This is why graphics designs should be rooted on the right design principles that will stand the test of time so that the designs will maintain their beauty and relevance years after the trends have all faded away. Here is a look at the graphic design trends that took the industry by storm but are now slowly dying and nobody ever thinks about them-:

Ultra detailed or Complex designs

You may have probably noticed graphic design styles with a complex composition and ornate details. The popularity of these graphic design trends was partly due to the vintage design that took the industry by storm during the late 1800s and early 1900s. During this period, graphics design featured impressive attention to detail as well as a great sense of craftsmanship that many designers found to be appealing.

Even though retro and vintage styles in graphic design will continue to be popular, there seems to be a general shift in the recent decades towards what trend forecasters refer to as “Modern Retro” style of graphic design.

Another reason for the recent shift from the detailed or complex design is the adoption of simplicity and minimalism as depicted by some of the industry leaders. For instance, Google changed their visual language in 2015, and so many designers have taken the concept, further sounding the death knell for the ultra detailed designs.

The Use of Natural Color Schemes

The use of muted, natural color scheme is another graphics design trend that is slowly fading into the oblivion. With this trend in graphics design, designers tended to base their designs solely on the natural colors that were primarily inspired by nature. But this is no longer appealing in the design world as designers are now shying away from the natural color pallets and shifting towards the use of brighter and more saturated color palettes. The use of natural color schemes was especially rampant during the late 1980s and early 1990s, but a lot has changed since then.

Mixed Typography in design

The mix and match approach of using multiple fonts in the same design was a graphic design trend which was in use for a very long time. You would see it virtually in all the places you would find graphics displayed. These included websites, social media and logo amongst other branding materials. It is never easy to combine fonts, and it can easily lead to the ruination of a design if not done in the right manner.

However, if done perfectly, it can lead to very awesome designs. But presently the trend is no longer considered hot, especially with the challenges that come with the printing of multiple fonts on the same design. As a graphic design trend, therefore, mixed typography in design has lost the steam it needed to move forward.

Monoline in logo design

Monoline logos featured designs where the elements were illustrated in a single line weight. This graphic design trend was a rage when it hit the industry but seems to be losing its appeal among the current crop of designers. It used to be a versatile style that could also be used in minimal designs but despite this, it is no longer the in thing as designers have other approaches on making their designs looks great and trendy at the same time. Monoline logo design is thus one of the graphics design trends which might not be around in the few coming years.

Badges and crest logos

Badges and crest logo types were very popular and could be found everywhere. They appealed to most people due to their ease of creation since they also came with a plethora of templates that made it easy for designers to come up with different kind of logos in this style. But just like any other graphics design trend, their days as a trend had to be numbered and presently, nobody designs logos using the badges and crest styles.

Shaped Typography

Shaped Typography is another graphic design trend you have to accept its demise. This trend featured typography arranged in a manner that it formed certain shapes. It could be the shape of anything including patterns, plants or animals. The problem with this trend is that it made the designs look similar even though they were completely different. But since designers are after freshness and uniqueness in design, this trend is no longer considered great and it joins the list of graphic design trends that are officially out of style.

Learn why you need to cut the clutter in designs here. 

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The Elements of Graphics Design

The Elements of Graphics design is one of those books you will be recommended to as the best to start with in this industry. It is an introductory book on graphics design and it presents you with all the basics you need to have your foot on the right path in the industry. Though graphics design can at times be a technical subject, the book makes it simple in a clear language along with appropriate illustrations to make you understand the contents better.

Making and Breaking Grid

Having proper layout is something very crucial when starting any project in graphics design and most people new to the industry usually have a rough time in getting it right. To take away all the doubts and the confusions, all you have to do is to go through the book – Making and Breaking the Grid. This is one of the top graphic design books that will teach you all you need to know about layouts and grids so that you will have the confidences to do it right the first time and at all times.

The Elements of Typographic Styles

Without the right choice of typography, your design projects will never amount to anything. They will lack meaning and style thus effectively renders your design useless. The topic is such an important one in the field of graphic, and you deserve to give it all the attention it deserves. The Elements of Typographic Styles is one of the best graphic design books that will give you all the basics you need to know about typography. In this book, you will not only learn about the various typographies but also you will understand the various and proper contexts of their application.

Los Logos Series

Logo design is one of the leading branches of graphics design and as such, it is a preference to many budding designers. With the Los Logos Series, you get your ultimate guide to everything you need to know about the developments in logo design. The book showcases logos as comprehensives visual languages as well as the most recent cutting edge logo designs and logo designers in the globe.

With the illustrations in the book, you will understand what goes into designing an effective logo as well as how to get inspiration to design logos that will stand out from the crowd. Even after you become a proficient designer, this is one of the graphics design books you will not want to get separated from.

Designing Brand Identity

This is not just a top graphics design book for those interested in building brands and brand identity, but also those interested in other branches of graphics design as well. We all know that logos play a major role in branding and this book tells all you need to know right from the concept stage of logo design to the application of the logo in creating the brand for the organization. You also get to learn about the inner details of branding and what it takes to create a powerful and a formidable brand through the use of logos.

How to be a Graphic Designer without Losing your Soul

How to be a Graphic Designer without Losing your Soul is like a career manual to guide you in the graphics design profession. It is especially recommended for the young designers who are interested in establishing their graphics design business so that they are not employed by agencies where they will lose their soles in the name of churning out designs.

It offers quality and actionable advice on how you can run a successful and fulfilling business on your own. If you are a designer with an entrepreneurial spirit, then this is a graphics design book which you have to read before getting your feet wet in the profession. This has become added to the required reading on graphic design books for many programs.

Package Design Workbook: The Art & Science of Successful Packaging

A lot goes on behind the scenes in package design. Branding and packaging goes hand in hand and this is rated among the top graphics design books for designers who want to specialize in product packaging. The Package Design Workbook gives detailed explanation on the ins and outs of great product packaging. The books are presented in appropriate and easy to read manner and it also comes with detailed illustrations to make you understand each point clearly.

There are other top graphic designs books you could start with, but these are the best ones as they cut across the entire field thus give you a strong and comprehensive rooting in the profession.

Learn how to stay productive as a designer here!

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This is rather appalling, given that you can have the clients look for you and not you go hunting for them if you decided take your time and build a freelancer designer brand. If this has always been your interest but you have never had a clear way of how to build your freelance designer brand, here is how to do it without spending a lot of time or money for marketing.

Create a website or a blog

The first process in building a freelance designer brand is to a create website or have a personal blog. Through the blog, you will have an easy medium to share you work with the entire world and those interested in your services will also have an easy way of getting in touch with you. In the blog, you should not just provide a portfolio of all the works you have done, but also remember to offer useful design tips that will make potential customers perceive you as a highly skilled designer and be ready and willing to buy your gigs.

It is true that you can have your portfolio hosted in other several places on the internet, but having your blog will set you apart from the rest of the designers and portray you as a real and serious professional. Besides, you will have total control over the use of the blog and you can used it for other things like showcasing your design videos, which may be possible with the other third party portfolio websites.

Take advantage of the wider design community

The wider online design community is another place to consider when building your freelance designer brand. These communities bring together designers of all levels and from different parts of the world. They can be a source for clients since most the clients usually head over to such places looking of the right designers to do their works.

With the online design communities, you need to establish yourself as a trusted authority so that you can get the attention of your peers as well that of the potential clients. You should share some of your best work in the community. Not only this, but also you need to participate actively by taking part in the discussions going on, offering helpful tips and engaging with other members.

You should however avoid all temptations to be a bother like spamming or commenting on every thread or post. Such behaviour might work against you as you try to build your freelance designer brand.

Let your work be seen across other channels

In building a freelance designer brand, the objective is to position yourself strategically so that you can attract quality design clients. You should therefore strive to get your works out to as many channels as possible. In addition to your website and the online design communities, think about other places where you can get exposure.

For instance, you can create account with all the social media channels to help increase the exposure on your projects which will ultimately help you get more clients. But while using the various channels, it is imperative to maintain uniformity for the sake of building a uniform freelance designer brand.

Use the freelancing websites

Many skilled designers tend to shun the freelancing websites in the process of building a freelance designer brand. But these online workplaces can offer a great launch pad for your career as a freelance designer. A lot of people who need design services usually flock to the freelancing websites in search of potential designers. By being present in such sites therefore, you increase your exposure to lots of quality clients.

Additionally, most of the freelancing websites have a review system where customers can post either positive or negative reviews depending on the services they received. If you can maintain to get consistent positive reviews, it will be only a matter of time before you swarmed with orders from people seeking your services. Therefore, you should never bypass the freelancing website when building your freelance designer brand.

Introduce a value-added Giveaway

Using incentives is another powerful method you can employ in building your freelance designer brand. You can promise to offer value added complimentary services for every gig purchased from you. For instance, if someone orders a logo design, you can promise to offer them a free business card design as a giveaway. You are not just giving them something for free, but whatever you offer them will add real value to their business.

As you try to build your freelance designer brand, it is important to remember that it takes time and effort to have the brand off its feet. Be ready to do the hard work now and you will reap the benefits later on when your freelance designer brand will be doing all the marketing for you.

Here is how you can create a great graphic design resume!

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The best they can do is to wait for other people to come up with designs then they steal concepts or simply become copycats. Such individuals are an accident in this noble profession, and you need to protect your designs from them through all possible means. Discussed below are various ways you can employ to ensure that all your designs are protected from the copycats in the world-:

Watermark

Watermarking is the first and the most basic method you can use to protect your design from the copycats. Suppose you are working on a design project, and you need to present to your client some design inspirations, all you have to do to protect the design so that no one else can copy it is to simply watermark it.

Additionally, you can watermark the various designs you showcase in your portfolio online. Remember, with the world of internet, a simple Google search can make your designs vulnerable hence uploading onto your portfolio without any watermarks will make it a breeze for the copycats to take it away.

Small Size Design

There are unscrupulous clients who will try to get your design service for free or very cheaply. What these people do is request you to make for them design samples, and if you fail to watermark the samples, they will simply take them and trace them before sending them off to cheap designers in the freelance sites. The cheap designers will thus use your inspiration and concept to continue with the design.

This can be a very tricky situation, and you can only hope that you don’t land such clients. The best to protect your design in such a case is to send very small design samples that the client can’t copy and pass on to another designer.

Always stick to quality designs

Most of the designs which are easily copied are the ones of poor quality or those that have been presented in a reckless manner. If you can make unique and quality designs, sometimes it can be very hard for the copycats to steal it. This is because though they will see the entire design on the internet, they will not know how to make a similar one since most of them are less skilled, anyway. Therefore, strive as much as possible to create quality and distinct designs to give the copycats a run for their time and skills.

Only share your designs after selling them

Another way to protect your design is to avoid sharing them with others, either offline or online before you finally sell them or pass the rights to the client. You can wait until you have sold the designs before sharing them and indicating clearly while sharing that the design is already sold to another person. In this manner, the world gets to know about your designs after they have already been sold, and this makes them less prone to theft by the copycats.

Be careful with the sites you use

There has been a proliferation of websites where people share their designs and other kinds of inspirations. But these sites have become the favorite abodes for a lot of copycats in the world. They go to these sites to check if they can find something to copy or to steal. However, not all such sites are that vulnerable.

There are a few genuine ones who take adequate measure to ensure that user’s works are not copied or downloaded in any way. To protect your design when using such sites, therefore, it is imperative that you be selective and use only the legit ones. Check out their ratings and read their privacy policy to see if you designs will be safe should you decide to use the website. If you feel you will be vulnerable, and you won’t protect your design in the right manner, simply avoid such sites.

Get Copyrights

Getting trademarks or copyrights is another sure way to ensure that you protect your design from thieves and potential copycats. If you do this, you will have an option for legal redress should you discover that somebody somewhere is using your designs without your permission. The process of getting a trademark or copyrights for your design work may be long and tedious, but if you have a design you think is worth protecting at all costs, and then this would be the method.

Learn top lessons that you should take from the big brands in this article!

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Every professional graphics designer understands the importance of having strong design principles to define their work and establish their brands in the design world. The design world demands uniqueness, and you can’t come up with unique designs unless you have unique design principles which you follow with every design project you embark on. This is the only way to build your personal brand besides creating coherence and consistency across all your designs.

The process of discovering or creating your design principles might be challenging at the beginning, but once you get the hang of it, it will be interesting and it might be one of the most rewarding things you will ever do for your design career. Listed here are certain principles to help you discover your design principles and how to stick to them so that you have your different methods of accomplishing your design tasks-:

Appropriateness

The first step towards determining your design principles is to interrogate the relevance of every design project you work on. As a graphics designer, you should ask yourself why you are doing the designs you are doing in the manner that you are doing them. As you do this, you will start to realize or notice certain patterns you tend to lean towards and which you have adopted in most of your designs.

The answer to how appropriate your designs fit the needs of your clients will also reveal to you if you are a trend follower in which case most of your designs are based on fads. Basing your principles in fads may not be a bad thing so long as the design remain relevant and will be adaptive in the future should there be changes in the fad. Therefore, if you can define the appropriateness of your designs, then you shall have taken the first step in determining your design principles.

Understanding needs of the client

Adequacy of design will only come if you can determine the needs of your client. It is thus imperative that you take the time to understand what your clients really want for you to come up with the right designs that will solve their needs. Every designer has their unique methods which they follow to understand the needs of their clients.

For instance, some will assemble mood boards, make reference to past works, study the brand guidelines, or simply resort to researching more on the topic. Whichever method works best for you; you need to be aware of it so that you can consider it as one of your design principles to help you save time and make you more productive.

The Execution of Work

How you execute your work is another important element in determining your design principles. Many people usually think of craftsmanship simply as the style, but it goes beyond that and reflects directly on your knowledge and understanding of design. Every designer aims at attaining high levels of craftsmanship since, without beautiful designs, it will be very difficult to attract and retain customers. It is, therefore, important to have a conscious awareness of how you execute your projects and also master the kind of results you have been getting from them.

This will reveal to you a deeper realization on how you work as well as your levels of craftsmanship so that you can refine further your design principles for more proficiency. When considering how you execute your work in defining your design principles, you should think about all the work you do, how you do it and the tools you use in arriving at the final product.

Passion

Without passion, you will always have dismal results from your design endeavors. As part of your design principles, you need to determine just how passionate you are about the work and the particular things you do to ensure that you don’t lose your passion as a graphics designer. You should have a desire for constant progress and adaptability, and as your portfolio grows, you should be able to note improved quality of your previous works. Your passion for design will affect your style hence your design principles eventually.

Uniqueness

Finally, the design principles you adopt must be unique. This should always be the case since each and every designer has a different approach to reaching solutions for the design challenges they encounter. As a graphic designer, it might take a while before you understand your unique style or position as far as graphics design is concerned, but as you continue to practice and be more proficient in the career, you will start to notice the uniqueness in your design principles. You can also try challenging yourself each time to come up with unique solutions and always operate away from your comfort zone.

Having a good understanding of your design principles will make it easy for you to avoid being complacent and always be on top of your game. Otherwise, design will just be routine for you and will never get any pleasure or achieve levels of mastery without solid design principles.

Check out these impressive logos that have just two colors

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Most of the white collar jobs seem to offer very little regarding rewards other than the monetary aspect. If you are looking to pay your bills, then the daily grind might be sufficient, but if you want something more fulfilling and inspiring, then you will have to look for a career which will offer you with more than just what the daily grind has to offer. The graphic design industry offers you with an alternative route to getting more fulfilled in your career with exciting remunerations compared to what you may have gotten the blue chip companies.

The daily challenges and the constant demands to produce quality results are some of the attributes that make a career in graphic design more endearing and appealing to those who are keen on getting ahead with their professions in life. Here are some of the reasons why being a graphic designer might as well be the best thing that will ever happen in your life-:

Impressive Salaries

There is a wide salary range for graphic designers with those who are just starting out earning the least. As one advances in skills and experiences, the salary also keeps on increasing. But before you argue this happens in every other profession, the graphic design industry is unique in a number of ways and which will ultimately add to the final perk that a designer will carry home.

It is important to realize that billions of dollars are spent in marketing and advertising each and every year and there would be no marketing or even advertising if graphic design were not there. Hence, so long as businesses need to marketing, branding and advertising, the graphic designer will always have work, which will be well remunerated because the clients want quality work.

Potential Career Growth

A career in graphic design has enticing prospects for one to advance in their careers and build very impressive portfolios. Being a challenging profession, there is a lot to learn and experience once one is done with the basic education. You get a chance to meet and interact with different personalities, and you also get a chance to work on wide and diversified projects, all of which will help you become a better and more fulfilled graphic designer.

Wide Range of Industry Sectors

A career in graphic design will open a plethora of doors for you and enable you practice your trade in a wide range of industry sectors. You will be at liberty to choose whether you want to branch out to advertising and marketing, web design or you want to major in corporate brand identity. With such a wide range of choices to make, you will be at liberty to choose the one that appeal to you the most and which you believe will give you the greatest satisfaction. Besides, you are not limited in practice, and you also have the freedom to practice in more than one field, thus increasing your versatility and value as a graphic designer.

Challenging and interesting assignment

One beautiful thing you will love with a career in graphic design is that there are no two projects that will be the same. For every project, you will be working with a completely new set of demands and conditions and probably new clients as well. Every day will be a unique day where you will be required to make fresh decisions in coming up with the various designs. Due to this challenging while at the same time interesting nature of assignments, a career in graphic design will never leave you feeling bored at work since you will be working on something interesting each and every day.

Self-Fulfillment

Self-fulfillment is not just important for the sake of your satisfaction at work, but also, it affects other areas of your life. When you are self-fulfilled, you are happy to the fact that through your skills, you were able to make a difference to your clients and the world around you in general. A career in graphic design is one of the most self fulfilling careers you will ever come across. You deal with practical clients, and every project is a chance for you to make a difference and make the client meet their objectives. When your clients come to you and express gratitude for what you did for them, this makes you feel fulfilled and really happy that you did what you did.

Easily be your own boss

Most people dream of being self employed. They admire the freedom and the earning potentials that come with self-employment. However, this is not a familiarity you will find with most of the other careers. However, with a career in graphic designs, once you have gained the experience, skills and the connections to clients, you need nothing else to start your own company or start freelancing on the internet. Therefore, if you have ever dreamt of being your own boss, then you need to think deeply about choosing a career in graphic design.

Check out how to design app logos here!

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It is the desire of every designer to come up with unique designs that will impact on their client or their business brands positively. But this kind of branding is not possible unless you know what it takes to come up with a winning brand. Even though knowledge and experience in graphic design are important for proper branding, they are not a requisite in coming up with killer brands.

It is true that it requires time, effort and dedication in developing proficiency in branding at a designer, but if you have a good understanding of the basis of branding for designers, you will take less time and get stellar results without struggling a lot. Here we take a look at the core components of what makes a good brand, and which every designer should be aware of if they want to create brands that will make heads turn whenever they are seen.

Never target everybody

The first item that features prominently in branding basics for designers is that no brand should be made to target everybody. A brand that targets everybody targets nobody. The way to come clean out of this and ensure that you are not aiming wide with your brand is first to identify your target audience.

This can only be achieved by conducting extensive market research and defining exactly who needs your products and services. It is out of this information that you will have a clear picture of who you will be selling to. Hence, you can craft an appropriate brand to captivate their attention. In essence, the brand should be the right fit for the targeted audience. This is by far the most important branding basics for designers you should never forget about.

Simplicity Reigns

It may be tempting to display your design prowess by coming up with very beautiful and extremely catchy designs. However, in the world of branding and design, the objective is to catch the attention of the target audience in the shortest time possible and probably make them take a desired course of action. Due to this, brands have resorted to using designs that are simple yet effective in captivating their target audiences.

This is known as the concept of “Less is more.” It is possible to create the most beautiful design in the industry, but remember, if the target audience admires the beauty of the design and fails to recognize the branding message or the brand promise, then you awesome brand design will go down the drains. Therefore, be as simple as possible in your branding while maintaining quality and high impact designs. Simplicity is thus one of the most important branding basics for designers.

Avoid Special Effects

Closely related to simplicity is the temptation to use special effects while branding. This is another core branding basics for designers. For a brand to be effective, it needs to be remembered by most, if not all, of the target audience. A sure way of achieving this is to avoid special effects in the branding materials. These include but are not limited to effects like drop shadows, gradients, and embellishments amongst other elements.

The danger of using such effects is that they risk compromising the effectiveness of the designs as the targeted audience might find them complex and may not decipher the meaning of the graphics. Even though the temptation to include such effects in your branding may be overpowering, you must resist all attempts to use them. Consider this as one of the branding basics for designers that you should never let go or think about forgetting.

Proper Use of Colors

Colors mean a lot with regards to branding basics for designers. Humans are visual beings with varied responses to different kinds of colors. As a designer who wants to come up with the best designs, proper use of color in your designs is imperative. It will be beneficial in a number of ways to learn about the graphics design color theory to understand the various emotions evoked by the different colors and also to understand the combination of color sheds you can use to get effective results from your branding efforts.

In the absence of these, you will be using colors blindly with no due consideration of the particular effects they will have on those who will see the brand. You shall have thus wasted time and effort in coming up with a blind brand. Therefore, treat the proper use of colors as one of the coveted branding basics for designers. You must just get it right or forget about having a winning design.

Uniqueness

Coming up with unique designs cannot miss when talking about branding basics for designers. Uniqueness is the only attribute that will set you apart from the rest. Of importance is the name and the symbols used in the brand. A unique name should be relevant to the target audience, and it should also be memorable. In addition to this, the name should be accompanied by an appropriate symbol that will help in conveying the central brand message.

Here is how to give any business brand instant personality. 

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The graphics design industry is always evolving. 2015 was a great year for many designers. There were lots of design inspirations as people tried to explore new concepts in a bid to enhance quality and productivity. We also can’t fail to mention that many designers seemed to incline towards the adoption of design styles and trends that existed in the yester years.

For instance, the concept of retro design seemed to be picking up steam with the application of techniques that were used way back in the 60s, 70s, 80s and early 90s. As we get into 2016, we can only see a continuation of some of these trends as well as the discovery and adoption of new ones. From a designer’s perspective, here are some of the graphic design trends to watch out for in the year 2016-:

Shapeshifting

2015 saw more and more shapes coming into life through background, icons, logos and repeated patterns. This can only be expected to gain momentum in 2016 as it is apparently becoming more important for companies and organizations to create iconography that is appealing to the eye and which will be strategic to the marketing and brand awareness of the companies. This trend in shapeshifting is already evident when you look at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics logo, Windows 10 icon, Airbnb and a few others.

Infographics and custom illustrations

For the last few decades, people have enjoyed the use imagery and illustrations, but it can now be safely said that the trend is fast dying out as it is being replaced by the versatile and more efficient custom illustrations. The use of stock photography is dead. People are looking for more originality and authenticity in the illustrations. Originality is king, and people are keen on finding out what sets their companies apart then use it to market their products and services.

Typography

The entry of Google fonts in the world of typography has already made a significant change in the design world, and it can only be expected that this trend will continue well beyond 2016. Designers are no longer constrained to outdated web compatible fonts because they have a wide assortment of choices. This is of fundamental importance since fonts play a very great role in both web and graphics design.

Color Schemes

The trend as far as color scheme is concerned is revolving around the use of bold and rich colors. Designers are getting more adventurous with each passing day on playing out with these colors to come up with stunningly beautiful designs. The interior design world is already taking a lead with the use of these colors, and one might be made to believe that we are going back to the eighties.

Flat Designs

Many people thought that the concept of flat design was some fad that would come and go. Surprisingly, it has maintained a strong upward move because it is offering relief to the traditional design concepts. It has introduced a whole new thing that designers were not aware of, and with the great results already being seen, it can be expected that the trend will increase in 2016. Many designers are warming up to the “fad” due to the quality and the versatile options it possesses.

Digital Design Graphics and Marketing

The influence of digital design marketing is expected to grow exponentially in the year 2016, especially in the marketing arena. DIY graphic tools are becoming more popular by the day and outlets like Instagram are making it easy for businesses and designers to reach huge audiences through digital design.

Increase in the growth of advertising design

Marketers are becoming more aware of the influence of visuals in marketing, and since they are not expert designers, they don’t want to go it alone. This has led to the growth of what is now known as Advertising Design where marketers are working hand in hand with designers to make their marketing more effective. With this, it is only expected that the demand for designers by marketer will be on a strong upward trend in 2016 and beyond.

Rise of Monochromatic Schemes

Monochromatic schemes are also expected to become more popular in 2016. Many designers have shown a strong incline towards design that use different shades of the same color. It doesn’t just create an awesome coherence in the designs, but also leads to bold and sound designs. This is a trend that started in late 2012, but with the increased adoption by many designers, we can only expect that 2016 will see more people adopt the use of monochromatic schemes

These are just but a few of the trends we expect to see in 2016. There are others still, but as designers, the best we can do is to position ourselves and be ready for anything that can enhance our creativity and make us serve our clients better.

The post Graphic Design Trends to watch out for in 2016 appeared first on LogoMaven | Easy Logo Design Software & Logo Maker.

Business cards remain one of the most important tools for any serious business-minded individual in the world today. They are not just ideal for promoting brands and sharing contact details, they also play a crucial as far as image presentation is concerned. Every business owner desires to create a good first impression with their business cards hence it pays to have a stylish and uniquely design business card.

With everything moving so fast in the world of business and technology, various trends in the design as well as functionality of the business cards have now become very evident. People are trying to pass across more information with the cards and not just name and contact details alone. The designs are also no longer generic. Rarely will you find the rectangular shaped cards as businesses are adopting shapes relevant to their products and services. Presented here are a few of the unique trends in business cards today-:

Business Cars with QR Codes

The inclusion of QR codes in business makes them very effective in providing a lot more relevant information to the recipients. Such codes are printed on the cards, and they can be read using various Smart phone applications. This is a unique, and also an unusual trend since it brings together technology and the traditional business cards to offer more information to the holders of such cards. The other beauty of using such QR codes in business cards is that they provide a humongous marketing opportunity to the business owners.

Interactive Business Cards

The other unusual business card trend is the design and production of interactive business cards. These cards came into light in 2012 and their adoption seems to be on a very strong uptrend, three years later. This can be attributed to the awesome design capabilities that these business cards trend to present to business owners.

With the advancements in the printing industry, the looks of these cards are expected to improve owing to the possibility that they can be printed in 3D. Though these business cards don’t offers a lot of marketing opportunities to the businesses, their fascination is strong enough to attract attention and make people take keen note of the brand featured in the business card.

Fun Shaped Business Cards

Gone are the days when the only shapes you could find for a business card had to be the generic rectangular, wallet sized cards. Businesses are eager to explore other areas of creativity by using fun shaped cards to attract the attention of the recipients, besides illustrating using shapes their various kinds of products and services.

But even as businesses adopt the use of fun shaped business cards, it is imperative not to overdo it such that the recipient will get distracted from the important contact details because they are looking at the shape of the card. This beats the spirit and letter of giving out the card, even though it looks trendy and appealing to the eyes.

3D Business Card Designs

If you are in the creative industry and you want something that will wow your potential clients, besides displaying your design prowess, then you have every reason to know about 3D business card design. It is the desire of every business to have their clients look at their cards whenever they are in need of any service or product and call them immediately. 3D business cards are guaranteed to attract the attention of the potential clients from the many cards they have in their drawers and this will increase their likelihood of calling your business if you have these kinds of cards.

Cards made from unique materials

This is not really a unique trend in business card design, but rather an escalation of a trend that has been around for some time. People in various industries have used different materials to make their business cards, but what we are experiencing now is something completely unusual.

Due to the need to get the attention of the potential clients whom the cards are given to, some businesses are using unique materials in creating their business cards. Some of these materials include wood, silver, steel, x-ray etc. The beauty of using such unique materials is that they are also attractive leading to very fine looking business cards.

Simple but elegant business cards

People used to shun simplicity in design a few years ago, but surprisingly, it seem like designers are rushing against time back to simplistic designs. We are currently witnessing different types of business cards designed in simple but elegant manner.

These types of cards are ideal for corporate who still hold on to strong corporate practices or professions that does not have a lot of room for being casual. But it is good to point out that since the cards feature simple designs, they don’t offer a lot of distractions to the readers hence they are still very effective in branding and giving contact details to potential clients.

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Very many people in the design industry think that flat design is like a fad that will be present today and gone by tomorrow. Whether or not this assumption is correct, it is imperative for every designer to keep up to date and always be ahead of every trend.

As a professional designer, it is not your duty to refuse or accept trends that you don’t necessarily agree to. Instead, you should have an open mind and consider anything that can make you add more value to you clients and improve your skills as a designer and presently, flat design is one of such things.

When you get to the internet, you will get a plethora of articles and web pages giving versions of illustration on various flat design projects. Whereas they are right, and most of the designs they show are breathtaking, they fail miserably at telling you how to come up with such designs on your own.

They leave you high and dry because they offer you with nothing at all to enhance or improve your skills towards becoming a good flat designer. We, however, break this norm and show you how you can create flat design projects that rock. For the best results, consider the following when working on flat design projects-:

Consider bold color choices

Bright and bold colors are the secret sauce in most flat design projects you will ever encounter. But this is not to say that they are the only colors you can use when working with flat designs. In fact, several flat designs don’t use bold colors, yet they give stellar end products.

Therefore, feel free to use bold color palettes. However, you can use not solid color hues, with different amount of lightness, slightly more than normal saturation levels and you will still end up with successful flat design projects. You can also use solid colors and have great success just as seen in the case of Windows 8.

Typography and Flat Design

The typography used is a great factor of concern when thinking about flat design projects. Typography, as usual, is an enormous subject with endless details and options. But with regards to getting it right with your flat designs, there are fundamental aspects of typography you have to give close attention.

For instance, the use of the traditional serif fonts has proven not to give the very best results with flat designs. You have the option of using Slab-Serif faces like Sanchez or Rockwell. But if you want the most authentic looks for your flat design, then you should consider using clean, modern Sans-serif fonts.

Choose icons that reflect the design theme

Using icons in designing is always important irrespective of what you are working on, whether they are symbols, large logos, or glyphs, icons will always fit. But with flat design projects, when you use icons, then they must create coherence with the overall design theme. You are free to use small sized icons or oversized icons so long as they don’t have any sharp or strong rounded edges and also they don’t have any gradient.

The use of images in flat design

If you have to use images in your flat design, then it is a good idea to have them filtered or stylized. You will realize that most of such designs feature full-width images that stretch across the entire layout. Again for great results, the images you use must never have any borders, so be sure to cut your images directly without creating any borders.

Flat Design and Spaces

Learning how to use spaces correctly is something that many designers still struggle with, and it’s not when doing flat design projects alone. Too much space will leave the design bare while too little space will make it look cluttered.

As a good design practice, you should always add spaces rather than subtract, and this also applies when you are working on flat design projects. For instance, start by including all the elements you need in the design before you start taking away the ones you don’t need so that you remain only with the essential ones.

Avoid the following

Proficiency in flat designing will come with a lot of practice. Besides, it is still considered a fad. Hence, there are no strong industry guidelines on what should or should not be done. Most of it involves trial and error and so far, observing the above factors has always led to great designs.

Even though the concept is still evolving, there are a few things that will certainly ruin your flat design projects. These include using gradients, unless they are subtle, using drop shadows, application of borders on design elements and using traditional serif fonts. Stay away from them and you will fare well with any flat design projects you make.

Check out some other new trends in design from 2015!

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