Design is an always changing industry, with new trends coming and going quicker than ever before. Because of this, designers are plagued with coming up with new and unique ways to portray content and apply new techniques and styles to their work. Being fresh into the New Year, 2020 will undoubtedly offer new trends and design elements that will influence the design industry not only in 2020 but for years to come as well.
One of the most popular design styles from 2019 was the use of minimalism in design, with the motto “less is more” becoming somewhat of a staple of the industry. The days of making extravagant designs with complicated patterns and themes are quickly fleeing. The feel of minimalist design has become so popular due to the fact that it allows for spaces to feel free and easier on the eyes. Whether this be with UI/UX interactions on websites, or even down to movie and music covers.
Taking the above example into account, it’s clear to see that companies have opted out of using logos that come with varying design choices, and instead have opted for minimal designs with bold, bright colours to really make the logos pop. By using minimal designs combined with bright, bold colours, the company has created an eye catching visual that doesn’t require a lot of brain power to take in.
Image Courtesy of logaster.com
To add on to the development of minimalism in design, we can take a look at the evolution of the Adidas logo throughout the years. Although the most recent logo is still from 1997, it still showcases the fact the rise of minimalism and design and how common place it has become today. Without the use of unnecessary information, the logo now has an image that is associated with the company, therefore making it easier to recognize at a glance. Having a logo that has a simple design that is instantly recognizable is a thing that most companies, and the logo designer, strives for. The consumer doesn’t have to think about what is being shown to them. They see the logo, recognize the photo/logo and come to a conclusion as to what is being shown to them. This is what makes minimalism in advertising and design so effective.
An accompany to the minimalism style is the use of big, bold colours. Tying back to the idea that the goal of minimalism is to get consumers to recognize what is being shown to them at a glance, this task becomes a lot easier when the logo has eye catching colours. Although the logo of Ikea was the same from 1967 to 1983, the use of colour was improved rapidly by adding the bright yellow and blue framing to the image, allowing the logo to pop out at the consumer. This again helps add to the overall strategic advantages of including minimalism in design, and why it’s still being used in the 2020 design world.
This blog post was a fantastic read. I never really thought about how companies use minimization as a key component in how they create their brand image, or how brands are starting to become more, and more so simple for the consumer to understand it. However, it does makes sense in the world that we are living in. With everybody being on the go and having things to do, nobody really has the time anymore to take the logo and see the entire design of it and to try to understand what it may mean, and or, are trying to represent.
This is actually really cool. I didn’t usually think about why minimalism worked, it just did, so it’s nice to have it all explained like that. The first picture was kind of surprising, I never really paid attention to how all of these logos changed over time. I probably didn’t know what half of them looked like before. The question is, where do they go from now. It’ll be interesting to see how all these designs will change in the future, because how much more minimalistic can you get? Off the record: Ikea’s second logo looks like it’s been run over by a truck.
This is a very interesting post, it’s not very often that I think about how logos are designed and how my brain perceives them. I usually give it no thought, but after reading this article I realized how much logos and other corporate design trends have shifted towards the minimalist approach. I feel that the individuality of logos is being lost now, because all of the logos in the first image have changed to basic variations of standard fonts and aren’t very flashy or representative of the companies as a whole. I personally think that minimalist design is a very interesting direction to take and is very visually pleasing, but it takes the fun and personality out of businesses.