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Graphic Design Trends to Inspire Your Marketing in 2023

graphic design

As designers, we’re always on the lookout for the next burst of inspiration. While we know that creativity is a wildly unique thing, there are some visual trends 2023 is celebrating, and we’re excited to see them build as the year continues.

From new-wave 3D to mind-boggling psychedelia, we’ve scoured the web (and asked some of our very own designers) for a roundup of the best design styles that are predicted to gain more and more traction through the year ahead.

1. 3D design pushes boundaries

Designs are bursting from the page with the level-up of 3D design. From illustrations to installations, three-dimensional artwork will continue to flourish and likely integrate with offline forms of media, too.

We’ve seen this trend split into two paths: Simplified 3D design and 3D Memphis Design style.

Simplified 3D designs are just what the name suggests; uncomplicated elements in 3D format resulting in fun, bubbly, and bold designs. The style minimises shapes to focus on form, so we’re seeing it used a lot for emoji-style icons that give everything a child-like, playful feel.

3D Memphis Design style takes the art movement from the 80s and gives it a modern facelift. Think bold, bright and colorful, these designs are an exhilarating and updated take on a classic. 

We can also see the 3D trend making its way into airbrushed surrealism, too. Is the 80s in general coming back? It certainly seems like it!

Ideas for how to apply this design trend to your marketing:

  • Create 3D illustrations of your products and use them to showcase a new launch in your next social media campaign
  • Incorporate this design style with trend number 3 for a unique outcome

2. Contemporary gradients 

Simply a transition from one color to another, this year’s gradient upgrade sees blurred edges on modern, abstract shapes, as well as liquid-effect blends.

“The Contemporary Gradient style is a look we’ve seen quite often in posters and other digital materials. It started to gain popularity in the design world this past year, and will definitely continue to pick up as we move into 2023.” Says Nicollo Garcia, our Creative Director in the Philippines. 

“It would be interesting to see this trend carry over into print as well. The right typography style mixed with the perfect gradient is a match made in heaven. It would be refreshing to see this style executed outside the screen and into real life through packaging, posters, and other out-of-home advertising.”

Ideas for how to apply this design trend to your marketing:

  • Add gradients using your brand colors as social media graphic backgrounds – ideal for quotes
  • Experiment with wrapping gradients around packaging design

3. Chaotic Maximalism

Forget millennial minimalism, Gen Z are shaking things up with a more-is-more approach to design this year. 

Think bold colors, lary fonts, and a mismatch of styles sprinkled with a touch of nostalgia from styles gone by –like 90s and folk. Noted as a form of escapism in a fashion context, we see this trend as a form of self- or brand-expression, leaving no stone unturned for exciting and lively results. 

With years of being indoors restricting creativity, it’s time to let loose.

Ideas for how to apply this design trend to your marketing:

  • Explore asymmetry and overlaying elements in your designs to build that chaotic (but beautiful) energy
  • Experience with Shuffles from Pinterest to create engaging social media videos

Learn more about marketing for a Gen Z audience

4. Riso print goes digital

Creative Director, Sheena Villeta, based in the Philippines thinks “riso print is really interesting. I’ve always been careful to use colors in my designs, as seen in my work’s minimalist/sleek design. This year might be a good time to break out and explore the other side of this in a conscious way.”

And we’re seeing a digital shift with this 80s-born printing technique. Grainy textures, depth, and minimalist shapes come together to create an abstract but modern blend of old and new.

Ideas for how to apply this design trend to your marketing:

  • Add more noise to illustrations and layer color fills to add depth to designs – great for stop animation 

5. Mind-bending psychedelia

This is where design begins to get really fun, breaking the boundaries between the weird and the wonderful. With warped shapes, trippy subjects and acid-wash color palettes, the psychedelic design space captures all of the possibilities found in a designer’s imagination. 

With inspiration from the 90s as opposed to last year’s 60s revival, we’re entering the realm of otherworldly landscapes and sensory experiences. Mix that with technological futurism and you’re left with an outcome that’s bold, intense, and confusingly engaging.

Hand-drawn illustration, bold graphic print and contorted typography all lend themselves well here, but the beauty of this visual trend, as with them all, is that designers from all specialities can truly make it their own.

Ideas for how to apply this design trend to your marketing:

  • Distort reality and break the rules! This trend works especially well for packaging and large-scale advertisements –the more detail you can add to keep people looking, the better 

So there you have it. 5 of our favorite graphic design trends 2023 has in store. It’s hard to narrow the list down, so here are a few more honorable mentions:

  • Expressive typography is bending the rules of type: fluid shapes, connecting letters, and a new wave of text display brings customization up a notch
  • Multi-media proves that anything goes: expect hand-drawn illustrations layered on photography, graphic shapes contrasting soft noise, and wacky 2D animation mixed with real-world videography
  • Maximalism sees designers and brands alike ditching the dull in favor of more, more, more: bright colors, thick fonts and rounded illustrations make this style an instant hit

What are your favorite design trends? 

If this design talk is leaving you craving a new direction but you’re lacking in the design department, let our teams do the groundwork for you to bring these trends (and your 2023 marketing goals) to life in 2023 and beyond. 

Discuss your options and get the ball rolling today.

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