Just as fashions and seasons change, design and marketing trends are constantly evolving. An important part of our job is to keep on top of the latest design trends, so that we can apply the very freshest creative to any campaign that we’re working on. As such, we’ve been looking at what is hot in the world of marketing this year.
Whether you are looking for a brand refresh for 2025, are thinking about a specific marketing campaign that new trends might work well with, or simply have an interest in design, here’s what we predict are going to be big trends in the marketing world this year:
AI Design
Starting off with the hot topic of the moment: AI. AI has touched every industry, and design and marketing is no exception. This year, we predict that AI Design will really take off, and we’re already seeing many brands embracing artificial intelligence within their designs.
AI has already been used in design for some time, in a ‘behind the scenes’ capacity, with AI technology available within design software to enhance the work of the human designer. However, this year we believe that AI design itself will move front and centre. With various AI campaigns for big brands having already emerged, and even the likes of AI influencers appearing on social media, it’s easy to see this being a big trend this year.
You may be wondering at this point, where do we as a team stand on the use of AI? It’s certainly something that we’ve spoken about a lot in the studio, and rather than fear the advancement of technology, we have chosen to really understand what AI can do for us and how it can enhance our offering and knowledge.
Whilst we’ve not allowed it to generate actual designs just yet, we can certainly see the benefit of the technology, and particularly so in the realm of generating ideas and / or concepts.
Having said all of this, we do also believe that there will be some push back against AI this year: as design moves into an ever-more artificial direction, we foresee that there will be more requests for designs with a strong human touch: handcrafted, human-centred, personalised and rich in history and heritage to counteract the AI movement.
Maximalism
The rise of accessible design tools available to the general public and with AI trained on this templated content, without the work of a professional graphic designer, many brands have become very generic.
To counteract this, maximalist design is likely to be a big trend in 2025. Expect to see chaotic experimentation, with a more-is-more approach. It’s almost leaning towards being ‘undesigned’, as it pushes back against the clean, templated looks that the algorithms will ultimately to serve us.
Minimalist-Maximalism (also known as Bold Minimalism)
Minimalism has been a popular design trend for many years, but in 2025 it’s going BOLD!
This trend is about taking minimalism to another level: yes, it’s still very simple, but that simplicity has gone to the max. Minimalist-Maximalism still embraces the clean lines and white space so loved by minimalism design, but with a twist: massive type and bright colours are what this trend is all about.
The key to the success of this trend, however, is the following: one bold element only per design.
Textured Grains
Film grain effects are going to be a big part of this year’s design trends as creative moves away from stark designs.
Textures and grain effects used in a very intentional way bring some life to what would otherwise be flat 2D design, and link back to the anti-AI design movement mentioned at the start of this article; textures offering a more handcrafted, tangible feel to current design.
We’re also calling it here first: gradients will be back in this year. As you may have noticed from a certain 2025 brand refresh of your favourite creative agency itself…
Ready to embrace 2025’s design trends? Let us incorporate them into your brand
If you’re looking to refresh your brand this year or have a marketing campaign that needs to incorporate the latest design into it, get in touch. We understand that the latest design trends are not right for every brand, but there are always subtle ways that fresh ideas can be incorporated into your marketing.
Get in touch today to see how the 2025 design trends can work for your brand.
