Howdy folks! How’s your summer shaping up? Certainly better than last Summer, hopefully. Speaking of our world’s struggles, the ‘trickle down’ of pandemics, political and cultural turmoil is effect trends all over the world. Website Design trends are no different. This year, we experienced remarkably dramatic changes in the digital design. COVID-19 has put us in quarantine, forcing us to dig deeper into the digital world. The stay-at-home reality we’ve been faced with has challenged designers to create more personal and REAL experiences for visitors and make them available digitally. So, what are the top website trends for 2021? What are the top typography trends, color design trends and image/illustration trends for website design now a-days. We’re gonna tell ya!
Web developers seem to have risen to the 2021 occasion by exploring many different avenues of visual communication that will increase levels of engagement. This includes novelty typography art, unusual color schemes, unique and lively videos and more.
Typography Trends For Websites
The old belief of using sans serif fonts as the go-to font style for web design has been changing with the times. Indeed, sans serif fonts have always been loved by web designers for their sleek legibility and simple structure. In 2021, screen sizes and resolutions are larger and clearer than they once were. Contrary to their “outdated” predecessors, the screens we now design for are more inviting to decorated, heavier serif fonts. Larger screens, for example, enable serif fonts to appear less cluttered and more readable — thanks to increased space around the words. Likewise, the higher resolution makes the heavier or more illustrious letters look clearer. Utilizing more unique typography is one of the most important, top website trends for 2021.
Take a look at the top 10 most popular serif fonts for websites HERE!
There are also new and exciting website plugins that allow designers to now use circular and wavy text paths on websites. Anything that is eye-catching and unique is terrific. Take a look at Elementor’s Text Path Widget.
Lastly on the typography trends for websites is EMOJIS. Whether two people are 1,000 miles apart or 5 feet apart in the same house, people are constantly interacting through type. This includes emails, texting, social media, messaging applications, and more. Communication has grown far beyond words – playful emojis inserted within written text elements are now an essential part of digital design plans. The rising popularity of emojis has made its way to the web designer’s tool box, too. Web creators are leveraging these illustrated gestures in a language familiar to users of all ages and backgrounds. Communicating with target audiences of all languages and dialects thrives on this technique — your brand voice can now be heard in a visual, non-verbal way.
Color Design Trends For Websites
Using light colors in website design represents one of the biggest differences between print and web design. The quality and visibility of light colors often get compromised when used in print design — losing their richness and boldness. Light colors have the opposite effect on-screen, and may even be preferred over dark, bolder colors. The screen’s sharpness and clarity can actually cause dark colors to be overbearing and even stressful to look at. Designers have now embraced the advantage of using light colors in order to avoid the latter. In fact, light colors are also conducive to user engagement.
At the other end of the color spectrum lies a color trend of an entirely different nature – Negative Colors. More and more designers have been gravitating towards using very bold colors, with an emphasis on primary colors: red, blue and yellow. This often involves multiple deeply contrasting primary color combinations that make you think of comic books and 90s retro style. It goes without saying that these types of color palettes often target younger audiences, accentuating an upbeat, exciting vibe. Negative colors in website design would not convey the professionalism of a doctor or lawyer’s website, for example. A gym or video production company – YES.
Images and Illustration Trends In Website Design
Once upon a time in the journalism industry, printing in color was not an option. To add artistic effects to their content, newspapers would feature black and white, hand-drawn designs created by cartoonists. This unique, cartoon-inspired style compensated for the lack of colored visuals and imagery. In digital design, however, color has never been an issue. The issue now is to always STAND OUT and in this 2021 world of COLOR, those same tricks used ‘back in the day’ in print are being used for their now fresh uniqueness in website design today!
All that being said, texture-based illustrations created digitally inevitably causes them to look slightly different to their hand-drawn predecessors. Whether identical to the original style of texture-based illustrations or not, it’s exciting to see this design trend reappear in the top website trends of 2021 because they are darn cool.
The artistic style of the 90s era has also made its comeback in web design trends — this time in the form of simple shape motifs integrated throughout design schemes. These simplistic, two-dimensional shape illustrations boast one shade of color and no depth or texture. These basic shapes may also have text written on them and are often reminiscent of stickers-design from the 80s or 90s. These shapes may also be used as buttons (either static or animated), or as a sticker that informs us about a limited time promotion. No matter what these stickers look like or entail, their common goal is to draw the attention of the website visitor.
Using creative and a-typical imagery on a website draws a great deal more attention than common, straightforward photos. Conceptualized photography that is thought-provoking and unusual will intrigue website visitors and make them think. Beyond the basics of that, many e-commerce websites are using 3D simulations to allow shoppers to see the product “in real life”. 2021 trends are bringing even further-enhanced 3D visualization techniques, with detailed intricacies and extremely high resolutions.
There you have it, the top website trends of 2021. If your business needs assistance with outstanding and on-the-edge website design, graphic design, social media marketing, or other content creation; feel free to contact Creative Juices Marketing Agency to discuss. Call 434 964 7511 or click to CONTACT US.