There are new web design trends to be on the lookout for this year. For Sacramento web designers like us, a new year is typically an inspiring time. What new web design trends and graphic design aesthetics will be popular in 2020? What design trends will likely become outdated?
“The 10,000 foot-view at looking at web design trends is that as we progress ‘web’ design is beginning to look more and more like traditional ‘print’ design. Graphic designers have much more versatility and are creating amazing artwork simply in text using creative typeface,” states Norcal founder Joe Trusty.
It's astonishing at how far creative designers have gone towards making the web feel more like other types of creative media, such as graphic design and print design. It will be interesting to see how Sacramento Web Designer's adapt these new techniques in the sites that they design for their customers.
If you’re a graphic designer or a web designer, or just a fan of great design work, you’re in for a treat. We've put together a list of the best web design trends you're likely to see Website Designers begin using at the start of 2020.
1. Text-only Heroes
It's cool that companies and brands are experimenting with huge text-only heroes. You're seeing this more and more above the fold where designers are using these big sweeping text treatments that dominate the foreground. This is a departure from the traditional text-on-image setup most designers are akin to, and letting the typography do the heavy lifting instead of the image.
Phase3’s website is an awesome example of using this design principle in the hero area, and letting the typography tell the tale (their background color changes subtley which adds a nice touch). What's cool is that the typography has it's own persona.
2. Involved illustrations
While vector illustrations have been popular on websites for years, there’s a growing trend amongst web designers to lean heavily on illustrations and as load time becomes more of an issue on mobile, you'll begin to see these light weight illustrations more and more.
Websites such as DottedSign (above) and Fixate (below) are fantastic examples of this popular web design trend. Both websites use concise and and well branded illustrations, not only in their hero section of their site but throughout rest of the site for continuity.
Designers are combining the illustrations with a bit of animation to create new and eye popping way to communicate with their visitors. Animated illustrations are a great replacement tool to text, and are often an even better way at illustrating the point to the visitor.
3. Vintage-inspired colors and typography
It's encouraging to see nostalgic design principles as a throwback to previous time periods. This takes shape in recognizing contributions from other mediums, such as TV and Print, especially as a throwback to the pre-internet era.
In 2020, It's encouraging to see brands go all in on mashups of combining old & new graphic design trends to create inspired vintage looks.
One of the most common graphic design trends being used in websites today is using vintage colors and typography as a way to convey a feeling of times gone by. Chrissy Teigen’s new website is a perfect example of using vintage fonts with vintage color schemes (earthy, but bright).
The up to date typography trends website Typewolf often uses vintage typography and colors to convey a look of style and modern aesthetic. Their font combined with the background color feels vintage, but doesn't feel dated.
4. Black and White
Monochrome is so last year. 2020 will be the year you'll see companies & brands experiment with websites that have no color at all, sticking to only black and white with very little in between. Think of it as monochrome gone minimalism.
Cahn Wilson’s site is a perfect example of a graphc design that's completely absent of color. It focuses chiefly on black and white with monochromatic images