Every year, we see certain graphic design trends rise to popularity, and others barely gain traction.  As we move into this hungry post-pandemic world, styles from across the decades are being given a second life. If you’re looking to stay ahead of the curve in the world of branding design, it’s important to know which trends are on the rise.

Here are four design trends to inspire your next creative project:

1. Childhood Inspired 90’s Vibes

Let’s go back in time to 90s graphic design for an aesthetic inspired by MTV, 90’s rave parties, Saved by the Bell, bold colour blocks and your family’s first computer. Millennials in particular will feel drawn to these nostalgic digital playgrounds. The typefaces in this decade were eye-catching, to say the least. They were characterized by a sense of not taking themselves too seriously. Perhaps this playful approach had something to do with the Comic Sans MS font, which debuted in October 1994. Its sans-serif script aesthetic captured the carefree approach of the decade.

 

2. Warm and Fuzzy Candy Colors

There are so many ways to ensure that a design is visually appealing and will stand out. Using Candy colours in your designs evokes a playful, youthful vibe. They work particularly well in 3D illustrations and character design. Understanding colour theory is central to knowing the right way to create bold and striking designs with candy colours. Triadic colour palettes will capture your audience’s attention, whether your tool of the trade is web design, animation, illustration, or typography.

 

2. No More Rules With Anti-Design

Whether you love it or hate it, in 2022, you’re sure to start seeing designs that are liberated from traditional design principles. Anti-design is an expression of rebellion – bending, stretching, and re-interpreting the rules of graphic design. The idea runs parallel to the rise of the ‘ugly’ aesthetic in furniture, product, and fashion design. Anti-design requires real confidence and skill, ironically.

 

3. The Human Touch With Doodle Desing

These meandering drawings inject a feeling of bespoke individuality to a sea of sameness. Doing so can bridge the gap between digital tools and the human touch, creating designs that are approachable. Doodle makes your story both powerful and comical. By combining, you have a compelling comic narrative to pique the audience’s interest.

 

4. Bring Stories To Life With Motion Graphics

The world of motion graphics has experienced a big boost over the last few years. While in-person events took a hit throughout the global pandemic, video creators turned to stock footage and animation and began experimenting with motion graphics to come up with fresh ways of delivering content. From subtle in-app motion graphics to looping gifs and animated collages, motion draws attention and brings stories to life.

 

Have fun with design.  If you are looking for help harnessing new techniques, we at Cloud 9  would be happy to get involved!   For help with services like digital marketing, SEO, and content creation, contact us for a free one-hour consultation today.

Why is everyone soo excited about SEO? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial because it makes your website more visibleand that means more traffic and more opportunities to convert prospects into customers.  If you’re concerned about the way your business’s website is performing, try these 5 tips to improve your position on the search engine results page (SERP).

Here are five things you can do now to improve your website’s SEO rankings:

1. Publish Quality Content

Having high-quality content on your website is one of the best ways to increase traffic and improve your search rank.  Authoritative content is the number one driver of your search engine rankings and there is no substitute for great content.  Fine-tune your web writing skills and present yourself as an authority on the topic you are writing about.  Make sure your content is mistake-free, keyword-rich, mobile-optimized, and includes valuable links to additional internal and external content.

 

2. Optimize Keywords

Identify and target a specific keyword phrase for each page on your website. For the best results, front load the keywords in the Tile of the page. This guide to Keyword Research for Social Media  is a good resource for determining which keywords your audience is using. Try to think about how your target reader might search for that specific page and what kind of search terms and phrases they would use:

  • How to create a customer persona?
  • What is user experience design?
  • How to increase my website’s SEO ranking?

 

2. Update Content With A Blog

Try writing a blog, and make new entries as much as you possibly can. Regularly updated content  is viewed as one of the best indicators of a site’s relevancy, so be sure to keep it fresh.  Make sure your content is mistake-free, keyword-rich, mobile-optimized, and includes valuable links to additional internal and external content.

 

3. Don’t Use Click Here for Links

Improve your site’s credibility and ranking by adding relevant links within the text. Instead of having “click here” links, try writing out the name of the destination. “Click here” to for more on Cloud 9’s blog has no search engine value beyond the attached URL, whereas  read our blog post on How To Create A Customer Persona is rich with keywords and will improve your search engine rankings.

 

4. Check Your Site Speed

Load time is one of the key measurements in Google’s ranking system. If your site is slow, you have little chance of a high search position. To increase the load times of your site, check to see if images are optimized and have descriptive filenames and include alt text.  Squoosh.app is a great way to optimize web images for all different applications.  

 

5. Use Header Tags

 

Not only do header tags (H1, H2, H3…) break up content and provide better visual hierarchy and readability, they are one of the most important ranking factors in SEO.  Over the years, SEO has become much more about usability and accessibility and offering people a good user experience, rather than just hitting all of the right technical requirements. Read this article on how to properly use header tags to learn more.  Unlike an HTML Title tag, an H1 tag doesn’t tell search engines what to display. However, it does affect user experience, which is important for SEO.

 

Good SEO involves many different techniques.  We at Cloud 9 hope this list has helped shine some light on the ways you can improve your website’s SEO.  For help with services like digital marketing, SEO, and content creation, contact us for a free one-hour consultation today.

This year we embarked on a journey through the top design trends of 2021. We carefully selected trends that were being heavily utilized for UX, UI, social media, websites, and branding. Each month we did a deep dive on our social channels, carefully creating and curating graphics that portrayed the design concepts. If you didn’t happen to see the entirety of the collection, we wanted to share with you a high-level overview of this past year. Of course, if you want more, take a browse through our 2021 blog posts to get a more in-depth look at each trend. Or… just scroll.

Dark Mode

Dark Mode took the UX and UI worlds by storm this year. Besides the obvious cool factor of being dark and moody, this trend excelled because its fonts and elements stand out significantly more on a dark background, increasing the accessibility for sight-challenged people. While this is a good enough reason alone, there were a few more that caught our eye. Dark mode is great for captivating the attention of users, easy on the eyes (literally), and saves the battery life of your phone or tablet.

Natural Design

Natural design originally made its way into web design via eco-conscious brands. However, it made its way into the top trends of 2021 since growing in popularity across different industries. The natural imagery, calming colours, and soothing fonts aren’t just for eco-friendly companies anymore. Due to the pandemic, the past two years resulted in more of us spending more time indoors and on screens. It’s no wonder we wanted a more soothing and natural user experience online, bringing the outside in.

Monochromatic Minimalism

monochromatic minimalism - less is more

Monochromatic Minimalism was the cleanest design trend we highlight this year. While this style of graphic design isn’t new, over 60 years in the making, we’ve seen a huge growth in its presence today. The increased use of monochromatic minimalism in design is possibly a reflection of what users are desiring more in their own lives: simplicity. We found that not only does this speak to users, but when there’s less visual information vying for the user’s attention, what does remain has more of an impact.

Socially Conscious Design

Socially Conscious Design has been one of the most powerful design trends in recent years and had an incredibly strong presence in 2021. This design trend focuses on showing solidarity and support for social, environmental, and justice issues through graphic design. Essentially, it is artists using their talent and voice to promote the betterment of society. The need for social and environmental change has reached a tipping point in recent years, and creators and brands have stepped up to the plate to show support and create awareness.

Contemporary Boho

Contemporary Boho is a modern twist on Bohemian style. While bohemian style is known for opulence and excess, in current graphic design, the trend is dialled back a bit – accented with clean, modern lines, fonts, and empty space. The combination of the flowery excess of the bohemian style with modern touches can result in visually stunning and appealing graphics.

Duotone & Colour Monochromatic

Duotone & Colour Monochromatic has become more and more popular in recent years, and we have loved the resurgence of this throwback. This design trend implements a simple palette, but with a strong presence. This style of branding is creative, eye-catching, and customers love it.

Geometric Design shape up with geometric designs

Geometric designs have been at the forefront of design trends this year and have the staying power to be around for years to come. The clean appearance of geometric shapes, coupled with the subconscious psychology of shapes, creates impactful graphic designs that connect with clients. You can learn more about the psychology behind the shapes here.

Gold

While gold has been a timeless design trend, it definitely worked its way into the ranks of the top design trends of 2021. We’ve consistently seen the rise of this trend over the years, and frankly, it’s not going anywhere. From delicate accents to elevate a brand’s sophistication to bold eye-catching metallics front and center, gold takes the cake.

Bold Design

bold because of the message graphic

 

The striking design trend of bold design stepped into the spotlight this year. Bold design is a multi-faceted design concept – it can be your messaging, colourway, typography (or absence thereof), graphics or photography. Bold Design isn’t simply eye-catching graphics or typography – the essence of bold design is captivating creatives and tactics that not only catch the eye of the user but hold their attention.

Typographic Chaos

Typographic Chaos might be the most symbolic trend for this past year. It perfectly embodies the chaotic nature of 2021, but at the same time, provides beauty, creativity, and inspiration. This trend breaks all the rules, and we couldn’t love it more.