Naturally, as a top creative agency in London, we are consistently trying to keep up with the trends in all the fields we operate in. The web design industry is always changing and evolving.
We love doing an article at the beginning of the year on what we believe the trends will be for the year. Web design is such a fast-paced industry and of course, it can be highly subjective, but here are the trends we expect to see this year.
Moving Type
Motion graphics have been quite a web design trend for a while now, but moving type is something a little bit different.
Designers are bringing text to life to stand out from the crowd, but there’s a fine balance between creativity and overwhelming the reader, as it can be a bit too much.
Examples:
https://vitaarchitecture.com/
https://www.chungiyoo.com/
Moving type is going to be a big trend in 2022. We live in a digital world and it’s cool to see some fun ways of taking advantage of this in the world of typefaces to create living breathing letters.
– Arian Bozorg, Community Engagement Manager at 99designs by Vista
Claymorphism
You may not have heard this fancy word before, but essentially claymorphism is the use of 3D characters in graphic design, and will definitely become a web design trend in 2022.
Claymorphism essentially blends 4 styles together:
– Light, pastel and vivid colours
– Double inner shadow
– Outer shadow
– Big, rounded corners
Examples:
https://matterapp.com/home
https://tolia.ge/
Glassmorphism
We thought we’d follow the last big word up with another big word, although this one feels a bit more obvious to what it is. A combination of transparency, translucency and blur gives it that glass-like effect. Therefore, this adds depth and gives you a chance to put focus on the content you want to highlight in a really unique way.
The glassmorphic elements look great over vibrant colours and shapes and when layered, they give a very rich look.
Examples:
https://www.galp.in/ (also great use of visible borders, as discussed below)
https://tricks-glassmorphism.webflow.io/
Handmade Graphics/Illustrations
People are really turning away from stock imagery now as it really doesn’t make readers connect to the site when they’ve seen the same images so many times on other people’s websites.
Therefore, people are turning to handmade graphics and illustrations to bring their site to life. Those with larger budgets are then turning these animations into moving animations.
Illustrations are not new to web design, but more abstract and complicated illustrations are now part of the web design trends of 2022.
Examples:
https://howmanyplants.com/
https://chrono.fund/
https://anotherdei.com/
Horizontal Scrolling
Scrolling is one of the biggest engagements that a user can do on your website, so it makes sense to make it more interactive for them.
Parallax scrolling has been popular for several years, although the popularity has died down over the last couple of years. But more scroll hijacking and other interactive scroll options are being introduced now.
Horizontal scrolling options are a very interesting way of creating interactive portfolio experiences. You can even combine these with draggable elements too – another web design trend we predict we will see in 2022.
Examples:
https://admireamaze.debijenkorf.nl/
https://n0bsagency.com – our own site has some interesting scrolling effects
https://waltersophia.com/ – we love the illustrations on scroll on this site.
Imagery Multilayers
We’ve seen clean, white, minimalist sites keep their popularity for several years, but we feel that more “messy” elements will start to become popular, especially with imagery multilayers.
They’re able to give a much more interactive experience for the user.
We also think that overlapping text with images will start to show some popularity too.
Examples:
https://www.thibaultpailloux.com/
https://generalcondition.com/
Visible Borders
Again, moving away from the clean look and trying to keep the “magic” of web design, we’re believe that a web design trend of 2022 will be developers embracing visible borders and being a bit more “real”.
We have seen that this can give a much more retro look, because it feels like how people did it in the 90s.
Examples:
https://shopify.supply/
https://www.devrandogaroglu.com/
More Gradients
Gradients have been a web design trend for a while now, but we think in 2022, we will see more gradients!
Text-filled gradients are becoming popular too, perhaps because of Instagram’s new logo, but we will continue to see this throughout 2022.
Examples:
https://www.richardsancho.com/
https://sarahguo.com/
Oversized Pointers
Custom mouse cursors are a common interactive element that people love because it adds something to the UX. However, there’s a debate about whether they enhance the UX or annoy people! Unfortunately, you cannot cater for everyone.
We believe that oversized pointers will become a web design trend in 2022 as those who are for custom mouse cursors are wanting to emphasise it even more.
Examples:
https://www.jadesheng.studio/
Our own site again!
Organic Shapes and Memphis Design
Memphis Design was one of the most popular design styles seen in the 80s. It was full of shapes and bright colours, feeling a lot more playful and adventurous.
We believe that this style is coming back as it’s way more than just a web design trend, but instead it encourages freshness, crispness and uniqueness.
Examples:
https://upperquad.com/
https://shapefarm.net/
Conclusion
So, looking at this list, we’ve covered the majority of these areas in our site that was built 2 years ago! We’ve always considered ourselves to be somewhat of a trendsetter, so perhaps this just shows we really are ahead of the curve.
But we believe that these will be the web design trends of 2022 and so watch this space to see if we are right!