Muted Color Palettes

 

Muted color palettes are projected to be on-trend for 2021! A muted color palette includes colors with low saturation and offers a soft, subtle design style. The result often leaves users with a calming effect upon engagement. Muted colors allow designers to generate depth within the structure of a page and reduce harsh shadowing. Furthermore, muted color palettes can be paired in endless ways. The color pairing possibilities can become extremely personal to the brand, graphic, or experience. 

photo from Design Shack

 

Minimal & Bare Design 

 

2021 is the year of minimal design! Minimal design looks like it sounds. With simplistic visualization, data will include the facts and not much else. Many companies and well-known designers have even taken principles from muted color palettes by eliminating color altogether. Black and white design is as bare-bones as it gets. Most interactive platforms will keep information architecture and interactions simple. Additionally, these platforms may be one-page experiences or infographics with a minute amount of language. 

photo from Hunt & Co. design firm’s website

 

Immersive Movement

 

Immersive movement is a design tool that combines interaction with animation. This design trend is progressive and experimental. By implementing this design trend, designers add a heightened level of prestige dimension. The Goonies Project, created by Joseph Berry, is one example of immersive movement design. Using interactive design components, this web-based project explores Steven Spielberg’s 1985 adventure film, The Goonies. The project’s navigation and immersive movement use parallax scrolling. Parallax scrolling is a design trick where the background content (i.e. an image) is moved at a different pace than the foreground content while using the scrolling feature. During the experience, users interact and follow the platform’s simple, but striking design path.  Though this example is simple, and altered code could make this design trend quite limitless when paired with animation.

 

Flat Emoji & Icons

 

This trend started gaining traction at the end of 2020, but we don’t see it leaving anytime soon. Flat emojis and icons are so popular because they’re easy to make. Flat Emojis and icons can represent anything in the form of a simple illustration. If you don’t have time to make your own, they’re highly accessible for free online! These icons can be as cartoonish as the designer wants, or more realistic; whatever fits the needed style best. This trend works great on infographics, branding elements, videos, and more! 

photo from freepik