In the industry of graphic design, there have been some huge changes in just the last few years, but that is not surprising, since the genre is constantly evolving.
Corporate design work has slowed down and the professional focus is now much more freelancer-oriented. But, whether you want to open your own business or work in-house for a larger company, you will still need to keep a handle on the most happening trends in the graphic design industry.
This ensures that you stay relevant and up-to-date in what can be an extraordinarily competitive niche. As such, here are the graphic design trends you are likely to see in the recent future:
1. Younger Designers Prefering Freelancing
Currently, the average pay in this field is approximately 50 thousand dollars per year, but entry level pay just a decade ago was much less. Because of this, a lot of graphic designers starting out took some minor gigs on the side to make ends meet.
Many of them have found that working for themselves was alluring, and though not having a steady paycheck presented problems for many, the prospect was still very exciting. Many designers today followed their lead and want to launch businesses of their own.
Freelancers, however, have to pay for their own insurance, retirement funds, and taxes. That said, these things don’t deter the over 60,000 graphic designers in the United States that consider themselves self-employed. This number will continue to climb in the 2020s because young adults as a generation much prefer freelancing over spending the hours between 9 and 5 in an office.
On a side note, experts advise novice graphic designers to spend some time at a nearby company part time, or even interning, to gain some solid experience before they go on their own. Taking a class to learn some simple management skills will be useful, as well, before starting a company.
Source: Shutterstock2. More Designers will Work Remotely
When you first come on the scene in any business, you want to show the big shots what you can do. However, this can be difficult in a corporate culture where there are already many rules and regulations in place and you don’t want to challenge too many boundaries. If you push the envelope too much, you may get in over your head. One thing corporations are sure to call workers on the carpet for is ignoring rules.
So, how do you walk the fine line between staying fresh and trendy, while keeping your work within the guidelines already established by the corporation? Well, if need more freedom in order feel liberated enough to create, remote working is a fad that may be for you.
Working remotely will give graphic designers more breathing room to do their work without a boss breathing down their necks. While rules must be paid attention to still, working at home on a desktop, or at a coffee shop on a laptop, is a much more lax situation to be in, and, as such, it has been gaining popularity.
3. Designers will Provide Customers with Experiences
It’s true that flat design has been in fashion for a while now, but three-dimensional graphics that are innovative and experiential are coming back in style.
Customers want a full immersion in visual art that gives them more of an experience than they had with the minimal graphics of the recent past. They want more of an ambient quality to their stores, offices, and restaurants. Graphic designers will be the ones to create this sensation.
Source: Shutterstock4. Graphic Designers will Work Jointly with AI
The more technology moves forward, the more advancements we will have to work with in the graphic design field. For example, we will soon have the ability to collect and analyze data about just how well-liked specific parts of a design are. Designers can then use this information to tweak their creations to ensure they provide the maximum impact that the client’s brand needs.
This means that in the future, designers will concentrate less on the artistic portion of the craft and more on determining which particular elements are helping to increase a website’s traffic and conversion rate.
Basically, this means that what it means to be a graphic designer by trade will be defined differently as the new decade progresses.
5. Design Work will Necessitate a Mobile Phone
Being accessible by your mobile phone is something that is expected in nearly all industries today, and this trend will continue even more so into the 2020s.
Just think, mobile ownership has more than doubled between 2011 and 2018, and more people these days actually access the internet from their cell phones than from their computers.
Graphic designers, especially those that work remotely, and those that freelance, many times will have to answer customer or employer questions while out. As such, there will also be more than a few times when they will have to access work when they are away from their laptops. These are just a few of the reasons why a designer must be phone accessible at all times.
In conclusion, the graphic design world has changed a lot, and it will continue to grow in the years to come. Remember, it is always best to stay on top of the new directions that the field is taking in order to be ahead of the curve.
