5 Graphic Design Trends for 2020

Graphic design in 2020 will continue to be bold and experimental in their look and feel. We say this because, in the Creative Track of the GSC at MAS/FIU, our students are creating the future trends without permission from the industry but not without due regard to its current aesthetics and technology. Our program prides itself as a world-renowned portfolio school that has won Cannes’ Future Lion Awards in 2019 and continues to look ahead. See the future we are creating with the 5 graphic design trends set for 2020 below. Then head over to our and learn more about our program.

1. App Icon Design

Have you noticed lately that when you update the applications on your phone, the icon design has changed? Recently, many mobile apps have applied colorful gradients on their icon design in response to this popular color theme. Users have become bored with ultra-simple web pages, mobile applications, and posters. In response, global brands like Apple, Samsung, Hublot, as well as top instant messengers like Telegram have included bright and colorful elements.

Color theory has always made it apparent that colors play a big role in creating the impression of a project and the future will continue to see this knowledge used in full.

2. Videos with 2D Illustrations

As retro continues to be a trend in other industries, the answer in graphic design has been to delightfully animated 2D illustrations that were once the only possibility with modern technology.

Indeed, the graphic element of this is the most important as often the 2D elements themselves are stagnant as they interact in a moving environment.

It is powerful imagery for brands to be able to resurrect iconography and images from their brand’s history and use them in new ways to tell their story.

See the Inside Chanel website or Paperboyo Instagram as sublime examples of those who have excelled at this and will continue to see their skills in applying this trend increase in demand.

3. Glowing Scribble Animations

Similar to the above trend, by tracking graphics onto videos, creators have found an insatiable and addictive audience by adding glowing scribble animations to live-action footage. Playing with the glowing light against darkness or having the subject’s movements enhanced by them are common themes, but more will emerge in 2020.

Dancers and singers in SNS platforms apply this kind of effect as seen in this campaign video for Converse. It contains a mixture of live-action videos and 2D graphics applied in post-production for an undeniably mesmerizing effect.

4. 3D Settings

Three-dimensional compositions require a tremendous amount of imagination that is then put into work for a designer. But as a result, we get an exquisite picture that you want to plunge into. At the same time, 3D projects are increasingly filling our world in films, drawings on asphalt, logos and more.

These are the cheesy or cliché ways that we’ve thus seen in movies or theme parks. The demand to combine offline experiences with online ones as well as multi-screen experiences, forces designers to turn the sphere and see where the user can peer in.

While the 3D trend reached its peak in 2019 and it certainly won’t fade away so quickly. Thanks to new technology and software capabilities, in 2020, we will keep seeing more awesome 3D graphic design compositions. Moreover, in order to be more creative, designers will often combine it in ways such as the ones mentioned above.

Do you want to be a Graphic Design Trendsetter? Contact Grizelle De Los Reyes, Director of the FIU-MAS Creative Track program at gdelosre@fiu.edu and learn more about our Art Direction, Copywriting, Social Media, and Content Strategy sub-tracks as ways to influence the creative world around you.