Graphic Design Styles
Our clients are invited to explore a variety of graphic design styles, such as minimalist, retro, vintage, and modern. Furthermore, we provide helpful resources, including fonts, textures, templates, and color palettes. Our aim is to assist clients in identifying the design language that will most accurately portray their brand or project's personality, tone, and spirit. We're dedicated to providing support and guidance to help customers find the correct descriptive words to use in the design brief, thereby enabling us to create stunning designs.
MINIMALIST
Characteristics:
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Limited color palette
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Minimal shading
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Bold linework
With minimalism, the beauty lies in its simplicity, as simple geometric shapes and single-tone colour schemes are preferred over intricate details. This style also puts emphasis on using white space in order to maximize the message being conveyed. Remember that it is better to cut out anything that isn't integral to the design and instead, keep it to the bare minimum.
This aesthetic style emphasizes restraint and subtlety, utilizing clean geometric forms and toned-down color palettes. A minimalistic design leverages the effectiveness of negative space, enabling the minimalist shapes and visuals to transmit the intended message. In a nutshell, restraint is key; leave out all superfluous details in order to reach a simpler, yet more impactful result.
MAXIMALIST
Characteristics:
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Unexpected color palette
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Contrasting patterns
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Bold fonts and textures
In stark contrast to minimalism, maximalism features vivid hues and vibrant patterns. Its design has an untamed look and disregards traditional balance. In place of open spaces, maximalism often utilizes various text, images, and textures to crowd the page.
This striking design approach often incorporates intensely colorful hues and intricate patterns. In contrast to the conventional balance found in minimalist creations, maximalist designs typically employ a disorganized, disorderly format, packed with elements instead of relying on whitespace. Text, images and textures are layered on top of one another as a common characteristic of maximalist works.
TYPOGRAPHIC
Characteristics:
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Font is the center of the design
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Font conveys the message
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Paired with other visual styles and elements
Typographic design utilizes font types to pass along a message, as the name implies. This style of design might be coupled with illustrations or other graphic design elements, but the text is the focus. Logos with an emphasis on typography serve as prime examples of this art in motion.
Characteristics:
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Vintage fonts
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Details that invoke the psychedelic ‘60s and ‘70s era
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Blended modern and retro elements
Retro design combines traditional fonts and aesthetics. This includes a blend of vintage and art deco styles from the 20th century. This unique style can incorporate visuals that people of all ages can recognize. It also includes creative details and art pieces connected to a particular period.
RETRO
ABSTRACT
Characteristics:
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Unique color palette
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Surreal depiction of reality
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Intended for interpretation
Abstract design art brings forth imagery and visual elements that do not necessarily reflect actual objects. Its form, shape and tone draw in viewers, enabling them to make their own interpretations.
GEOMETRIC
Characteristics:
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Symmetry and balance
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Straight lines and shapes
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Varying color palettes
Geometric designs serve as the foundation for this visual style, exploring the interplay between angles, lines, and points. This minimal aesthetic allows for balance between straight lines, shapes, and edges, all of which can be further enhanced with various color combinations and paired with visuals.
FLAT
Characteristics:
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Two-dimensional
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Monochromatic
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Utilizes icons
Flat design has often been likened to minimalist design, due to the utilization of negative space and simple design elements. One of the major distinctions is the flat design's characteristic use of a single color scheme, as well as iconic graphics within illustrations.
The flat design style has been widely used for the purpose of producing visual elements like posters and instruction documents, and it has now become a signature style for webpages and mobile applications.
THREE-DIMENTIONAL
Characteristics:
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Mirrors a real-life object
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Uses light and shadows
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Balances volume, mass and depth
With 3D graphic design, ordinary flat design comes alive with a three-dimensional perspective. Natural light and shadow effects provide an illusion of realism to the design, adding elements of depth and volume. This technique is widely employed in various media formats, including social media, websites, and animations.
ORGANIC
Characteristics:
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Earthy elements
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Neutral color palette
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Fluid lines and organic shapes
Organic design is characterized by a range of natural and rustic elements, such as organic shapes, natural textures, and neutral color palettes. This aesthetic often utilizes fluid hand-drawn lines and features botanical elements like plants and leaves. Organic design is popular with eco-friendly companies, as well as those selling fresh produce.
MODERN
Characteristics:
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Vivid color palette
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Geometric lines and shapes
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Paired with sans serif fonts
Graphic design from the modern era, more commonly known as late modernism, originates from the post-World War II period. Irregular geometrical figures, colors of dynamic intensity, and distinct layouts all serve as defining traits of this particular style. Furthermore, basic sans serif typefaces are frequently employed in such works.
CORPORATE
Characteristics:
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Simple shapes and fonts
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Clean lines
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Complementary color palette
Brands seeking to portray a professional atmosphere may find corporate design style advantageous. It usually consists of conservative design components and more serious font choices. Simple icons and clear layouts also contribute to this modern design aesthetic. It is particularly useful in professional business contexts, such as presentations and marketing campaigns.
ILLUSTRATED
Characteristics:
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Hand-drawn look
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Unique to the designer
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Umbrella graphic design style
This guide introduces a range of illustrative design styles. From animation and 3D to photorealism, each designer brings a distinct illustration style to their work.
PLAYFUL
Characteristics:
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Animated elements and graphics
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Vibrant color palette
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Imaginative design
When designing materials that will be seen by families with young children, it is best to use a playful design. This design style is characterized by lively and colorful illustrations of animals and people, often with a bit of imagination thrown in. This carefree design style is perfect for children’s books and will help to capture the attention of young viewers.
MASCULINE
Characteristics:
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Thick-stroke fonts
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Muted color palette
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Rugged textures and imagery
This design style is common among advertisements and brands targeting men. Monochromatic color schemes, rough textures, and thick-stroke fonts are popular elements of this style, as are gritty or even rugged visuals.
FEMININE
Characteristics:
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Cursive fonts
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Sloped and curved lines and shapes
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Delicate color palette
This is a girly and fun style that is perfect for brands and advertisements targeting a female market. Cursive fonts, charming details and soft pastel colors are common features of this style. To complete the look, pair this style with organic and natural elements.
GRUNGE
Characteristics:
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Dark and contrasting color palette
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Portrays an ominous mood
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Distressed and rough textures
The Grunge illustration style is characterized by dark, somber colors and irregular shapes. This style is often used to convey a feeling of anger or doom, and may include gritty textures and stained backgrounds. Grunge illustrations are often seen in conjunction with gothic and punk styles.
PHOTOREALISM
Characteristics:
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Closely matches the real image or object
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Hand-drawn by the designer
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Uses raw materials like pencil and paper
This unique drawing style is characterized by visuals that look as realistic as possible. These sketches are typically hand-drawn by the designer using a pencil, and then transferred onto a software-based vector or raster program. This approach can be used for brand logos or standalone pieces of art.