The Impact of Mirco Trends and what’s coming in Web, Illustration, Typography and Branding.
With the rapid spread of information available to us in 2022, trends of all kinds seem to come and go quicker than our team can put away one of those school Cadbury charity chocolate boxes (hint: our dentists are worried). âMicro Trendsâ is what people who pay attention to this stuff are calling it.
Advantage also pays attention to this stuff, but we like to think a little wider and look at larger categories of trends that make up this tapestry of Design. For 2022, we have some predictions for trends across Typography, Illustration, Branding, and Web Design*.
Typography
There is a continuation of the use of bold âvintageâ fonts, characterised by the experimentation of the â70s and â80s. Stuff that looks like it would have been printed on a dot-matrix printer. But this is now sharing space with the thin, waspy italics of Art Deco Revival and the Monotypes of the â90s!
Illustration
Simply; 3 extreme trends. 1. Super sketchy line work, reminiscent of the newspaper cartoons of the â80s. 2. Multilayered and Multimedia Animation. 3. Glossy, hyper-modern 3D digital.
Branding
While we đLOVE đ a big, grand Branding Suite, with a distinct and reliable formula – weâll see a rise of a post-modernist, fragmented brand visual identities. More experiential and unpredictable, focusing on fitting brand to content, rather than content to brand.
Web
Brutalism. We saw the tide coming way out to sea over the past couple of years of this trend in Web design, but as brands and designers have got to grips with what makes it effective – theyâre going to adopt this trend intelligently. Alongside this almost âindulgentâ approach to web design, weâll see even more stripped-back minimalism. No fluffing – just clearly defined, fast loading good stuff.
So whatâs the big picture here? The elements of âmicro-trendsâ that have invoked design creativity and a light-hearted approach to experimentation have brought a larger confidence within the design community to dive in and invest in bold design choices.Â
Well, what influenced the rise of Micro-Trend Experimentation? Rapid-fire information sharing > yes. But more importantly, the rise of side hustles. During the pandemic, either out of desperation or boredom, people found something they were good at and worked out a way to monetise it. These micro-businesses didnât need to interact with larger brands or identities, they could just be their own thing. They could reflect the Pinterest board of their makers. Sharing these little experiments with the world, over TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook Groups, niche design aesthetics were getting more momentum. This has slowly matured into these larger design trends that now have foundations strong enough to support the weight of much larger, multifaceted companies and brands in 2022 and beyond.Â
The trends youâll see in 2022, started with that creative spark in someoneâs home project and was brought to life by the TikTokkers, the Instagrammers, and the Pinners that made the most of a tough situation we globally experienced over the past two years. Cheers to you, Creators! đ» This is your world, and weâre loving it!
*By no means is this an exhaustive list, but check out our sources linked below to find more depth in these trend discussions*
