The (Graphic) World is Flat

I went on a graphic design job interview back in 2008…maybe 2009.  I met in a conference room with four people, all roughly 10 years younger than me. After answering a barrage of their questions, reviewing my portfolio, and asking a few questions of my own (always a good idea), they gave me some homework to do. They described one of the company’s software products to me, and asked me to come up with branding for it…a test, if you will. We scheduled a meeting a few days later to review my branding idea, and off I went. 

When I returned, I had what I felt was one of the best logo/branding ideas I’d ever done. During my presentation, I explained my design philosophy…how I designed in black and white to show the strength of the design itself without being dependent on color. Then I showed them how the design can be enhanced by color.  

The group then showed me some of the other branding and design they currently use for other products. It was all very photo rich, and used a lot of 3D looking things. They explained to me that my flat design style wasn’t what they were looking for.

Those 3D gizmos were nicely done, and very popular at the time…but they were trendy. However, most of it never had any purpose to me.  It was almost as if a given company was saying, “Look - we have the wherewithal to hire the very best photoshop talent.” Sadly, as cool as many of those designs were - they didn’t mean anything, or say anything about the product or service they represented. No message. They were just….cool.

Spring forward to 2016, and shortly 2017, and let’s look at hot design trends. The glassy looking buttons - passé. The horizon in the background with the reflection in the front - old shoe. The glassy 3D rendered gizmos - obsolete. 

That's nice, Jay - but what does all that mean besides you need to update your website? What’s hot?  

Flat.

That same design style I was trying to push years ago - is now officially in. The latest design trends are that of modern-retro and minimalism. Nothing needs to be transparent, or dimensional, or have a drop shadow. I’ve also noticed quite a bit of design that has a simplistic hand-drawn vibe.  

Not sure?  Let’s make an example out of one of the world’s biggest brands: Google.  Remember not all that long ago, Google’s wordmark had letters with a dimensional look and a drop shadow? Guess what? Flat. Google rebranded about a year ago, and now it’s all flat. Still multi-colored letters…but flat - like my holiday card design.

The world is flat! So, embrace it - or your brand will look dated…and you don’t want your brand to look like the world has passed it by. Talk to a graphic designer about it. Chances are you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but rather just tweak things a little. In addition, if it’s simplified a little and flat - it’s easier to make it responsive…but responsive logos are a separate discussion. In the mean time, evaluate you brand, and don’t be so…2010.