPES by Wannathis
4D Iridescent waves animation by Sunal Sood
Ozon — New product vision by Febber
What we can all agree on is that holographic design looks very High tech and futuristic with its mixture of high-gloss multidimensional pastel highlights. The best part is these highlights give the impression of moving even in static images.
3D FLUID SHAPES by Wannathis
Reflections by Webshocker – Matjaz Valentar
Holo Switch by Christina Young
holo greetings by Maximilian Chanba
Redshift by 𝔅𝔢𝔰𝔱𝔖𝔢𝔯𝔳𝔢𝔡𝔅𝔬𝔩𝔡
DESIGN TREND #10
PSYCHEDELIC
The twisting, melting and distorted aesthetics of the psychedelic 1960s changed design forever. As an immortal trend, these visuals always make a comeback with the rise of each new counterculture. Mimicking acid trips with mind-bending colors, the psychedelic trend that started as an art form with Wes Wilson and his famous rock posters, is now back to reflect the chaos of the confounding times.
TRANCE by satheesh sankaran
GIF by Taoufik Ajdour
Animated Patterns by Anita Gwara
Ryuichi Sakamoto – Exodus by Rhox
Weird dreams – 01 by Gurika for PING PONG
Weird dreams – 03 by Gurika for PING PONG
Just like in music and fashion, the psychedelic graphic design mirrors the carefree spirit that craves to break the shackles by drawing strength from within. The results in animation, web design, typography, and motion graphics are incredible and entrancing. We’re about to see a lot of these trippy designs in 2022.
Final words
Graphic design trends 2022 resonate with our strive to find meaning and pleasure in hard times and to break what holds us down. Creators from all over the world gain strength with an open mind to craft mesmerizing designs with vivid colors, movement, perfect imperfection, and futurism. The upcoming year is definitely something to look forward to.
What are your observations and predictions about graphic design trends in 2022? Do you have a favorite trend? Share with us in the comments.
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