Design Goes Round & Round

Hello Creatives!

Ever heard off the saying, "this will come back in style"? This saying exists because it has become truth. Elements of design recirculate and re-emerge at different times. With the release of the 2018 Design Trends, we see this happening. Nothing that has been released this year is a new concept, everything has been recycled and re-emerged in new ways.

Gradients have been a growing trend recently. They are an easy to make flat design look dimensional. Gradients made a leap in popularity, back in the 1980's design needed to jump off the page to grab audiences' attention. Gradients give depth, movement and contrast to any piece.They have made a comeback this year from their debut on movie posters of the '80's like Top Gun and E.T. to log and web design.

Duotones date further back in time, before the 1970's. Duotones are halftone colors that were used to as a cheaper printing solution until the multi-ink color printers entered the scene in the 70's. They started in photography to add colored contrast over a black and white photo. These days duotones are emerging in web design with san serif fonts. They help to bring dimension and contrast in a more modern and minimalist way.

Line Art is arguably the most ancient element of art and design. Everything began with a line. Line Art has re-emerged many times from its origin in cave paintings to create forms. Then it made its way into religious manuscripts next to ornate typography in the 1500's. Some may remember the illustrated ads in newspapers and magazines, they were all done by hand in a line art style. Line Art grew exponentially in popularity from those days to the web with the creation of ClipArt. Who remembers that? Only in recent years, we see line art become an expressive accessory to hand-lettering in web and package design.

Design elements come back around every few decades. Everything is recycled design, from the oldest element of design to the most recent. It all goes round and round through the years with designers desperately trying to reintroduce the same elements in different ways.

See You Soon Creatives!