Welcome to the first post of the Cliff Notes blog!
This blog has been a dream of the TCS team for several years now, and we’re so excited to finally be ready to share it. We’ve been working hard planning content for the year. Everything from finding efficient ways to share our expertise on graphic design and web development, to keeping you up to date on the current trends in our industry, to overviews on design styles and their histories. We have a lot of passion for our industry, have spent many years honing our craft, and are confident that you’ll find Cliff Notes to be both informative and inspiring.
It’s hard to believe we’re already three months into the year, but that has given the TCS team plenty of time to go on a trend watch adventure and bring our findings to you. We’ve found three major trends that we’ve already been seeing a lot this year and that we believe will continue to be big, and would love to share how we think they can work for you!
Let's Get Started!
TREND #1
Natural Modern
In Theory.
A blend of modern styling and earthly elements, Natural Modern has been growing in popularity the last couple of years and we expect to see a lot of it in 2024. As consumers lean more and more toward eco-friendly brands and products they have a keener eye for natural-looking design. Infusing Natural Modern styling into your brand aesthetic not only helps you keep current in trend, but it subtly signals to your consumers that you’re environmentally conscious.
In Practice.
In Potential.
Ways to leverage Natural Modern styling for your brand:
Light: A series of social images with subdued color photographs paired with elegant typography and natural textures.
Moderate: An email newsletter template that introduces earth tones that complement and are used in conjunction with your current brand palette, with subdued color photography and natural textures.
Substantial: A total branding overhaul complete with a color palette of rich earth tones, elegant font choices, and a Natural Modern styled brand identity.
TREND #2
Doodles
In Theory.
It has everything from sketched characters to text emphasizers, the Doodles trend introduces hand-crafted elements to evoke a more human and fun personality. We’ve seen a lot of this in the era of brand outreach through social media, using friendlier styling to make a brand approachable, and we see this continuing in 2024 with more focus on adding Doodles to design.
In Practice.
In Potential.
Ways to leverage Doodles styling for your brand:
Light: Adding doodled accents to social media post designs.
Moderate: Introducing motion elements to your website that emphasize content; e.g. circling words, underlining sentences, pointing arrows to paragraphs.
Substantial: An advertising campaign with a customized set of stylized characters to be used throughout the campaign to help communicate your messaging.
TREND #3
Vibrant Gradients
In Theory.
Highly versatile and easily introduced, gradients are set to make a big splash in 2024. We’ve been seeing an uptrend in gradient usage for several years, mostly involving pastels, but this year you can expect to see gradients using bright neons and bold color shifts. Keep an eye out for unique approaches to color blends and different types of gradient styles.
In Practice.
In Potential.
Ways to leverage Vibrant Gradient styling for your brand:
Light: Create a single gradient with some complementing colors from your palette and introduce it throughout your design projects.
Moderate: Restyle your brand’s social media output with the usage of bright gradient backgrounds and bold typography.
Substantial: A brand refresh that introduces a palette of gradients to be used in your brand’s identity.
What Does This All Mean?
It means that 2024 is a great time to experiment with something new! If you’re ready to make a big and bold change to your brand, now is the time. Whether that big and bold change is focusing on natural modern styling to your brand identity, introducing friendly sketched characters to your client-facing communication, or brightening your color palette with modern gradients you can be assured that you’ll be on trend and competitive in your market!
