Whether you work in-house for a brand or serve clients at an agency—and you haven’t already done it—it’s time to create your 2023 marketing plan.
You will likely look to incorporate social, video, and written content into your plan, but you might not have the support or expertise needed to execute everything. Luckily, there are vendors you can find and work with that can make all the assets you will need to reach your goals next year.
For instance, one vendor you may need to work with is a graphic designer. Graphic designers can make your social media campaigns, email campaigns, and other promotional materials stand out. Just remember that when it comes to digital marketing graphic design services, it is important to partner with a company that understands your brand and your audience. What’s more, you need a partner that knows which trends to jump on and which to abandon come the new year.
How do you know which graphic designers are the savviest? Unfortunately, this is not something you can easily identify. However, you can gain a basic understanding of design trends before working with a graphic designer to determine what is appropriate for your marketing materials and what isn’t. Spend some time determining which trends will be beneficial to your brand in 2023 and which trends would be best to leave behind so that you can better guide your graphic designer on each project.
Timeless Graphic Design Choices
Before you can understand which trends to leave in 2022, you must familiarize yourself with the graphic design choices that will always be in style. One of the top goals of any marketer is to ensure that their brand remains relevant. By using classic designs in your 2023 campaigns, you can save your company from a rebrand in 2024.
To start, geometric shapes are the perfect choice if you believe in the mantra “less is more.” Squares, circles, and triangles are not only aesthetically pleasing, but they also communicate more than you realize. A circle, for example, can create elements that signify no beginning and no end. Squares can elevate your brand by showing physical boundaries in your designs or heightened standards, and triangles can show action or tension.
Another timeless design scheme is simplicity. Too many colors, shapes, and lines can overwhelm audiences trying to make sense of your brand on their customer journey. Instead of trying to use all the elements you can think of to tell your brand’s story, keep it simple. Use one, two, or maybe three colors with a few shapes to help people focus on the most important concept: what you do and how you do it. Walmart nailed this approach with a smiley face in its commercials for years. The mood was upbeat, and people quickly understood that lower prices could make them happy.
You could also stick to Swiss Style graphic design. This style exists to make words much easier to read. It’s a great choice for marketing materials that will be featured on subway platforms, bus stops, billboards, and similar areas. Think Sans Serif fonts, crisp outlines, and basic letter shapes. After all, reading cursive or Times New Roman from a distance can be challenging. Employ Swiss Style to make your brand more visible to the busy consumer who doesn’t have much time to figure out your font and logo. Again, simplicity can make a statement with the right fonts and colors.
Graphic Design Trends to Abandon
These past few years of the pandemic took a toll on everyone, including graphic designers. Specifically, consumer behavior changed drastically, prompting graphic designers to change their styles as well. As a result, 2022 became a year of “creative pragmatism.” But now that the world is entering a new normal, it’s time to abandon pandemic-era design trends for ones that will resonate with today’s consumers. Here are three design trends to leave behind as you move into 2023:
1. Boring Typography
Let’s be clear: Boring fonts will not cut it in 2023. Does this mean that fonts can’t be simple? No. However, it would help if you intentionally used your font choices to add personality to your designs. Font creation software will dominate the graphic design space in 2023, which means you can create a font that is truly unique to your brand. Font is one of the first things people recognize when they think of your brand, so make it memorable, even if it is simple.
2. One-Dimensional Designs
Last year, graphic designers mainly focused on proportionality in their work. As such, they used a lot of one-dimensional designs to tell brands’ stories. However, an emerging trend for 2023 is 3D design, an element that can take artwork to a new level. Adobe has developed tools to help marketers and graphic designers create 3D artwork. You can use the 3D design for something other than digital artwork; it can also make product design and illustrations pop. This is an excellent opportunity to push the boundaries of what’s possible.
3. Computer Lettering
Sure, there are fonts on your computer that you can use in your 2023 brand guide. However, many brands are exploring custom typing and hand lettering. As brands work to distinguish themselves in a challenging economic climate, a straightforward way to say a lot with very little is by creating a handwritten font for their messaging. This could improve brand recognition and keep customers returning based on their perceptions of your brand’s personality.
Be Unique
One thing 2023 will force brands to do is to be unique in what they say and how they say it. For many brands, uniqueness begins with graphic design. After all, visuals are usually your brand’s first impression. So, in 2023, pay special attention to timeless elements you can incorporate into your marketing plan and avoid trends that are going out of style. This will enhance collaboration with designers and ensure your assets remain relevant.