Design trends have become tremendously widespread over the past few years and designers are being fed with articles about how they can use these so that their work appears as "fresh" and hip as possible. What happened to informed design, adapted to the client's needs? What is the role of the designer here?

Design trends not uninteresting

Over the course of the past few years, we have noted clear tendencies and specific style directions in the area of graphic design. There are enormous quantities of resources and sources where you can obtain inspiration and get references regarding what is happening in the visual sphere. Newspapers and amateur bloggers yearn for the possibility of creating lists that try to specify what has been trendy in graphic design in this past year and also try to predict what will be trendy in the time to come.

At Mission, we arrange team workshops where we keep ourselves up to date on the trends we see affecting visual communication. We think that design trends are interesting and that it is important to understand what is happening in the visual world around us. This does not necessarily mean that this influences all the design decisions we make.

The design company 99designs publishes a list every year on its website where it goes through 10 of the most prominent trends that will dominate graphic design over the course of the next year. The articles are written by designers and the introduction to this year’s list, states: “Take a look at our top picks for this year and start imagining how these trends can help inform your style.” It is here that design trends starts to create problems, particularly in the design of visual identities and brands.

Trends and branding two different things

Trends are ever-changing. Buffalo shoes are back, minimalism is out and illustrations trump images. There are obviously exceptions. A number of megatrends that are here to stay , if we are to believe the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies (CIFS). They mention focus on sustainability and health, economic growth and the constantly expanding market for the use and analysis of big data.

Nevertheless, the majority of trends are subject to constant evolution, characterised by social, demographic and political fluctuations. They are often short-lived. An identity, on the other hand, is an investment meant for a longer time span and not perishable. Brands should have a lifetime that extends far beyond the timeline of a trend, often decades. There is such great uncertainty surrounding whether trends will last, so you are taking a great risk in jumping on a trend in the hope that it will be "cool" in ten years. The rebranding of a brand is a far-reaching process and an economic investment. So my advice is not to invest money in something just because it is fashionable, but because it is timeless. Then you will know that the investment will bring you pleasure in the years to come, not just right now.

A trend must not decide how you look. Design is a business tool and it needs to be used to make a company’s unique culture, product, thinking and soul visible. By definition, an identity is what makes you unique, what you are, what makes you different from other brands. Too much focus on trends in the development of a visual identity will, ironically, make you more similar to other competing brands.

Client's position top priority

It is better to start with the client. When we work with clients, we build the brand from the inside out – it is the company’s soul that provides guidelines for the development of the visual identity. Our starting point is your unique place in the competitive landscape. Your qualities, properties and purpose are the foundation upon which we build everything else. Tone-of-voice, strategy and communication platforms are obviously based on the core of the company. What is essential is that logo , colors, typography , images , illustration style etc. are also based on this. We want your visual impression to say something about how you are on the inside. This is one of the reasons why Mission has not developed a so-called “agency style”.

We have a holistic perspective where all communication elements need to work together using one voice . Consistent communication is important for producing clear objectives. If you spread yourself too thin, the message will lose its impact and barely come across at all. It is important that the content produced is in accordance with the core of your brand, both strategically and visually.

«Too much focus on trends in the development of a visual identity will, ironically, make you more similar to other competing brands.»

Campaigns as an arena for exploring trends

However, it is not the case that trends are simply wasted. As mentioned, Mission is fully aware of the existence of design trends and we follow them. Trends can be a great tool to use in short-term campaigns or events. The use of short-lived design trends shows that a company stays up-to-date and is in tune with a young audience. Look, among other things, at EVRY Sweden's advertisements for their new concept, Tänk (Norwegian: tenk). These short, stylistic advertisements are created in a contemporary format, in line with a very widespread trend of using monotone colors in objects and backgrounds . They are still linked back to the brand, by using the colors from their design profile. This is a good example of exploiting a trend, in harmony with the identity of the company.

Another trend that has been extremely widespread over the past few years, is a kind of counter-reaction to the minimalist, polished look that has characterised the design world for a number of years and breaks away from all the old “rules” for graphic design. This is chaotic, apparently unsystematic and often retro, the opposite of everything regarded as “pretty”. The sports giants Nike and Adidas are good at using trends for their campaigns, with the latter recently launching a website that builds around this "chaotic" trend . The website promotes Adidas’ redesign of old shoe models and uses visual references associated with the time when the first models were launched. It is a nostalgic retrospective nod to the first Internet users. A well thought out concept based on visual references we have seen moving on the trend scene recently.

There are therefore places where graphic design trends can live, in campaigns that will be past their sell-by date at some point, the way things go with trends. However, brands need to have a longer lifetime. This does not necessarily mean that brands never pass their sell-by dates - a brand also needs to be updated from time to time because the target group grows or develops. But trends do not deserve any place in this planning and development of a visual identity. This is a premature emergency solution in an attempt to remain relevant and will usually not be compatible with the values and identity of the actual brand. Here, agencies need to become familiar with the client, the core of the client, and allow this to direct the design decisions made.