Hot design trends for 2023

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates life” according to an eloquent 19th-century Irish writer, referring to how art affects the way we perceive the world around us. As the world changes, so does art – and vice versa.

The beauty of design is that it constantly flows and evolves to become something completely unique, attaching creative homages to what came before. Today, our binary world influences human creativity in how we express ourselves, our brands, and our products.

To this point, let’s take a look at the hottest design trends poised to deliver powerful creative impact in how we digitally present and view the world in 2023.

1. Retro Style

Nostalgia will always be a powerful influence on branding and design as it is highly relatable. For retro styles, grain and noise textures are used to add a vintage look to a design while still retaining modern elements. Multi-colour gradients with black thin outlining still remain a must-have feature of this style. Although bold and quite flashy, the colour combinations of the 70s retro flat design style are aesthetically “in” right now, and will continue to be in 2023. 

2. 3D and Cyber Futurism

Whether in static or animated images, 3D elements bring a sense of realism to designs – as if they’re jumping out of the screen and coming to life. 3D gives designers an entirely new dimension to work with and a more exciting and immersive experience for the viewer. In 2023, volumetric icons and illustrations will be used frequently in websites, applications, posters, identity elements, etc. This trend is also moving into fonts, with exaggerated 3D bubble fonts that look like metal, neon, candy, chrome, ice cream, or soup.

3. Abstract Geometric Shapes

You will already have seen this trend floating around but in 2023 it will really take shape, and for good reason. In addition to being aesthetically pleasing, abstract geometric shapes are designed with simplicity in mind which helps with accessibility and understandability. People naturally gravitate to this style as the simple forms are pleasing to our eyes and everything is presented clearly. But simplicity doesn’t mean boring – bright geometric patterns look hot in brand design and other creative elements.

4. Animation/Motion

Thanks to evolving technology, animation and motion graphics have become easier to create for designers today – which is why we will see more of them in 2023. People pay more attention to moving images than to static ones or text, which is why many of the top tech companies are using this engagement-boosting principle in their UX designs for landing and product information pages.

These scroll stoppers aim to drive higher leads, conversion rates, and traffic. Expect to see more animations and motion graphics throughout web and mobile interfaces in 2023.  

5. Brutalism and Anti-design

Brutalism often resurfaces during times of political and social uncertainty to reflect our collective anxiety – so no wonder it is a reemerging trend today. Brutalism embraces a lack of rules and challenges generic design norms with its sharp edges, raw materials, and monochromatic colours. The trends add harsh, flashy fonts over boring images to create jarring, freaky elements and encourage designers to not shy from daring and unusual decisions. Naturally, this style is suited to edgy brands with political undertones that identify with fringe societies and perspectives.  

Rebel against conventions by taking a look at these brutal and anti-design creations below:

6. Trippy Design

To satisfy the modern demand for sense-provoking visuals, trippy design styles offers a surrealistic experience by sending viewers into a fictional reality. Defined by distorting reality to the limits of one’s imagination, these designs are an eclectic mix of styles that don’t always follow creative intuition, almost like a hallucination – and that’s what makes them uniquely “trippy”. As a modern take on the 70’s hippy/LSD movement, this style is a homage to the past for recognisability but with a whimsically contemporary feel.

7. Experimental Typography

Banners just got a whole lot cooler as unusual typefaces with unconventional letterforms and awkward spacing is gaining popularity with designers. Luxurious typefaces like scripts are placed over experimental layout techniques with overlapping or odd-angled text creating an interesting aesthetic. Letters with different fonts, sizes, and spacing are great for getting attention, making them a hot trend for logos, banners, album covers, and accent words/phrases on websites and mobile applications.

8. AI-generated Art 

A major design trend that will likely define 2023 won’t be what designs look like but how they are made. AI image generators are the future of creative content where algorithms develop designs from a few human prompts. Simply type in what subject and creative style you want and in a few seconds binary artists will whip up a one-of-a-kind design. While some might resent this technology for undermining the humanness embedded in creativity, others see it as a way to streamline creative ball-rolling and conceptualisation phases to free up designers to focus on big ideas. Whatever side you’re on, 2023 will see the rise of robot-generated designs alongside their human counterparts.

Finalising touch

There you have it – 9 of the hottest design trends we think will make creative waves in 2023. The convergence of technology and our unwavering appetite for fresh creative designs continue to inspire beautiful creations for brands to present themselves and for audiences to enjoy.

Creativity and design are incredibly important elements of human existence. They create stories in our minds, fuel our imaginations, illicit complex emotions and communicate in ways that make us feel. 

More than this, art defines our perspective of our reality:

“Things are because we see them, and what we see, and how we see it, depends on the arts that have influenced us.”

– Oscar Wilde

Pavel Lysenko

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