As we move further away from the pandemic, designers are seeking to look ahead with innovative approaches to branding, print and digital design. The graphic design trends for 2023 are set to showcase creativity at its most unbridled in years, with a distinctly digital and futurist feel to logos, apps and brand identities. Font trends in 2023 will also play a starring role as the keystone to brand identities, with distorted type and condensed fonts bringing unique personality to projects.

Read on to discover the biggest graphic design trends, cutting-edge brand trends and inspiring typography trends for 2023 as well as trending graphic design styles to use in your projects.

The 10 Biggest Graphic Design Trends and Branding Trends of 2023

To compile our annual 2023 graphic design trends report we analyse search data from across the web, look at the latest agency projects and hotly anticipated rebrands of the months ahead. We also research larger cultural and social trends that may influence graphic design trends and font design trends in 2023.

The 10 most inspiring graphic design trends and branding trends in 2023 include:

1. Minimal Vintage
2. Photographic Branding
3. The Return of the Sans Serif
4. Rich Jewel Colours
5. Distorted Type
6. Liquid Gradients
7. Flared Fonts
8. Metaverse
9. Sci-Fi Logos
10. Condensed Typography

Scroll down to discover more about each 2023 graphic design trend and what’s trending in type, with analysis of trending graphic design styles and techniques for graphic designers, brand directors, creative agencies, photographers and illustrators.

Trend 1: Minimal Vintage

In line with a general move towards minimalist styling in print design, the minimal vintage graphic design trend makes a subtle nod to the vintage design styles of the 20^th century.

The key approach with this trend is that designs shouldn’t look immediately retro or vintage in style; rather a quietly chosen colour palette or type style can reference a particular decade. We love the blink-and-you’d-miss-it wartime aesthetic of the KEW 3101 Coffee packaging, see below, and the clever nod to 1970s journalism with CNET’s rebrand, undertaken with contextual care by design studio Collins and the resulting website being a blend of vintage-influenced illustration and contemporary sleekness, with the flagship headline set in press-friendly red and suitably nostalgic Sentinel typeface.

Trend 2: Photographic Branding

Illustration has enjoyed a huge resurgence in recent years, but in the branding sector it faces stiff competition from photography, which will be used to give brand identities an immersive and human quality in 2023. A case in point is PayPal’s choice to refresh their branding with a ‘people first’ photo-centric set of campaign imagery devised by New York-based studio Gretel. In 2023 branding trends will steer towards photography as a more tangible and immediate medium than illustration, and one that translates seamlessly to motion video for ad campaigns and social media.

It’s not all gloom for illustration however, with more brands expected to blend illustrations and 3D graphics into photographic settings, creating a surreal or playful result. Think of IKEA’s longstanding ‘The Wonderful Everyday’ campaign (masterminded by Mother London), and take this kooky, human-centric approach into static ads or video socials. 

Trend 3: The Return of the Sans Serif

After years of serif dominance the tide is beginning to turn back towards trusty sans serif typefaces, beloved by graphic designers, minimalists and accessibility-conscious web designers. Serif logos are beginning to reach saturation point, which is why designers are starting to find freshness in geometric sans or grotesque Swiss-style typefaces (or indeed, a more evolved version of the serif, see Flared Fonts, below). 

Sans serifs not only curate a clean, minimalist style for branding, packaging and other print designs, but they also improve legibility and accessibility on apps and websites. As more brands tune into the need for digital output to be fully accessible, we can expect sans serifs to take on a more dominant role online. Look to classic sans serif fonts in the Swiss school tradition such as Neue Haas Grotesk and Univers, or take a quirkier sans for a spin such as Ginto or Everett.

Trend 4: Rich Jewel Colours

We’re starting to move away from both the brash neons of the late 2010s and the putty colors of the early 2020s, and enter a much more interesting and chic era for colour in graphic design. This 2023 graphic design trend encourages designers to explore the paintbox with more creativity and openness. While neons served an attention-grabbing purpose on early apps and neutrals provided a calming palette in the wake of the pandemic, the new rich jewel colours of 2023 are infinitely more elegant, tonal and sensual.

Inspired by 1930s palettes, rich crimson, burnt orange, forest green or powdery lavender allow colour to do the talking for advertising, websites and packaging. These are colours you want to envelop yourself in, with a cosseting and indulgent quality that makes them the perfect match for high-end branding or luxury packaging design. 

Trend 5: Distorted Type

Stretched letters and knotted typography contribute to one of 2023’s quirkiest font trends, with traditional font styles given a literal twist with ligatures that knot, melt or fade into oblivion. This 2023 graphic design trend prompts viewers to take a second look, and taps into the Metaverse trend, giving your designs a fractured reality.

There is a growing range of existing distorted fonts available for ready-made twisted type, such as Cobya, or experiment with distorting conventional fonts by stretching letterforms or melting sentences into disappearing opacities.  

Trend 6: Liquid Gradients

Molten and languid, liquid gradients are the latest way to give a spin on the long-running gradient colour trend. Whether glossy and oily or given an artsy edge with painterly texture, liquid gradients feel more liberated than their perfectly blended predecessors, and translate seamlessly from static to animated. These artful colour effects give instant interest to packaging and backgrounds, or why not lend logos and websites a sci-fi spin by dipping typography into a liquid gradient effect?  

Trend 7: Flared Fonts

With serif saturation reaching breaking point across the branding board, designers will be on the hunt for typefaces that have a point of difference. Flared serifs are the next evolutionary step from serifs, merging the cleanliness of sans serifs with the quirky character of serif styles. A kicked out ligature gives shape and character to logo designs and headlines for packaging, websites or magazines. 

Flared serifs are great for fostering a friendly and optimistic typographic mood, making them a great fit for family branding or children’s products while retaining polish. A case in point—Border recently replaced their traditional serif typography with a chunky flared serif, making for a joyful and pulled-together identity for the biscuit brand.

Trend 8: Metaverse

With leading tech companies backing the metaverse to be the next incarnation of the internet, it would seem we are not far away from being able to interact with others in this VR-generated online universe. In 2023, the metaverse buzz is only set to continue, and with NFTs, VR games and even AI fashion models filtering into the popular cultural psyche, graphic design is likely to take cues from this futuristic cultural trend.

In terms of graphic design trends in 2023, a creative interpretation of the metaverse will be conjured up with futuristic styling, including sci-fi typography, 3D avatar illustrations and Matrix-style black and neon colour palettes. Give photography a glitch-style effect to mimic an eerie deep fake mood or use dark mode designs for print and websites to make them feel more virtually immersive.

Trend 9: Sci-Fi Logos

As more brands look towards a post-pandemic future marked by climate change and ever-evolving technology, it’s no surprise that we’re going to see brand identities with a distinctly futuristic flavour emerging in 2023. For businesses there’s certainly an advantage in embracing a futuristic approach to branding. With consumers now actively seeking out sustainable, all-electric or tech-innovative products, brands that appear to be lightyears ahead of competitors will have a strong foothold in the eco- and tech-conscious markets of the near future.

Car brand Škoda’s recent rebrand is a case in point for futuristic design. As the business moves towards pushing all-electric vehicles, the sci-fi logo created in-house communicates the brand’s digital future, and pulls it into line with the identities of other tech-centric car brands such as Tesla.  

Trend 10: Condensed Typography

Commanding, bold and impactful, condensed typography has always been a secret weapon for designers looking to attract attention even when space is limited. In 2023, in line with the move towards metaverse and futuristic styling, we’ll see condensed fonts and compact typography take center-stage on editorial designs and ads.

Condensed typefaces can have a slightly aggressive, in-your-face tone, so temper the drama with simple neutral colour schemes or go full science-fiction with black and neon. 

The Most Inspiring Graphic Design Trends for 2023

Trends are not simply passing fads—these 2023 graphic design trends and font trends set the benchmark for designers to produce creative work that feels fresh, relevant and cutting-edge.

With futuristic design trends likely to make a sci-fi statement in 2023, alongside colourful liquid gradients and immersive brand photography, there’s plenty to get excited about in the year ahead.

On the hunt for more design inspiration?

Discover more inspirational graphic design trends, font edits and endless creative inspiration on our Inspiration page.

The post The 10 Most Inspiring Graphic Design Trends for 2023 appeared first on InDesignSkills.

• Discover 16 Cinematic Movie Poster Templates

In spite of the 2020 pandemic slashing cinema revenue, the movie industry is bouncing back with enthusiasm. 2021 and 2022 have seen a slew of arthouse gems, blood-rushing blockbusters and no doubt future classics (see Promising Young Woman). With such a diverse range of films being released, the movie poster art is equally varied, giving viewers an immersive preview of the movie from only one static image.

• How Did They Do That?: Exaggerated Spacing for Epic Movie Posters

1. Promising Young Woman (2020)

Released at the tail end of 2020, Promising Young Woman was a Christmas present for fans of twisted and offbeat cinema. The film is a darkly provocative thriller written and directed by Emerald Fennell, that narrates the revenge story of its protagonist, Cassie. If you’ve not yet seen it, no spoilers to be revealed here, but rest assured, it’s well worth your time. 

The poster art is just as absorbing as the film itself, with an 80s-inspired style that playfully references movies such as Dirty Dancing as well as vintage horrors and hardcore movies. The alternative poster sees a blurred-out Carey Mulligan writing lipstick text onto a bar bathroom mirror, again expertly blending girlish and horror elements to intriguing effect. 

The cinematography in Promising Young Woman also has a satisfying graphic style, with the characters framed against pastel-soaked backdrops, making an unsettlingly saccharine contrast with the disturbing content of the plot.

2. The Batman (2022)

This dark and edgy take on the DC Comics franchise is deserving of dramatically moody poster art, and the designs don’t disappoint. Simple character posters are presented in a stark red and black palette, with both Batman and Riddler posing in suitably enigmatic form. White space is used generously on the designs to further emphasise the bleakness and drama of the Gotham-set film. 

3. X (2022)

A slasher movie with quirk, X follows a group of actors as they set out to make an adult film in rural Texas in the 1970s. Before long the plot descends into pure horror territory, and for slasher fans the film certainly delivers on retro gore.

The poster designs for X balance nostalgia with a contemporary immediacy. Photography is high-definition and intimate, with a barn-inspired ‘X’ aggressively placed across the portrait shots. A simple and memorable poster design that pays tribute to retro slashers. We also love the alternative poster created for the film by Sean Lazonby, which dials up the retro factor with pulp fiction styling and flat acid color.

4. Everything Everywhere All At Once

A sci-fi black comedy from the Daniels—directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert—Everything Everywhere All At Once follows the multi-universal adventures of a Chinese immigrant, played by Michelle Yeoh. The mesmerising poster artwork created by Taiwanese-American artist James Jean is true to Jean’s signature fantastical comic book style, with the eclectic insanity of the film reimagined in 2D format. No mean feat, but Jean’s immersive illustrations do a stellar job.

5. The Northman (2022)

The character posters released by the studio for Viking epic The Northman were edging on generic historic-action fare, but an alternative poster design created by Edgar Ascensao gives the movie’s runic typography a more fitting graphic setting.

A vintage-inspired flat style, sparse and dramatic use of primal color and story-telling imagery makes for a poster that communicates a sense of folkloric adventure.

6. Blonde (2022)

Directed by Andrew Dominik and starring Ana de Armas as the doomed Hollywood icon, the Netflix Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde sets out to present Marilyn’s life story in a different, self-narrated light, in particular exploring the ‘widening split between her public and private selves’. 

The teaser poster for Blonde outstyles the later official posters, with its newspaper collage design, giving the audience a sense of How Marilyn was hounded by the press and her own famous persona at the height of her stardom. 

7. ELVIS (2022)

Baz Luhrmann’s highly-anticipated musical biography ELVIS is a multi-decade epic, charting the rise of the King of Rock n’ Roll, from his childhood in Mississippi to his conquering of Las Vegas as the leotard-clad legend the world eternally remembers.

The character posters for ELVIS pay tribute to the musician’s iterations, from Fifties blues singer to his bejewelled days in Vegas at the twilight of Elvismania. Ornate and baroque, with a nod to brash Las Vegas decor, the poster designs act as near-devotional tributes to the different ages of Elvis. 

8. The Green Knight (2021)

The Green Knight is an epic medieval fantasy starring Dev Patel as Sir Gawain, the headstrong nephew of King Arthur. He embarks on a quest to seek out and confront the Green Knight, a legendary figure with emerald skin, who is a tester of men. The movie is undoubtedly a bit weird, but nonetheless absorbing, and the poster artwork captures the offbeat feel of the film. Game of Thrones territory this is not, but rather an arthouse take on medieval folklore.

Graphic and restricted use of color takes a leaf out of Tarantino’s poster artwork playbook, with simplified Blackletter-inspired typography creating a finely-tuned balance between period and modernity. 

9. Little Fish (2020)

A romantic movie with a gently sci-fi character, Little Fish tells the story of a couple struggling to keep their relationship intact as a memory loss virus spreads worldwide. With an eerily similar theme to the real-life pandemic, Little Fish was nonetheless in development beforehand, but perhaps leaves a more menacing aftertaste than originally intended. 

The movie poster designs for Little Fish communicate a sense of intimate wistfulness and indie romance, rather than anything too dark, and the painterly design of the first poster is suitably ethereal. The second poster design has a more collage-inspired style which sets a more romantic mood, albeit in arthouse fashion.

10. Anonymous Club

An intimate portrayal of elusive singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett, Anonymous Club takes the audience inside the world of the enigmatic Australian indie rockstar over a three-year period. Beset with self-doubt and anxiety, Barnett’s highs and lows are revealed in unflinching detail, resulting in a film that is as much about the torment of creativity as the mental pressures of fame and performance. 

The poster artwork for Anonymous Club has an elusive and spiritual style, while staying true to the trademarks of indie style, such as rough-printed typography and grunge collage. The poster communicates Barnett’s sense of self-analysis and isolation, while enticing the viewer into wanting to know more about this elusive musician.

The post The 10 Best Movie Poster Designs of 2022 appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Whatever your vibe, whether minimal or ornate, you can give your designs an instant update with a stylish pattern. Scroll down to find inspiration for using a range of design-forward patterns on backgrounds and layouts for both print and web.

Inspiration: Geometric patterns

Geometric patterns use simple shapes in a repetitive style, building up to colorful and sometimes highly elaborate designs that still retain a minimalistic quality. Geometric patterns often feature symmetry and regularity, making them feel particularly pleasant and calming to look at. 

These types of pattern work effectively for brand identities, as it is easy to apply a branded color scheme to the series of shapes in a consistent manner. Geometric patterns are a simple way to give designs a mid-century look, and take on a more vintage character when set in subdued, tonal colours such as mustard, brown, olive or navy blue.

Inspiration: Watercolor patterns

Ethereal and airy, watercolor patterns lend a handcrafted feel to packaging designs. They have a delicate, delectable mood, making them a natural fit for food and drinks products, and when used in strong monocolour they give more graphic impact and look particularly effective. 

This delicate pattern trend is effortlessly pretty and makes for designs that are airy and ethereal. Create your own watercolour patterns using watercolour paints or inks dipped in water, before colourising them in Photoshop for a more striking look. 

Inspiration: Illustrated Patterns

You can bring character and narrative to a range of designs with illustrated patterns. Illustration also allows your designs to feel more personalised and unique, as well as to give a specific mood to a layout. Woodland scenes bring a rustic, folk feel while naive, abstract designs lend a design an artsy look. 

To avoid an overly fussy style, use a limited colour scheme in your illustrated patterns and promote symmetry and repetition to make an ornate design feel calming to the eye. 

Inspiration: Marbled Patterns

Marbling is a centuries-old technique for giving paper a dreamlike, swirling, multicoloured effect. Originally used to decorate the covers and inside pages of books, marbled patterns retain a literary personality, making any design feel more luxurious and intellectual. They are the perfect fit for high-end products or artistic branding, and have a subtle adaptability that makes them more versatile than other ornate patterns. 

The post Pattern in Branding, Packaging and Graphic Design appeared first on InDesignSkills.

The biggest graphic design trends of 2022 include a range of exciting styles and approaches that push the boundaries of print and brand design, with beautiful embossed packaging, pictotype logos, Mincho typefaces and kooky brand mascots set to define the face of graphic design and print design in the coming months. 

Read on to discover our prediction for the ten biggest design trends in 2022 as well as tips for illustration trends and branding trends to help bring your 2022 design projects to life.  

The 10 Biggest Graphic Design Trends and Branding Trends of 2022

We analyse search data and emerging project work across an international roster of creative agencies to compile our annual design trend report. We anticipate the biggest graphic design trends of 2022 to include: 

1. Embossed Packaging
2. Pictotype Logos
3. Refined Retro
4. Noisy Gradients
5. Brand Mascots
6. Mincho Typefaces
7. Red
8. Cut-Away Type
9. Sinuous Serifs
10. Endorphin Design

Scroll down to read more about each graphic design trend in detail, and discover tips for putting each trend into practice in your own design projects.

Trend 1: Embossed Packaging

Texture will be a widespread yet understated trend in design in 2022, with embossed packaging bringing quiet luxury to lifestyle and food products. Embossed illustrations and graphics, as well as logos and typography, help to bring depth and tactility to packaging designs, and they look even more ethereal without colour variation.

This design trend requires a confident approach to print—in absence of colour the whole focus will be on the quality and physical appeal of the paper stock. Avoid print-on-demand services and consult local suppliers for the best results.

Trend 2: Pictotype Logos

With type-based logos still retaining popularity into the coming year, designers will start looking for new ways to differentiate typographic designs. Introducing the pictotype logo—these type-focussed logos include a graphic reference to the brand name or theme of the product. Whether it’s a subtle crescent moon in the logo of lifestyle brand Moonglade or a knitted texture woven into the fabric of the Hug Scarves logo, 2022’s pictotype logos manage to steer away from novelty territory with subtly stylish details.

Trend 3: Refined Retro

As the recent rebrand for Burger King demonstrates, the power of nostalgia marketing still stands in 2021, and we expect to see a range of similarly retro-tinted designs across branding in particular in 2022. The timing for a resurgence of retro-influenced design is no coincidence—after the pandemic, consumers are particularly receptive to nostalgic products and brands, which offer emotional reassurance and comfort in an uncertain modern world.

However, rather than an authentic reiteration of the past, logos, graphics and type will have a more refined retro feel in 2022, with sleeker lines, contemporary color palettes and a notable absence of vintage textures. 

Trend 4: Noisy Gradients

Can any graphic designer remember a time when gradients weren’t on-trend? From 80s-inspired neon sunset styles to pastel-hued washes of colour, gradients have been a near-permanent fixture of design layouts over the last few years. Gradients aren’t going away anytime soon, but they are evolving into something a little more interesting. Introducing grainy, noisy texture into your gradients gives designs a vintage, airbrushed style, as well as adding more depth to illustrations and graphics. 

Introduce texture to gradients with overlay images or noisy glows, or go one step further and experiment with a texture-boosting print technique such as risography or letterpress. 

Trend 5: 3D Brand Mascots

We’ve come a long way since Microsoft’s Clippy, even though Microsoft have recently threatened to resurrect the loveable annoying paperclip character. Luckily, today’s brand mascots are much more fun and dynamic. A number of brands have introduced 3D mascots—often created using CAD software and animated to accompany marketing videos, apps and websites—which take inspiration from gaming, cartoons and Japanese anime. A crossover design trend that seems to have emerged from the gaming and TikTok world, these cute characters add extra energy and interest to digital designs. 

Trend 6: Mincho Typefaces

Mincho, which translates to ‘Song’ in Japanese, refers to a traditional form of type design that is used to display Chinese, Japanese or Korean letters. Characterised by high-contrast strokes and a tranquil, calligraphic style, the modern wave of Mincho typefaces are being used to set English-language content on otherwise simple websites and print layouts. Combine these Japanese-inspired fonts with monochrome color palettes and black-and-white photography to maximise their elegant appeal.   

Trend 7: Red

Strong, graphic and to the point, red has never completely fallen from fashion but this impactful colour is definitely having a moment across branding and marketing. This warm and potent hue feels like a breath of fresh air when used in isolation, bringing a commanding mood to websites and print layouts. 

In 2022, expect to see red being used in a more confident and graphic style, whether set as a simple backdrop for brand communications or used as a powerful accent colour on packaging, logos or stationery. Red’s versatility can be seen in the designs below, whether giving a retro feel to poster designs for MESiBA, a sense of playfulness to packaging for Dino Burger or fuss-free graphic simplicity to the brand identity for Jump by Uber. Combine large washes of crimson color with white for a crisp, clean feel.

Trend 8: Cut-Away Type

Whether a curvy sans serif or a sculptural serif, give your typography an instant update for 2022 by introducing cut-away sections. This striking and graphic font trend gives lacklustre type more character and quirk, prompting viewers to look twice. Be bold and cut away a section from your letterforms or logos to create a geometric effect or for curvier typefaces increase the contrast of strokes to dramatic effect, to create a stencil-style effect. 

Trend 9: Sinuous Serifs

One of the biggest design comeback stories of recent years is the triumphant return of the serif after decades in the wilderness. While sans serifs will always offer clean and contemporary minimalism, a beautiful serif typeface can really bring something extra to designs that require a high-end or luxurious look. 

In 2022, we’ll see the serif trend pushed even further with ever more sinuous and sensual serif typefaces that playfully melt and curve, creating a modern interprettaion of calligraphic 1970s-inspired type styles. Use for social media, lifestyle branding or retail products to elevate designs instantly.

Trend 10: Endorphin Design

We could all do with a mood boost post-pandemic, so it’s no surprise that optimistic and ultra-colourful design is set to continue into 2022. Multicolored rainbow-hued palettes and childlike graphics characterise this playful design trend, helping to spark joy across a range of designs, from packaging to websites. 

Go Forth and Try Out a New Graphic Design Trend

Whether you’re looking for an endorphin boost or a fresh update for your typography, 2022’s biggest design trends have plenty to offer for your design projects. Try out a Mincho typeface to give a sculptural edge to website text or go all-out with a bold crimson palette to give your print designs and web designs more style and substance over the coming months. 

Looking for more design inspiration?

Discover inspiring font lists, graphic design tips and endless inspiration on our Inspiration page.

The post The 10 Biggest Graphic Design Trends of 2022 appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Find inspiration for your next publishing project with our pick of the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous cookery books out there…

1. Fäviken 

Swedish chef Magnus Nilsson shares some of the recipes that make his restaurant Fäviken Magasinet world-famous, and presents it in a wonderful ‘Skandi-chic’ format.

A simple, vintage-inspired fabric hardcover is adorned with quaint illustrations and minimal text. Inside, the layouts are traditional but unfailingly stylish, with photographs and type framed by putty-coloured borders and backgrounds.

More vintage-influenced book design.

Design: Phaidon Press

2. Classic Cookbooks by Juniper Books 

A well-judged spine design can really give the ‘wow’ factor to a cookbook, transforming them into decorative items you’ll cherish forever on your kitchen shelf.

These stunning cover designs from Juniper Books extends the spine theme across a series of cookbooks to create cookbooks that are as unique as they are beautiful.

Design: Juniper Books

3. Vefa’s Kitchen 

A contemporary book with a distinctively old-fashioned feel, Vefa’s Kitchen brings Greek chef Vefa Alexiadou’s extensive knowledge about authentic Greek cooking to a new audience.

The art-inspired cover is matched by equally pretty pages inside, which display Vefa’s lovingly prepared dishes via rustic photography with a homely feel.

Design: Phaidon Press

4. Book Design by Hieu Nguyen 

Australian-based art director Hieu Nguyen has a tried-and-tested approach to cookbook design that’s always accessible, on-trend and relevant.

His role as Creative Director for ACP Magazine’s book division has allowed him to foster a strong brand look for their cookbooks, which marries grungy type styles with rustic food photography.

Discover some equally awesome fonts to use in your print designs.

Design: Hieu Nguyen

5. Mexico: The Cookbook  

No doubt a future modern classic, Mexico: The Cookbook has a strikingly modern, funky cover that breaks the usual ‘rustic-is-best’ rule of contemporary cookbook design.

Inside, the layouts are just as vibrant, combining colourful, silhouetted graphics with street-style photography and collage-inspired typography.

Read our tutorial on how to use colour and swatch combinations effectively in your designs.

Design: Phaidon Press

Have these cookbook designs got you fired up for creating your own gourmet graphics and tastebud-tingling typography?

Find more inspiration for book design and discover the best mazing fonts for book covers. Develop your book design skills with our introduction to creating books in InDesign.

The post Cookbook Design Inspiration appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Here, discover 12 of the very best architecture portfolios for your inspiration, as well as a handy InDesign template kit to help you create a stylish portfolio in a fraction of the time. 

When it comes to print or web format, traditional print is still the industry-standard, but more architects are showcasing digital portfolios that allow them to connect with viewers instantly and incorporate interactive content such as video and UX elements. 

Scroll down for our edit of the best architect portfolios, from artfully minimal styles to unique and design-forward layouts that linger in the memory.

Print Portfolios

Printed portfolios, consisting of a series of simple sheets or bound into a book, are still a standard portfolio format for architecture students and interviewees. Established studios also often produce their own printed portfolios, which can be used as a client brochure…or simply as a treasured keepsake. Below, discover inspirational examples of printed portfolios that feature a range of layouts and styles. 

1. Angélica María Ruiz Forero

An architect from Bogotá, Colombia, Angélica María Ruiz Forero uses illustration to create immersive, beautifully presented visuals of her projects. Allowing detailed plans to fill whole spreads, and with a quirky embossed cover, this portfolio design balances architectural imagery with an illustrative approach.

2. Lilla Turi

Budapest-based illustrator Lilla Turi lends her colorful and atmospheric style to this portfolio magazine for a Motion Center Design in Budapest, designed by architect Akos Onodi Szabo.

Architecture portfolios are often lacking in color, with minimal neutral tones favoured instead. This portfolio design shows how colour can give life to illustrated visuals. Paired with minimally-presented plans and diagrams, it’s the perfect balancing act.

3. Architecture Template Kit: InDesignSkills

InDesignSkills’ new Architecture Template Kit contains a complete range of Adobe InDesign templates for architects and architecture students. 

Created by our team of in-house designers in consultation with architectural practices, the kit includes two portfolio template options, for comprehensive portfolios or condensed versions for attaching to emails. 

The layouts have a versatile and stylish design, allowing you to easily incorporate your own images and text. Take a look at the portfolio previews below, and find more details here.

4. Spasoje Radomilovic

A graphic approach in this architecture portfolio combines impactful typography and a stark black and white palette. This portfolio, which belongs to Spasoje Radomilovic, an architect based in Frankfurt, Germany, also uses a range of image types, from photography to isometric plans, to create a strong narrative throughout each project.

5. Rebecca Gaffiero

Soothing colour accents of buff, grey and khaki provide the earthy backdrop to the work of Rebecca Gaffiero, an interior and product designer from Malta. The warm tones of the 3D renders are echoed in the soft, rounded typography and carefully-considered diagrams. 

Rebecca’s layouts are often divided into three, with each element—whether photograph, render or plan—combining to create a complete account of the project. 

6. Ruxin Xie

While dark backgrounds might not be the obvious choice for portfolio layouts, this contrasting portfolio design from Ruxin Xie might persuade you to move to the dark side. 

Monochrome pages in subtle shades of olive and grey are followed by dark spreads, which feature chalk-white plans for dramatic impact. A visually interesting way to present plan-heavy portfolios.

7. Handoyo Lawiguna

Presented as a keepsake mini-book, the architecture portfolio of Handoyo Lawiguna is quietly beautiful. Pairing building visuals in a flat illustrated style with Swiss-inspired typography, the result is a portfolio that’s sure to be treasured for years to come.

8. Giovanni Franzini

Architectural photographer Giovanni Franzini uses rounded image frames and selective pops of colour to complement his elegant images of facades and architectural details. Serif typography adds to the refined and sophisticated style of the layouts, while a warm pink backdrop makes a refreshing alternative to paper white.

Portfolio Websites

The advantage of portfolio websites is that they can be instantly accessed with the click of a link. Convenient for sending over email, digital portfolios also have the capacity to have more interactivity, such as videos, animated illustrations or user-friendly hover effects. The portfolio websites below demonstrate how beautifully projects can be presented on-screen.

9. Kanstantsin Remez

Cool, calm and collected would be suitable adjectives to describe the online portfolio of Kanstantsin Remez, an architect and interior designer living in Minsk. Full-colour portrait photography sits alongside ultra-minimal webfonts on expansive layouts. This portfolio site is an artful exercise in less-is-more.

10. Norm Architects

With a website created by UX designer Denis Stekhin, Norm Architects are an established practice with a wide range of projects. In the case of numerous projects, online portfolios can help to create a sense of order and calm, categorising related projects together and allocating multiple images to each scrollable page. 

Despite its overall minimal appearance, the website design uses layered photos and different image dimensions to create visual interest. The occasional pop of bold orange, which highlights key statistics and dimensions, adds extra creative flair to portfolio pages. 

11. Saunders Architecture

The full-screen photography used on the website of Saunders Architecture helps to immerse the viewer completely in the Canadian Studio’s often nature-focussed projects. Dark-toned images emphasise the cosiness of cabin-inspired designs, while light backgrounds on project pages help to give an airy and expansive feel to photography shot in daylight hours.  

The website was created by digital designer Kirill Dubrovsky.

12. Kevin Krautgartner

A typographic approach is taken by UI/UX designer Karina Opanasyuk for the website of award-winning architecture and landscape photographer Kevin Krautgartner. Kevin’s photographs often focus on the intricate textures and colours of landscapes and buildings, with the black-and-white palette chosen for the website allowing the images to shine. Scrollable pages are filled with two columns of images, varying in size to bring interest to the layout.

Present and Brand Beautifully with the Architecture Template Kit for Adobe InDesign

InDesignSkills’ new Architecture Template Kit contains a complete range of InDesign templates for architects, practices and architecture students.

Included in the Architecture Template Kit are 4 presentation boards, full portfolio with 40 pro-designed pages, introductory portfolio template, 5 business card templates and 4 letterhead options for Adobe InDesign, sized to a wide range of US, European, UK and Australian standard sizes.

The post The Best Architecture Portfolios: 12 Examples to Inspire appeared first on InDesignSkills.

An escapist and magical mood pervades our trend forecast, with tranquil graphics, optical illusion illustrations and fantasy 3D renders set to help us to switch off the noise for a short while next year. Alongside this runs a thread of trends that are reactionary to 2020 in hopeful and solution-giving ways, with clean infographics, simplified medical branding and activist-influenced design aiming to address the problems that a pandemic year has brought to the fore.

Design is so often the looking glass through which we engage with the world around us, and in our increasingly engaged world the way that things are presented online, in print and in our daily lives has never been more important or revealing. While 2020 might be a year we’d all like to forget, designers are at the forefront of ensuring that 2021 will be a memorable era, for good reasons this time.

Read on to discover our trend forecast for graphic design, illustration and advertising design, and get ahead of the curve in your own projects.

Trend 1: Calm and Tranquillity

Serene and soothing, 2021’s design mood will be a salve to the upheaval of 2020. Neutral colors, minimal layouts and meditative graphics are welcome responses to the daily onslaught of online news and information saturation.

With many of us spending more time at home in 2020, there’s also been an increasing focus on self-care, wellness and cultivating sanctuary spaces at home (at least one wall away from the inescapable WFH zone). With screens now an intrinsic part of our interiors, as well as our office spaces, serene backdrops to desktops and websites can help to create calming environments.

Expect to see 90s-inspired minimalism making a comeback, with lava lamp-inspired animations, earthy palettes and natural textures.

Trend 2: Intelligent Medical Branding

One of the more practical trends that is gaining ground due to the COVID crisis, more designers are turning their attention to the design of medical packaging and branding related to health, medicines and supplements. 

Medical packaging has followed the same functional design formula for decades, with text-heavy layouts and clinical green and white palettes. The new generation of medical brands are rethinking these long-accepted traits, with instantly recognisable graphics, creative color-coding and modular packaging design giving pharmacy shelves a vibrant makeover.

As well as looking more contemporary, many of these designs play a practical role—allowing users to locate the right medicine more quickly on crowded shelves, or catering for health-conscious consumers looking to create personal supplement kits tailored to their individual needs.

Trend 3: Optical Illusions

A trend that’s set to bring a magical mood to typography and illustration, optical illusions, immersive patterns and mind-bending graphics are the embodiment of escapism.

These trippy designs combine elements of psychedelia with clean, mid-century style. Expect to see optical illusions integrated into illustrations, logos and type design. Unashamedly fun and individualist, the goal is to spark joy over creating a legible design.

Trend 4: Fantasy Landscapes and Interiors

After a year spent analysing the shelves and kitchen cupboards of colleagues on video calls, the humble Zoom background has become a focus of discussion, debate and even envy.

With the aid of 3D CAD renders and virtual reality, it becomes possible to immerse oneself in a fantastical digital setting, whether it’s a room that features eye-popping furniture and colour, or a dreamscape that stretches the limitations of reality.

As we move back into the physical world, consumers’ desire for rose-tinted environments will spill over into advertising and web design. Products and models will be presented in fictional settings that mimic the fantastical style of gaming and virtual reality.  

Tying into our forecast for escapist design in 2021, fantasy landscapes and interiors are set to become a big background trend next year.

Trend 5: Simple Infographic Illustration

Having surely reached data saturation point, there’s something distinctly refreshing about information that’s presented cleanly and clearly. With statistics being thrown at us at liberty on social media and news channels, it can be difficult to identify what’s relevant…and what’s truthful.

Stripped-back, simple infographics and illustrations that seek to concisely explain complex topics will be a key trend in editorial design and social images in 2021.  

Trend 6: Activism 2.0

From Black Lives Matter to climate movements, 2019 and 2020 were protest years. In 2021, activism will become even more integrated into our daily lives through professionalised branding, more compelling websites and more sophisticated virtual and physical event identities.

Far from the commercialisation of activism, these design-supported movements will help to move causes into the mainstream, allowing them to connect with larger audiences.  

Trend 7: Raw and Characterful Serifs

From a typographic perspective, 2020 was the year of the serif. Serif typefaces give brands and marketing communications more authority and personality than minimal sans serif fonts.

2021 will see the serif trend continue and evolve, with designers seeking more unusual and characterful serifs to stand out from the crowd. Serifs with a raw and rustic style—a deconstructed serif of sorts—feel the most current and cool in an over-crowded serif market.

These type styles will be particularly popular for logos and headings, across both print and web.  

Trend 8: Polished Retro

Vintage-inspired design will always have a place in graphics, bringing a nostalgic warmth and comfort to brand identities, websites and apps. Next year, we’ll see a more polished version of vintage style across typography and graphics, with clean lines and contemporary colour palettes blurring the lines between decades.

If you’re not able to confidently define the era that inspired the design, but it nonetheless has something familiar and retro about it, this is the sort of polished retro style that will find a place in 2021.  

Looking for more design inspiration?

Discover inspiring font lists, graphic design tips and endless inspiration on our Inspiration page.

The post The 2021 Graphic Design and Illustration Trends to Know Now appeared first on InDesignSkills.

These are the styles which we think you’ll see everywhere across print and web design, so it pays to get ahead and tap into these trends while you can.

From the welcome return of serif fonts to rich blue palettes, these are the trends we’re tipping to be influential in 2019.

1. Circles

If you want an edgy, trend-forward look for your poster and flyer designs in 2019, the lesson for next year is to use circles as your starting point.

This simple shape looks fantastic paired with colored gradients, like in these poster designs for Trieste Estate Summer Festival by Studio Mut.

Be playful with splitting your circle designs and bringing in different colors and textures. In this cover design by Slanted Publishers, the designers team metallic foiling with inky black and photographic images to create a Seventies-inspired look.

2. Flexible Type Logos

2019 will see brands continue to demand more from their logo designs, mainly in response to digital platforms. Flexible type-based logos, in which letters can rotate and switch position, give brands more freedom with how a logo can be used.

Whether it’s creating an animated version or adapting to limited space on an app design, these flexible type logos are going to be big news next year because of the exciting options they present for brands.

2019 graphic design ‘flexible type’ trend examples: Look to the visual identities for Agora by Graphéine and 48North by Bloc Design for flexible logo inspiration.

3. 50 Shades of Blue

If there’s one colour that’s going to dominate graphic design in 2019 it’s blue. While any shade of blue, from pale sky to deep teal will hit the spot, it’s the very strong, rich shades of blue like cobalt and indigo which are going to look the most trend-forward.

Team with neons or metallics for beautiful contrast, or pair up with coral reds like in these brand designs for Tallinn Music Week by AKU, and poster designs for the 751 International Design Festival by Zhu Chao.

4. Pictogram Logos

Icon-based logos are nothing new, but in 2019 we’ll start to see more brands adopting pictogram-style logos which express a concept or theme more symbolically. These logos are designed to work in isolation from text, which means they have to be very strong visually.

Simple silhouettes are softened to create witty animal-based designs, like in these logo designs for Co. Means Coffee by Canape Agency and for NetEase Kaola by Plus X.

5. 1930s-Inspired Illustration

If you’re a fan of vintage design, you’ll love this 1930s-inspired trend for illustration. Inspired by Soviet-era and late Art Deco poster art, designers are starting to revisit the grainy gradients and strong, abstract shapes of this era of design.

Add extra noise to your illustrations to nail the look, and bring in richer, more modern color palettes to keep the designs feeling fresh.

These advertising illustrations by Mads Berg for Orangina and season identity for Le Cargö concert hall by Murmure show how gradients and noise textures combine to create beautiful graphics with a vintage edge.

2019 vintage design trend examples:

6. Curvy Serif Typefaces

Serifs are back, big time. After decades of sans serif dominance, serifs are starting to take back the limelight. The new incarnation of spot-on serif typefaces are curvier and more organic than traditional Didot and Garamond.

Look to Art Nouveau-inspired styles to tap into this 2019 trend. They work particularly beautifully for editorial design. This brand design for London-based photographer Agnes Lloyd-Platt by Seachange Studio and magazine design for Nido by Asís show how the new curvy serifs go hand-in-hand with gorgeous photography and pared-back color palettes.

7. Experimental Type

In line with the leaning towards all things maximalist, 2019 will be the year that designers continue to push the boundaries with typography. The lesson to take away is that anything goes. Good taste and/or legibility be damned.

Warp, stretch, distort and overlay your type, like in these poster designs for Nantes-based music campus Trempolino by Murmure, to tap into the trend.

8. Rainbow Gradients

Gradients have been a huge trend this year, and designers are still finding that multi-colored backgrounds and type looks fun and optimistic. in 2019 the trend takes on a retro spirit with a spectrum of rainbow colors. Be inspired by the rainbow iridescence of petrol to really nail this style.

For extra brownie points incorporate metallic print textures, like in this visual identity for Cadabra by byHAUS Studio.

9. Bauhaus Revisited

Germany is celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the founding of the world-famous Bauhaus school in 2019. While Berlin will be hosting a centenary event next year, graphic designers will also find fresh inspiration in the Bauhaus movement for their designs.

Look to primary color palettes, Brutalist-inspired styling and modernist fonts to give your layouts a Bauhaus-worthy look.

10. Margins Be Gone

Throw the grid rules you know out the window. Next year, experimental type (see Trend 7, above) goes hand-in-hand with a playful dismissal of margins.

Allow your type to overlap the trim edge, like in these business card designs for ArchitectsEAT by Hue Studio.

Or push your text to the very fringes of your poster layouts, like in these designs for Théâtre de Quat’Sous by Maxime David.

Hungry for more? Discover more graphic design inspiration here.

The post 2019 Graphic Design Trends You Need to Know appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Read on to discover the top five graphic design trends which will be making an impact in 2018, from color fonts to maximalism, and everything in-between!

1. Color Fonts

If you need to know about only one graphic design trend for 2018, Color fonts is it.

Color fonts, also known as chromatic fonts, are OpenType fonts with additional data attached in SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format. This means that color font files store extra data, such as textures, gradients, and colors.

In line with the trend for all things maximalist (see below), color fonts are over-the-top and bordering on bad taste. Above all, they’re meant to be bringing the fun back into design, which makes them a welcome departure from the rigours of minimalism.

As time goes by, more color fonts are becoming available on the market—you can find an ever-growing list on Adobe’s dedicated Typekit site for color fonts.

Bungee, a signage-inspired color font by David Jonathan Ross

2. Animated Typography

In digital design, we’re also going to see the color font trend go one step further with animated versions of color fonts. These will bring an extra dimension of interactivity and fun to branding, social media content and apps in 2018.

Multicolore, a new typeface by Ivan Filipov and Vaidas Chmieliauskas, is available in both static and animated versions, catering to this new taste for lively typography.

3. Texture in Print Design

The design industry’s focus on digital design has shifted attention unfairly away from print design in recent years. Not ones to be discouraged, print designers have been quietly and skillfully carving out a niche for print design, which makes it just as relevant in an online-obsessed world.

There’s something about printed materials which web design can’t rival—it’s the physicality and tactility of print that makes it an indispensable marketing tool for brands.

In 2018 designers will play up this difference, and be more experimental with textures in their printwork. Recycled and bespoke papers, embossing, foiling, quilting and high-gloss finishes bring an extra element of textural surprise to otherwise pared-back designs.

These stationery designs for interiors business Maldini Studios by Jens Nilsson is a perfect example of this luxe trend. The focus is on emphasising the beauty of natural texture and imperfections in the paper stock, making these into business cards you can’t help but want to pick up and stroke.The resurgence of fabric-bound books will also continue this year, with more cover designers opting for linen and wool textures in their designs, adding to the tactility and treasurability of beautiful books.

4. Maximalism and Eccentricity

There’s a sea change in graphic design at the moment. Tastefully minimal design suddenly seems a little, well, boring.

The worlds of fashion and interiors have already taken note of the new taste for maximalism, where Gucci, in particular, has experienced a complete rejuvenation by wholeheartedly embracing extravagant color, eccentricity and ‘ugly’ design.

In graphic design too, the mood for 2018 is maximalist, with designers starting to be more creative with color, embellishment and detail. Take your cues from folk design, retro styling and Wes Anderson movies to channel the trend in your own designs.

These UN ‘Peace Stamp’ prints by packaging design studio Stranger & Stranger showcase the heavy detailing, rainbow color palette and diverse cultural references that will define the maximalist trend in 2018.

5. Line Art Branding and Packaging

Line art is the successor of flat design, and the style was popular across icon and app design last year. In 2018, we’ll see the line art trend move into branding and packaging design.

It’s a subtle style that instantly makes labels and boxes look cutting-edge, and it really sings when set in metallic foil against a backdrop of pastel colors. If you’re not completely on board with the maximalist trend (see above) this is a great halfway house. You can bring in lots of detail, and still keep the design looking simple and pared-back.

Team your line art illustrations with vintage-inspired typography to strike the perfect balance.

Anna Austriaczka chocolate packaging by Valeria Shaposhnikoff

De 36 frågorna packaging by Martin Ohlsson

Stefano Faita and Michele Forgione pasta sauce packaging by Agency lg2

Looking for more graphic design inspiration? Delve into these examples of the botanical print design trend, or take a look at our selection of fantastic stationery design inspiration.

The post 2018 Graphic Design Trends You Need to Know appeared first on InDesignSkills.

InDesign is a great ‘mapping’ tool for experimenting with email newsletter layouts. Giving you the flexibility to easily manoeuvre text, images and change color schemes, you can then create your ideas as HTML using your chosen e-newsletter software.

1. Create Hierarchy In Your Newsletter Design

With so many emails landing in an inbox on any given day, it’s important to make both an immediate and long-term impact on your recipient. One way of maximising both is to structure your email design around a story, which builds from an enticing beginning at the start of the email and ends in a call-to-action or memorable brand message at the bottom of the scroll.

In marketing speak this might be referred to as storytelling, but from a design perspective this is communicated through a visual hierarchy of elements on the layout.

This beautiful email from Japanese lifestyle company Rikumo is a great example of hierarchy in action. The large header begins the email at the top, before the fairy lights lead the eye down to other sub-elements. The email ends with another prominent item—a series of elegantly designed buttons which entice the viewer to click.

Design by Rikumo

2. Start your Newsletter With a Simple Grid

E-newsletters are built with HTML links in mind, which means that the design structure tends to be much simpler than most other layouts. You’ll notice that most emails are built on a simple grid structure, usually with a maximum of two columns. This also ensures that the design can quickly adapt responsively when viewed on smaller devices like phones and tablets.

With this in mind, the basis of your design should be an ultra-simple grid. Start by splitting your layout into two columns, before deciding which sections of your design will span two columns. Most emails begin with a large two-column header, like in this design for knitwear brand Prima Handcraft.  

Design by Lúcia Poland

Once you have this basic structure in place you can start to think more creatively about the design. This design from shoe brand Office shows how a simple modular style can be eye-catching by mixing up block sizes and colored backgrounds.

Design: Office

3. Focus Your Energies on Designing an Awesome Header…

With your grid in place it’s time to flex your creative muscles!

It’s really important to concentrate most of your time and energy on crafting the perfect header image, as this is the first element recipients will see when opening your email. It often takes only a few seconds for an individual to decide whether to click or delete the message, so designing your header to include strong color, atmospheric photography and a clear call-to-action is absolutely key.

This festive-themed email from beauty brand Birchbox really amps up the scale and visual impact of the header image, with clear typography, rich colors and a contrasting button.

Design by Birchbox

This newsletter from department store Harrod’s begins the design with a fun and youthful full-width header image that can’t be ignored.

Design: Harrod’s

4. …Or a Series of Themed Images

An alternative approach would be to create a series of images which are equally arresting, encouraging the viewer to keep scrolling.

While the header image approach (see 3, above) is best for encouraging quick clicking, you may find that creating variety and quantity in your email images will work better for some audiences.

This approach tends to look best when the images are themed, creating an overall unity to the layout. This newsletter from Zara Man relies on color and stylistic consistency to create plenty of opportunities for clicking. After all, if you’re not in the market for a coat, you may be for shoes!

Design by Zara

This quirky newsletter from Anthropologie takes a similar themed approach, creating a layout that feels playful and unique.

Design by Anthropologie

5. ‘Break’ the Grid to Create an Immersive Newsletter Design

Modular newsletter layouts look slick and minimal, but sometimes designs can be more absorbing if the rigid squares of the grid are hidden from sight.

This newsletter from furniture retailer MADE is a neat example of this. Notice how the images have been designed to overlap each other, creating a seamless, immersive effect. Ultimately, however, the design is still built on a modular sequence of links, split into two vertical columns.

Design: MADE

6. Use Color in your Newsletter to Bait Clicks

Cleverly chosen color is one of the quickest ways you can attract and keep a viewer’s attention. A concise color palette not only gives your design an instant sense of atmosphere and mood, but also has the capacity to affect the psychology of the viewer, and encourage clicking.

This calm and collected newsletter from Not On The High Street uses a restricted color palette of pastels to showcase the simple typography and images beautifully. It’s a small moment of calm in an otherwise chaotic inbox.

Design: Not On The High Street

This festive newsletter from tea brand Teavana goes for a bolder approach, contrasting urgent cherry red with sophisticated tiffany blue. Note how the header image is set in red with high-contrast white text and button, to encourage instant clicking.

Design: Teavana

7. Keep your Newsletter it Simple

Even though attention spans for looking at emails are reportedly increasing, this still only stands at an average of 11.1 seconds per view. That’s just 11.1 seconds to get your message across and encourage a click.

This is the reason why complicated email designs don’t work—an overly detailed design demands too much of a casual viewer, which leads them to go elsewhere. With this in mind, try to keep your email design as simple as possible. Focus on refining layout, images and color over text content, which won’t be read in detail.

Simplicity doesn’t mean compromising on style, as this minimal and elegant layout from J.CREW demonstrates.

Design: J.CREW

This pared-back design from Monki also shows how a simple idea can be anything but basic.

Design: Monki

8. Rethink Your Frames

A modular grid might seem a bit ‘square’, but you can amp up the aesthetic appeal of your design by rethinking how those squares are styled.

Framing images in a different way can have a transformative effect on an email design, and make your layout stand out from the crowd. This email design from clothing brand Massimo Dutti includes elegantly drawn frames, which lift the images from run-of-the-mill to utterly luxurious.

Design: Massimo Dutti

Beauty brand Sephora has opted to frame products in brightly colored circular frames to create an eye-catching, stylish look which makes each product look even more enticing.

Design: Sephora

Looking for even more inspiration? Find the designs that will spark your next project here.

The post How to Design Beautiful Email Newsletters appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Here’s our pick of some of the best examples of retro branding done right. Take primary colors and modernist sans serifs for a spin to recreate the look in your own designs.

1. Sydney School of Entrepreneurship

The Sydney School of Entrepreneurship needed a brand identity that felt as fresh and avant-garde as its educational model. This thoroughly modern brand identity has a flexible format, with a custom retro logo generator that uses geometric elements to create an evolving brand, reflecting the dynamic nature of entrepreneurship.

Despite being part of a cutting-edge brand, the graphic elements that make up the identity borrow generously from mid-century styling and modernist design. It goes to show that a dash of retro influence can still feel completely new and relevant today.

Design: Multiple Owners for the Sydney School of Entrepreneurship

2. Busk Music Festival

Studio Mut‘s colorful branding for Italian music festival Busk is a masterful example of the power of combining simple shapes with a fantastic color palette. Although the geometric layouts make a nod to retro design, the colors and contemporary typeface place it into contemporary territory. A simple yet flexible brand identity, the same styling has translated well to festival branding for successive years.

Design: Studio Mut for Busk

3. Pizzeria Massa

Who doesn’t love pizza? Arnau Pi Bonany‘s brand design for Spanish restaurant chain Pizzeria Massa injects even more fun into everyone’s favorite Italian food. We love the punchy impact of the geometric retr logo and Sixties colors, which give a nostalgic Italian feel to the whole brand.

Design: Arnau Pi Bonany for Pizzeria Massa

4. Petit Fou

This corporate identity for brand Petit Fou (affectionately translates to ‘little crazy one’) by Daniela Gilsdorf takes its cues from playful postmodernism and vintage school stationery. Candy-hued shades of mint, lemon and coral provide a nostalgic backdrop to slim typography and ultra-minimal layouts.

Design: Daniela Gilsdorf for Petit Fou

5. Medialab Prado

The Sixties is definitely still swinging when you take a look at this gorgeously vintage branded stationery for Digital Art Center Medialab Prado. Madrid-based studio Tata&Friends took a distinctly retro color palette and combined it with sans serif type to create a retro tribute that works just as well for today. Try Daria Sans for a font with a similar early-computing feel.

Design: Tata&Friends for Medialab Prado

6. Actionable

Design studio Underline created this bold, Eighties-inspired brand identity for corporate education consultancy Actionable. The Swiss School aesthetic has a big part to play in making this design feel a little retro, while the bright color palette keeps things playful. This is a fantastic take on retro given a more contemporary and corporate-friendly edge.

Design: Underline for Actionable

On the hunt for more branding inspiration? You’ve come to the right place! Find perfect fonts for creative branding, or browse stationery inspiration to get your creative juices flowing. Or head straight to the Inspiration page here.

The post The Best Retro Branding Design appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Read on to discover our predictions for the graphic design industry this year, from Hygge-friendly packaging design to a resurgence in Eighties style…

1. Eighties-Inspired Design

The graphic design world has had its sights firmly fixed on the past over the previous decade, with vintage and retro design being one of the most defining trends of the the 2010s. This year the clock is slowly moving forward, with designs tapping into more recent nostalgia to entice clients and consumers.

To feel on-point in 2017, you should be looking to all things Eighties. The boom decade may have been the era good taste forgot, but its bold and zingy color palette feels absolutely spot-on for this year. The Eighties palette of Tron-friendly neons and darks makes for optimistic, in-your-face designs which have a futuristic-meets-nostalgic feel. After a tumultous 2016, this heady mix of childhood comfort and forward-looking futurism feels just right.

Design: Amore Studio for Absolut Vodka

With the fashion industry echoing the sentiment (who knew cone-heeled stilettoes would ever come round again?!) and with the much anticipated release of Blade Runner 2049 in the summer, the design world is going to go mad for all things Eighties this year.

To channel the 1980s in the right way this year, look to mix up your color choices. Move away from the subdued swatches of last year and take neons and bold primary colors for a spin instead.

Design: Amore Studio for Absolut Vodka

2. A Tale of Two Design Trends…Will You Choose Pattern?

2017 is going to be a year of individualism in graphic design. Flat design was a very welcome addition to graphics last year, helping to simplify layouts and improve user experience, but it became so popular that it now feels saturated. This year we’ll see more arts and crafts inspired trends, and pattern and print will return in a big way.

For packaging and brand design, bringing together the best qualities of flat design and pattern will create vibrant, colorful products which feel at once both ultra-contemporary and artistic.

Design: Pyramida Brand Identity

We’ll see the trend for nature-inspired patterns, like those found in marble, precious stones and plants, grow even bigger too, echoing design trends in other fields, like interiors and fashion. Painterly patterns contrasted with simple typography will also bring a crafts vibe to printed media.

Design: A New Type of Imprint by Anti

Pattern doesn’t have to be about multiple colors or symmetry either—bringing in more visual detail to designs via organic line pattern, will feel completely on-trend this year.

Design: Ach Vegan Chocolate Branding by Gintare Ribikauskaite

3. …Or Will You Opt for Minimalism?

For the pattern-phobic amongst you there is some welcome respite. With 2017 being the year for all things artistic and individualist, you’ll find that the pendulum swings quite happily both ways, with ultra-minimal designs standing their ground at the other end of the spectrum.

Inspired by Scandinavian design, ultra-minimal typography and layouts will still feel cutting-edge this year, and brands who opt for this visual approach will appear elegant and refined.

Design: Yx Cutlery Identity by Hannes Ahremark

To channel the minimal trend, keep typography beautiful yet simple, and reduce the size of elements to allow your layout to whisper, not shout. In need of color? Keep your palette restricted and strong, and consider subtle touches of metallic foiling as the only embellishment you need.

Design: Glow Flow Chefs by Menta

4. Geometric Collages

Remember back in school when you used to spend hours creating collages of your favorite cartoon characters from magazine cutouts and PVA glue? If this was one of your best-loved activities when you were small, you’ll be glad to hear collages are back in a big way this year, but this time, they’re much more grown-up.

2017’s collage trend in graphic design is all about placing multiple elements, including illustrations, photos and type, into a single design, arranged in a cleverly conceived geometric layout.

The modern collage trend is a clever method for presenting lots of different concepts as one memorable image, which makes it the perfect trend to adopt in advertising, posters or presentation material.

In 2016 we saw the trend emerge in movie poster design, but this year we’ll start to see designers extending the collage technique across to other print media.

Delve into even more movie poster inspiration here.

5. Hyggeligt Vintage

It’s vintage…but not as we know it. Taking design cues from past decades may seem old-hat, but the design industry isn’t quite ready to let go of all things vintage.

Old things, such as love-worn antiques and old-fashioned leisure activities will become increasingly mainstream this year, and these have strong links to well-being philosophies which emphasise slow-living, such as ‘Hygge’ and mindfulness. Consumers will look for products which help complement antique purchases or help them to create a more ‘hyggeligt’ (‘cozy’) space at home. Brash branded buys won’t cut the mustard; rather packaging design which wouldn’t look out of place on an old-fashioned film set will set the right tone in 2017.

Love vintage design? Discover our pick of the most authentic vintage and retro fonts by era.

Design: Amore Studio for Sydkronan

The key to nailing this trend is authenticity. Old-fashioned print materials and methods, such as letterpress and screen printing, will enhance that perfect vintage typeface and hand-drawn logo. Candy colors will replace the muted browns and greys of 2016’s vintage designs, and bring with it a whole new sense of optimism and happiness to a product.

Design: Amore Studio for Ramlosa Kvarn

6. Low-Poly Design

This trend has been making waves in vector illustration for the past few months, but this year we’ll see the love for all things low-poly break into the graphic design world in full. Complete layouts, such as posters, flyers and stationery design will bring together beautifully detailed low-poly illustrations with logos and typography influenced by the game-inspired trend.

Design: Dmitriy Novikov

These low-poly masks are a great example of the reach of low-poly and its ability to connect with a wide audience who love the graphic simplicity and on-trend style of the low-poly trend.

Looking for more graphic design inspiration? Delve into these examples of the botanical print design trend, or take a look at our selection of fantastic stationery design inspiration.

The post The Graphic and Print Design Trends to Look Out For in 2017 appeared first on InDesignSkills.

These might once have been dull directories, but now designers are using the catalogue format to creative effect, enlivening layouts with artistic typography, zingy color and striking photography. Read on to find the inspiration for your next catalogue design…

1. Desigual Catalogue, Spring/Summer 2016

Colorful, fresh and completely in tune with fashion brand Desigual‘s youthful and joyful aesthetic, this catalogue design by Astrid Ortiz combines punchy background color with energetic photography for layouts that feel infectiously fun.

2. Sandro Desii Catalogue

Catering brands take note—food catalogues don’t need to be formulaic, they can be just as stylish as other product marketing media. This utterly minimal and chic take on a pasta salad catalogue by Spanish design agency Lo Siento shows the power of sticking with a strong and simple presentation style and color palette across all your pages.

3. Margaret Howell Catalogue

British fashion designer Margaret Howell‘s minimal, timeless style is translated to print by London-based agency Studio Small. The studio has collaborated with Howell for over ten years, and their print designs for the house’s seasonal look books are honed to perfection, with block color detailing, clean sans serif type and minimal product presentation. For fans of minimal catalogues, this is the perfect style to aspire to.

4. Saint Étienne Opera House Seasonal Programme

If you’re looking for inspiration for an events catalogue, you’ve come to the right place! This approachable, immersive design from French agency Graphéine shows how print media can create channels of communication between the arts programmer and potential new audiences. Zesty color, fun photography and quirky type keeps the design looking fresh and fun, and helps to give a feel for the experience of seeing the opera in person.

5. Shoe Guru Catalogue

Though admittedly designed for web, this striking presentation for Shoe Guru combining product shots with energetic dance photography would translate equally well to a print format. The diagonal dividers used to split the sections and create contrast between light and dark parts of the layout is a visual feast for the eyes, and would be simple to recreate on the pages of a print catalogue or look book.

6. Friend of Mine Catalogue

Minimal catalogue designs strip away clutter and help to showcase products in a clearer, simpler way. This is a great format for high fashion, where the products are often beautiful enough to command attention on their own without the distraction of busy type or color. This look book design by The Drop creative studio for fashion brand Friend of Mine is cool, sexy and effortless. We love the geometric graphics used to frame some of the photos.

Want more print design inspiration? Discover our edit of some of the best print ads, or drop-dead gorgeous stationery designs.

The post The Very Best Catalogue & Booklet Designs appeared first on InDesignSkills.

These traditionally printed designs will give you a taster of what can be achieved using ‘old-school’ print methods…

1. Pirrip Press Wedding Invitations

These silk screen printed designs from British designers Alexander Higlett and Georgina Hounsome of Pirrip Press demonstrate why screen printing is well overdue a popular revival. The beautifully crafted designs use only a limited palette of colors, but are incredibly impactful and romantic. Type styles inspired by 1940s and 1950s designs make each invitation feel like a much-treasured book cover.

Looking for more invitation inspiration? Our pick of modern wedding invites will get you inspired to create your own contemporary designs.

Design: Pirrip Press

 2. Galerie C Screen Printed Posters 

Swiss graphic design studio onlab creates these mesmerising posters for contemporary art gallery Galerie C each season. The digitally-created posters are overprinted with an image from the current season’s exhibition using a screen printing method. The result is ethereal, playing with conceal and reveal to create a multi-layered, complex image.

Design: olab for Galerie C

3. Print and Grain Stationery

If you’re looking to introduce more texture into your print designs, letterpress is a beautiful method for creating designs that have a tactile, vintage look and feel. These business card and invitation designs from Oregon-based print shop Print and Grain show the diversity of looks that can be achieved with letterpress, from true-to-vintage styles to bright and punchy modern designs.

Design: Print and Grain

4. Coco Rico Letterpress Designs

French print shop Coco Rico opt for the most traditional of printing methods, letterpress, to bring a unique and special quality to every invite, card or label they print. With an emphasis on modern styles with pin-sharp brand design, letterpress helps these already striking designs to feel even more luxurious.

Design: Coco Rico Letterpress

5. Ye Olde Studio Letterpress Designs

You know how a wine that’s older tends to taste better? Yup, sometimes in print design too the oldies are the goldies. These letterpress-style designs by Joe White of UK-based Ye Olde Studio don’t stray far from late 19th and early 20th century design styles.

Classic etching and cross-hatching add vintage detail to linocut-style illustrations. Keeping colors simple and striking makes sure the focus remains entirely on the wonderful detail of the designs across packaging, branding and cards.

Discover how vintage styles are enjoying a modern resurgence in graphic design, or why not delve into more fantastic stationery design inspiration?

Design: Ye Olde Studio

6. Equator Beer Branding

Design studio Equator were already experts in creating amazing brand and packaging design for food retailers, so it seemed only natural to create their own company-branded beer. The print method they chose for the task? Letterpress of course!

The unique impression letterpress imparts on the paper meant that the design didn’t even need to be embellished with color. It’s a great idea for creating an interactive product that people will want to pick up and touch.

If you can’t get enough of packaging design you won’t want to miss our curated selection of some of the most stylish wine bottle labels. Or get your creative juices flowing with our inspirational choice of beautiful food packaging designs.

Design: Equator Design

Explore even more fantastic designs on our Inspiration page or learn more about the print process by reading our quick-start guide to print finishes.

The post 30 Amazing Letterpress & Screen Printed Designs appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Be inspired by these beautiful, flora-adorned examples of packaging and print design…

1. Tealicious Branding

Designer Alfarez Juana created this botanical-inspired identity for Florence-based tea shop Tealicious. Teaming antique prints with slab text and a paper white backdrop allows the intricate illustrations to shine. We love how the style brings a delicate, old-world edge to sleek and modern packaging.

Love packaging design? So do we! These delectable food packaging designs will help to whet your appetite.

Design: Alvarez Juana for Tealicious

 2. Savon Stories Branding 

Mexican agency Menta created these pretty-as-a-picture packaging designs for organic soap brand Savon Stories. Hand-painted flowers and fruit help to emphasise the 100% certified organic nature of the products.

Teamed with sans serif typography with a subtly hand-drawn look, these designs are proof that beauty comes in artfully imperfect packages.

Design: Menta for Savon Stories

3. Save the Date Cards by Iaia Ioio Studio

What could be more romantic for wedding stationery than a generous dose of flora and fauna? These antique-inspired save the date cards let the images take center-stage, with minimal typography only serving to highlight the delicate beauty of the illustrations.

Design: Iaia Ioio Studio

4. Saxton Cider Packaging

New Zealand designer Bradley Rogerson used 18th Century botanical prints to create these bottle label and packaging designs for brewery McCashin’s latest product—a new range of apple and pear ciders.

These striking designs are a great example of how to make botanicals feel masculine and minimal—keep the illustrations strong and the colors muted.

Need more packaging inspo? Feast your eyes on our selection of the most stylish wine label designs.

Design: Bradley Rogerson for Saxton Cider

5. Brands in Full Bloom

Illustrator Daryl Feril brings an organic, home-spun look to well-known fashion brands for his series Brands in Full Bloom. The designs were drafted by hand, then edited digitally.

Design: Daryl Feril

6. Sweet Botanicals Packaging

Designer Miguel Yatco took a fresh approach to confectionary packaging for these hard candies by blending a classic illustrative style with zingy color.

Using illustrations by artist Natalia Tyulkina, these candies are individually wrapped in monochrome botanical prints, with beautifully color-coded labels revealing flavor.

Design: Miguel Yatco

7. Love Me, Possess Me

London-based designer Sidney Lim YX takes a closer look at the simple paper bag. Adorning the familiar brown paper with hand-drawn florals intertwining around ultra-modern sans serif type, these bags are designed to be treasured forever.

Design: Sidney Lim YX

Looking for even more inspiration? You’ve come to the right place! Visit our Inspiration page or lose yourself among some great examples of beautiful packaging design.

The post Inspiration: Botanical Print Design appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Luckily, we’ve put together five top tips for elevating your magazine designs and making sure they look as stylish as they are informative.

 1. Wrap Text Around Images in Unusual Ways

Feeling uninspired by the boxy limitations of a traditional text frame? Wrap text around images in unusual ways to create layouts that are less grid-like and more free-flowing. This is a great technique for better integrating photography with text to create a unified look.

Look for photos with plenty of white space to make this style work; and strong, simple outlines are easier to work with than complex or detailed ones.

Get to grips with the text wrap function in InDesign with this quick tutorial.

Design: Harper’s Bazaar US

 2. Take a Bird’s Eye View 

Make a drastic change to the angle of your photos for instant interest. Aerial shots are on-trend and utterly absorbing—they work particularly well for food and drinks titles, but travel and photo-journalism titles will also benefit from an aerial shot of a sweeping city view.

Aerial shots allow you to merge typography into the photo seamlessly—try filling those gaps with unusual headers and chunks of body text for an eclectic, creative style.

Design: Hieu Nguyen for Aww Food

See how the aerial trend is reaching new heights in the world of book cover design too.

Design: New York Times Magazine

Design: Caetano Calomino for Gloss Magazine

3. Go 3D (Psst! It’s easier than you think!)

Create multiple layers of text and images to build up a 3D look on your 2D layouts. Cut away the subject of a photo from the background and use this tried-and-tested layers formula to create a 3D look that jumps out of the page.

In InDesign, expand the Layers panel (Window > Layers) and create a series of layers in this order: Background of Photo, Text Behind, Subject of Photo, and, finally, Text in Front at the top of the pile. Splitting up your content in this way will help you to achieve the 3D look used in these Harper’s Bazaar UK layouts.

It’s a surprisingly simple technique to make your layouts appear instantly more vibrant and energetic. This tutorial shows you how to create a cool 3D look on your magazine designs using a simple frame and the Scissors Tool in InDesign.

Design: Harper’s Bazaar UK

4. Give Your Contents Page a Makeover

The cover might be the reason why someone initially picks your magazine off the shelf, but the contents page is the real anchor for the whole publication. The reader’s first port of call before they even get to articles and features, the contents page is an opportunity to create a style master for the rest of the magazine’s layouts, and it’s the perfect place to exercise some creativity too.

After all, nobody wants to read a long, dull list—introduce images, color, interesting typography and an unusual grid to give your contents page some life. You won’t regret spending the time perfecting this all-important spread.

Design: Matt Chase

Design: James Kape

Design: Aidan Stonehouse

5. Go Big or Go Home

The opening spread of an inside feature is crying out for big, bold typography. It makes a great pairing with dramatic photography, and choice of typeface and color can really set the mood for the whole feature.

Try an elegant sans serif like Didot for Vogue-esque appeal, or pick a rounded sans serif like in this example to make your layouts feel fun, childlike and bursting with energy.

Design: Matt Chase

Theme your typography around the subject of the article, and don’t be afraid to make it as bold, brash and loud as possible. It’s a sure-fire way to keep your readers engaged.

Design: Matt Chase

Design: Matt Chase

Discover even more pro tips for improving your magazine layouts in an instant, or teach yourself magazine design basics with our two-part magazine design tutorial.

The post Fresh Ideas for Improving Your Magazine Layouts appeared first on InDesignSkills.

These packaging designs for coffee, chocolate and groceries are works of art in themselves. Delve in and get inspired…

 1. Mast Brothers Chocolate by Mast Brothers 

The Mast Brothers have always had the most stylish and sophisticated packaging for their deluxe chocolate bars, but the recent update to their suite of chocolate wrappers, including new patterns and cleaner typography, takes the style-factor to new levels.

What makes this packaging so luxurious? Maintaining that matte, butcher-paper stock gives the chocolate an artisanal feel that combined with artistic patterns and uber-cool type makes the packaging even more desirable than the chocolate inside. Which is no mean feat!

Design: Mast Brothers

 2. Louis Charden by Backbone Branding 

This French-inspired brand identity for Armenian café and bakery, Louis Charden, is a lovely example of taking traditional styles (brown paper packaging, hand-written script logos) and making them feel instantly fresh and modern.

Bringing hand-drawn illustrations into the identity makes every packaging item unique and adds quirky charm to even the simplest brown paper bag.

Looking for even more packaging inspiration? Check out our pick of the most stylish wine label designs. 

Design: Backbone Branding for Louis Charden

 3. Loving Earth by Round

Australian agency Round were tasked with bringing organic chocolate brand Loving Earth to a wider audience, and help them to stand out in a sea of organic products.

The result? A complete packaging overhaul with an emphasis on zingy color combinations, flat-style illustration and strong, slab typography. We love how the packaging feels solid and chunky with a stronger paper stock.

Design: Round for Loving Earth

 4. Marmel by Diana Polar

Diana’s packaging designs for Marmel, a confectionery shop in France, are a positive feast of pattern and color. Copper-foil finishes add a luxurious and on-trend touch to candy-stripe patterns in shades of violet, lemon and black.

Perfect your typographic logos with our 10 great design tips.

Design: Diana Polar for Marmel

 5. Redesign for ASDA Basics Range by Beth Fox-Fuller 

This concept redesign for the basics range of British supermarket ASDA is a great lesson in simplicity. Stripping back color and distracting graphics from the labels and packaging allows the product itself to take center stage. A neutral color palette makes the food feel more luxurious and much less ‘basic’.

Design: Beth Fox-Fuller

Wanting even more design inspiration? Pay a visit to our Inspiration page to find the design that that will spark your next idea. 

The post Mouth-Watering Food Packaging appeared first on InDesignSkills.

We love the trend for 1960s-inspired illustrations and color palettes. Browse our selection of some of the very best design-forward books for little ones…

1. Les JO des Animaux by Virginie Morgand 

This charming picture book by French illustrator Virginie Morgand has a distinctively vintage look, making use of mid-century color tones and Bauhaus-style shapes.

The screen-print style of the characterful illustrations lends a gorgeously hand-done style to the book. The simple, retro sans serif polishes off the design to perfection.

Design: Virginie Morgand

2. The Fox and The Star by Coralie Bickford-Smith 

Published by Penguin Random House, this award-winning book by British illustrator Coralie Bickford-Smith is an incredibly beautiful book, with layouts and typography that match the accompanying illustrations in beauty and quality.

An intelligent and soulful take on the children’s publishing genre, this will surely become a much-loved classic for future generations.

Love Coralie’s work? Discover even more of her vintage-style hardback covers, or delve into some book design inspiration.

Design: Coralie Bickford-Smith

3. Ábécés könyv by Anna Kövecses

Cypriot designer Anna Kövecses designed this super-stylish picture book for a personal project. Large-scale typography set in Futura is teamed with color-block graphics which are executed with wit and mid-century charm.

Design: Anna Kövecses

4. Books by Laurent Moreau

Illustrator Laurent Moreau brings his distinctive design style to a series of beautiful children’s books. The artwork is purposefully and skillfully naive, and a consistent color theme is used throughout each book to create a uniform, elegant design.

Learn how to get started with creating your own books in Adobe InDesign.

Design: Laurent Moreau

5. Books by Peter Brown 

Peter Brown is a celebrated children’s book author, and for good reason—his books are filled with rich, vivid illustrations which prove difficult to tear your eyes away from.

The muted colors and watercolor finishes used in The Wild Robot and Mr. Tiger Goes Wild prove that children’s books don’t need to be rendered in paintbox brights to attract attention.

Ready to start designing your own book covers? Get started with this paperback cover tutorial.

Design: Peter Brown

Wanting even more design inspiration? Head over to our Inspiration page to find the book cover, business card or packaging design that will inspire your next project. 

The post The Most Stylish Children’s Book Designs appeared first on InDesignSkills.

These magazines, maps, flyers and book covers all make use of handcrafted textures and patterns to give their layouts a distinctive, unique design. Read on to be inspired…

1. Brand Identity for Le Jardin Naturel by Marion Dufour 

These leaflets and maps for Le Jardin Naturel (Natural Garden) in Paris, designed by French graphic designer Marion Dufour, use an eclectic blend of photos and botanical illustrations to create a collage effect. We love this charming, whimsical take on collage-style design, which suits the botanical theme perfectly.

Design: Marion Dufour

2. Rosanna Webster Magazine Covers 

British illustrator and artist Rosanna Webster has lent her distinctive collage design style to a body of client work, including ad campaigns for Dior and Adidas. Her ability to transform magazine covers with collage effects and doodles really caught our eye.

Looking for more magazine design inspiration? Discover our pick of the best fonts for magazine design, or browse exceptional magazine inspiration.

Design: Rosanna Webster

3. W Magazine Covers by Barbara Kruger 

American artist Barbara Kruger has a distinctive pop-art style that translates well to the world of graphic design. These covers for W Magazine juxtapose her distinctive red-and-white taglines (set in Futura typeface) against collage-inspired images and textures, or attention-grabbing nude photography.

Design: Barbara Kruger

4. Hunger Magazine 

Take inspiration from these covers for Hunger Magazine, and give the impression of cut-out paper revealing photos beneath, using irregular shapes and drop-shadows. It’s a minimal, uber-stylish take on collage-inspired design.

Learn how to give your magazine covers a 3D look with this InDesign tutorial.

Design: Hunger Magazine

5. Billy Liar Cover by Rol Overwekk for Penguin 

In August 2015, Penguin released a redesigned series of covers for their Essentials range, each of which is designed by a different artist. We love the surreal, anarchic feel of this cover design for Keith Waterhouse’s Yorkshire-set novel, Billy Liar.

A great example of collage-inspired design, Rol blends black-and-white photos, illustration, papery textures and printed typography to create an eclectic yet strong layout.

Looking for more inspiration for covers? Discover our book design page here.

Design: Rol Overwekk for Penguin

6. The New York Times Magazine Cover 

A collage-inspired design is a fantastic choice for this cover for The New York Times Magazine, allowing the designer to feature a huge range of different images of the subject, Hillary Clinton, without compromising on style. Washing photos in different colored tints, and using drop-shadows to create a pop-up, 3D effect, this cover is a great example of collage-style done with simplicity and impact.

Wanting more juicy design inspiration? Head over to our Inspiration page to find the magazine layout, book cover or packaging design that will spark your next idea.

The post 20 Beautiful Collages in Print Design appeared first on InDesignSkills.

These design-forward cover designs for classic stories bring out their themes and characters in completely unique ways…

1. Anna Bond In Bloom Cover Designs 

Anna Bond, lead designer of Rifle Paper Co, has lended her beautiful illustrative style to these redesigned covers for Puffin.

Bringing a contemporary floral look to much-loved titles including Little Women and Heidi, these covers are brought to life with punchy color combinations and gold metallic foiling.

Looking for more color inspiration for your designs? Discover our pick of the most stunning color combinations here.

Design: Anna Bond, Rifle Paper Co.

2. Manuja Waldia Covers for Pelican Shakespeare 

These digital-inspired covers are as modern as you can get. Flat-style line drawings rendered in bold brights highlight the strong symbolism of Shakespeare’s plays.

Replicate the look in your own designs with neon colors layered over stark black backgrounds, and keep your illustrations minimal and sparse.

Design: Manuja Waldia

3. Artist-Designed Covers for Penguin Essentials 

The Penguin Essentials series commissions a wide range of very different artists to redesign covers for vintage and modern classics. The aim is to introduce contemporary audiences to classic literary treasures, which may otherwise have been overlooked.

The result is a range of completely unique interpretations of the moods and themes of the novels, some with a pop art twist.

Design: Various Artists for Penguin Essentials

Wanting more? Browse more of our book cover inspiration, or brush up on your book design skills.

The post 12 Classic Covers Reimagined appeared first on InDesignSkills.

From monochrome stunners to die-cut beauties, prepare to get a serious case of invitation lust…

1. Celestial Starchart Invitations

These dreamlike invitations feature a vintage starchart on the reverse of the cards.

Designed by Colarado-based studio Ladyfingers Letterpress, these invites use the technique of blind debossing, where the design is printed without ink and leaves a deep impression on the paper.

Looking for more print design inspiration? Check out more inspiring card designs here.

Design: Ladyfingers Letterpress

2. Pale Blue and Gold Invitations

Designed by London-based designer Katie Szadziewska, these invitations are delicate and elegant, and the perfect example of the ‘wow’ effect well-set typography can bring to a design.

We particularly love the pale blue paired with gold foiling, and the lovely ampersand set in Caslon Italic.

Design: Katie Szadziewska

3. Monochrome Invitations

Monochrome is often underused on wedding invitations, in favor of pastels and metallics, but it really deserves more attention—these black and white invitations designed by Corina Nika (aka Cocorrina) prove how high-impact this simple color combination can be.

Discover more modern, high-impact color combinations for print design.

Design: Cocorrina

4. Black and Gold Invitations

With a very subtle nod to Art Deco design, these elegant black invitations with gold foiling are a perfect style for more formal weddings.

Take a tip from these designs and mix up classic serif typestyles with elegant scripts for a beautiful contrast.

Discover some of our favorite new free fonts for print design.

Design: Sandra Picco Design

5. Icelandic Invitations

These deep blue invitations with copper foiling were custom-designed by Lindsey of The Hunter Press for her own Icelandic wedding.

The attention to detail on these designs is breathtaking—a vintage-inspired letterpress map is enclosed within; and brown envelopes and leather ribbon make a lovely rustic contrast to the glamorous foiling.

Try out copper foiling, rather than silver or gold, for an invitation design that looks thoroughly modern and equal parts masculine and feminine.

Design: The Hunter Press

6. Die-Cut and Embossed Invitations

We had to come to a head with these amazingly unique invitations from Spanish print studio El Calotipo.

A series of die-cut circles are brought together into one compact swizel design. The embossed design is inspired by the engravings found on baroque lutes—a fitting tribute to the musician couple’s vocation.

Design: El Calotipo

Discover even more print design inspiration, or learn how to create your own documents for print in Adobe InDesign.

The post Modern Wedding Invitations Inspiration appeared first on InDesignSkills.

These examples, from across magazine, poster and brand design, show how photography and graphic design can interact to create stunning results. Find your next photographic inspiration here…

1. OSESP Posters 

Art director Bruno Landi integrates portrait and cityscape photography with romantically scripted text to celebrate the new season of the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo (Symphony Orchestra of São Paulo).

Layered gradients and opacities allow the elements to work seamlessly together, with no single image or type dominating the design.

Love posters? Then check out even more inspiring poster design here.

Design: Bruno Landi

2. Evolution Posters by Retoka

Barcelona-based designer Retoka teams dramatic dance photography with subtle, hip type design in complementary colors to give these posters an other-worldly, ethereal look.

Design: Retoka

3. Various by Bryan J Nanista

Bryan is a master at integrating typography with sweeping, dramatic photography to create layouts that always jump out at you.

Try pairing landscape photos with jaunty type design, or allowing the shape of portrait photos to dictate the placement of text to imitate the look of some of Bryan’s work.

Design: Bryan J Nanista

4. Dansem Officina Branding 

French art director Valentin Breyne gives a lesson in editing photography to make it an integral part of a graphic design layout.

For Marseille dance festival L’Officina Valentin produced a series of materials, including programmes and business cards, each featuring underwater-shot photography set alongside minimal graphic shapes and type.

Discover more awesome flyer designs here.

Design: Valentin Breyne

Discover even more fantastic design inspiration here, or learn how to create your own photographic magazine layouts with InDesign.

The post Photographic Layouts Inspiration appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Be inspired by the witty simplicity of these fantastic print ad designs, and be inspired to make your next advertising or marketing campaign a print-based one…

1. Save the Arctic by Mauro Gatti for Greenpeace

A simple, eye-catching design from illustrator Mauro Gatti shows how on-trend flat design can translate so well to print advertising.

The lesson to take here? Less is definitely more! Strip back text content to allow illustrated graphics to take centre-stage.

Design: Mauro Gatti

2. Stihl: Blower by Winsper for Stihl

Boston-based agency Winsper add a tongue-in-cheek outlook to the traditional print format; disturbing staid-looking articles with an efficient Stihl blower and trimmer.

This simple-to-achieve graphics effect gives the ads a unique and memorable design that integrates seamlessly with the newspaper medium.

Advertising Agency: Winsper; Creative Director: Steve Bautista

3. Noma Bar for IBM

Incredible graphic artist Noma Bar is treasured in the advertising world for one clear reason—his illustrations are super minimal and modern but still pack in a ton of humour and relevance. Just check out his series of print ads for IBM as an example…

Design: Noma Bar

4. Inhalt&Form for Black&Blaze

Developing further the new brand identity for coffee company Black&Blaze, Zurich-based agency Inhalt&Form created this superbly simple print ad.

Setting a strong image against a dark, moody background, and sticking to one clear and concise idea, gives this ad a well-deserved spot in our inspiration list.

Want to feel more confident working with images in your InDesign layouts? Check out our beginner’s guide to all things images here.

Design: Inhalt&Form

5. Hondamentalism by Wieden + Kennedy London

A modern classic of an ad campaign—Wieden + Kennedy London’s beautiful print artwork for Honda’s Hondamentalism campaign still looks just as fresh and outstanding as it did back in 2007.

Juxtaposing cropped photos with jaunty typography to create a modern collage effect, these ads demonstrate the simple power of a creative print layout.

The added bonus? These kinds of layouts are really easy to recreate using the tools immediately available to you in InDesign. Why not brush up on your print design skills with our tutorials today?

Design: Wieden + Kennedy London

We hope these examples have fired up your imagination and inspired you to have a go at designing your own creative layouts!

Develop your design skillset with some of our favourite tutorials: get started with creating your own book in InDesign and discover fantastic free fonts for print design. Or why not discover the inspiration for your next project here?

The post Beautiful Ads: Print Ads To Inspire appeared first on InDesignSkills.

This cover look is so easy to recreate in InDesign and you can get really creative with choosing pairings of striking photos and gorgeous fonts.

1. Healing Meals by Kyra de Vreeze

Cookbooks were some of the first to use aerial photos on covers, to showcase beautiful plates of food and colourful ingredients. Here, illustrator Anna Denise embellishes the author’s dramatic food photography with whimsical touch line art and hand-drawn typography.

Design: Anna Denise

2. Catch and Release by Mark Kingwell

Helen Yentus’ cover design for Catch and Release elevates a photo with an everyday feel and makes it feel special and personal to the viewer. Classic typography (try New Century Schoolbook to imitate the look of the text) that slots perfectly into the white space provided by the photo gives that finishing touch.

Design: Helen Yentus

3. Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss

Anna Green’s cover design for Icelandic study Names for the Sea makes a wonderful job of integrating an aerial photograph with the typography, with the human figure swimming over some of the letters that make up the title.

Try separating sections of your images into layers using Photoshop and place the images and text on separate Layers in InDesign to imitate this interactive design.

Design: Anna Green of Siulen Design

4. Gabriel Garcia Marquez: The Early Years by Ilan Stavans

This truly stunning cover design by Art Director Jason Ramirez demonstrates how aerial photography and simple type can make such a good pairing for a cover design.

Discover the typeface used to create this design by checking out our recommendations for book cover fonts.

Design: Jason Ramirez

5. Mighty Spice by John Gregory-Smith

Another cookbook makes our list, and it’s no surprise when its cover looks this good. The photo extends all the way across the layout and leaves plenty of ‘white space’ for creating a bold slab serif heading at the top. Adding some generous Tracking to the type gives the design a clean, minimal look.

Design: Duncan Baird Publishers

6. Best Friends by Thomas Berger

Another example that demonstrates how type and photo can interact, and feel more like a unified whole. Designer John Fulbrook III personalises the photo with a note reading ‘A Novel’; making the design instantly attention-grabbing and quirky.

Design: John Fulbrook III

7. The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly by Matt McCarthy

This cover design is so simple, using one strong image set on a bright background, and teaming it with super-minimal type. But it’s also incredibly effective, and surely the final proof that aerial photo + minimal typography = a winning book cover combination!

Design: Ben Wiseman

Looking for more book design inspiration? Discover our edit of covers that use fantastic fonts.

Have a great cover idea but not sure how to start creating it? Check out our selection of helpful InDesign tips and tutorials to get you started.

The post Book Cover Trend: An Aerial View appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Be inspired by these fantastic examples of beautiful cover design, and find out how to recreate the look for yourself quickly and easily in InDesign.

1. Easy 3D Effects to Make your Cover Jump off the Page…

…Most magazine covers have a 2D look that falls in line with the flat print format. But what if you could create a 3D effect simply by creating a trick-of-the-eye using typography or frames?

These covers, from new indie title Knit Wit and industry heavyweight V Magazine have done just that, giving the impression the photos are bursting out of the boundaries of the page.

It’s not as difficult to imitate as you might think. Check out this tutorial on creating a simple 3D effect for your InDesign layouts.

Design: Knit Wit and V Magazine

2. Layer up to Balance Typography and Images

Layering your cover design as you work allows you to bring elements forward or send others to the back of the page with ease. These simple, striking covers from Fabric Magazine stick to a strong layered order: header, then image, then smaller typography. It’s a simple formula, that’s easy to recreate in InDesign.

Make friends with the Layers panel in InDesign (Window > Layers) and have fun experimenting with the arrangement of items on your cover design.

Design: Fabric

3. Dare to Experiment with Type

Magazine covers are meant to be frivolous and fun, so why stick to formal design rules? These covers from Esquire US, Esquire Singapore and Esquire Malaysia show that a simple splash of handwritten typography can really lift a design and make it feel more youthful and fresh.

Check out some more font inspiration for magazines here.

Design: Esquire

4. Catch the Eye with a Bright Pop of Colour!

Introducing bold colour onto your cover design is one of the simplest and most effective ways to grab a reader’s attention.

Take inspiration from these colourful covers for Pulp Magazine (adorned with watercolour graphics by Iveta Ka) and Lula Magazine.

The effect used on Lula’s cover is really simple to achieve in InDesign with a coloured gradient. Get acquainted with out how to apply gradients to frames and shapes with this quick tutorial.

Design: Pulp Magazine and Lula

5. Integrate your Typography with Images

If you design your cover around a central image, try adapting your typography to merge seamlessly with the photo. Lifestyle supplement Eat (from Los Angeles Magazine) does a stellar job of integrating type creatively with strong images to create a holistic, unified cover design. Type is curved around the rim of a plate, and a striking sub-heading is positioned over the belly of a goose.

Learn how to create your own Foodie Magazine with our design tutorials.

Design: Los Angeles Magazine

6. And Finally…Sometimes Simple is Best

Arguably, it’s the image that should be the focal point of a magazine cover. Striking photography doesn’t always need much embellishment to make a cover appealing.

Just take these beautifully minimal magazine covers for Esquire Russia as an example. No bells and whistles here—just simple titles in monochrome, and a sparing amount of typography elsewhere. The lesson here? If in doubt, keep it simple and striking.

Design: Esquire Russia

We hope you can use these examples to make your magazine covers shine, if you’re short on time or just dipping a toe into magazine design. Learn how to create your very own magazine in Adobe InDesign with our series of tutorials. Or get your creative juices flowing by finding more InDesign inspiration from around the world.

The post Magazine Design: Essential Guide to Cover Design appeared first on InDesignSkills.

These stunning designs use the power of colour to transform their layouts from dull to decadent. From dreamy pastels to glamorous metallics, read on to find out how to use effective colour combinations in your own InDesign work.

1. Choose blue to calm things down…

…Using blue tones in your print designs can give a calming effect.

Blue’s cool palette soothes the soul and promotes a sense of low-risk and trustworthiness, making it a great colour base for professional documents, like reports, and travel guides.

Here, New York-based graphic designer Brandon Nickerson teams generous amounts of white space with soothing turquoise tones for his ‘Places’ travel book.

Design: Brandon Nickerson

2. Add a vintage touch with muted colour combinations

Muting otherwise bright, bold colours (try upping the level of Key [Black] in your CMYK Swatches) can give print designs a desirable Mid-Century colour palette.

Just take a look at this gorgeous book cover design from Madrid-based illustrator and designer Tatiana Boyko. The cover for The Jungle Book is rendered in an array of colours, but no single colour overwhelms the design. Muted takes on red, blue, green and yellow, laid over a vintage-inspired cream background, make for a cover that would look right at home on a 1950s bookshelf.

Design: Tatiana Boyko

3. Play up pastels for a delectable design

Moving away from their traditionally sickly-sweet stereotype, modern pastels can now bring a gorgeously edible and fun vibe to print design. Teamed with punchy black and minimal white they make for a particularly eye-catching colour combination, which is well-suited to retail and food branding.

The youthful branding for Swedish Mexican restaurant Calexico’s, by design agency Snask, use pastel yellows, pinks and blues set against black, white and brown paper, to create restaurant branding that looks good enough to eat!

Find more menu design inspiration here.

Design: Snask

4. Up the glamour with metallic inks

Think outside the colour box and look to metallic shades of gold, silver, copper and bronze to add a decadent touch to your print designs. When using metallic inks, consider teaming them with simple black and white graphics and text – let the metallic do the talking!

Quebec design agency lg2 used a touch of bronze to luxe up the branding for the foodie Bête & Fête event. Teamed with natural paper backgrounds the designs are both aspirational and down-to-earth.

Design: lg2

The brand identity for trading company Ambar, realised by agency Look and do it, lends a special touch to minimal black graphics with a touch of gold ink added to the rim of business cards.

Design: Look and do it

5. Neon brights shout for attention!

Neon colours have a reformed reputation – once tossed into the ‘bad taste’ hole of 1980s graphic design, they now look fresh and modern, with a subtle nod to their retro past. Team neons with black-and-white photography for print designs that grab the viewer’s attention and give a sexy, youthful feel to magazine and flyer design.

To keep the neon looking modern, limit your neons to just one or two shades.

This cover for Interview Magazine Germany uses neon green typography to make the film noir-inspired photo pop.

Design: Interview Magazine Germany

This punchy city guide by German designer Axel Peemöller is a great example of limiting your use of neon to just one shade, for a high-impact, fresh, urban design.

Design: Axel Peemöller

Choice use of colour can transform your print work from bland to beautiful! Get your head around how to use colour in InDesign and how to prepare colour documents for printing. Check out more InDesign inspiration from around the world here.

The post Color Inspiration: How to Use Color in Your Designs appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Here we take a look at poster designs which combine photography and typography for dramatic effect, and highlight techniques you can easily imitate using InDesign.

Be inspired by these stunning posters from the worlds of Opera, Theatre, Art and Hollywood (showcasing inspiring examples from leading design agency BLT)…

1. La Monnaie, The Belgian Royal Opera House

International creative agency Base was tasked with creating a new visual identity for La Monnaie/De Munt, the Belgian Royal Opera House. Incorporating dramatic, sensual images by Belgian photographer Pierre Debusschere, the Base-designed posters for the 2014/15 season are mesmerisingly emotive and challenging.

The layout is, however, disarmingly simple – strong typography set in white allows the image to take centre-stage, and a simple colour palette, executed with simple paint stroke effects, gives each poster its own unique identity.

Design: Base

2. American Hustle

A confident, retro-inspired series of poster designs from seasoned communications agency, BLT, for Hollywood release American Hustle.

Curvy typography (try ITC Bauhaus for a similar look) plays second fiddle to the strong character photography. The simple layout is pulled together by a thin-weight frame with rounded corners for an authentic Seventies feel.

Read our InDesign tutorial for creating a simple 3D effect with cut-away frames, to give a similar look to your own poster designs.

Design: BLT Communications

3. Secret Garden

Canadian graphic designer Darbi Nicole gives an elegant, ethereal look to her poster designs for a performance of musical Secret Garden. Creative typography is laid out on a loose grid, making each letter a part of a dynamic artwork, and giving the design a sense of ordered chaos.

Mixing up text weights, sizes and rotations is a simple but high-impact way of adding typographic drama to your poster designs.

Design: Darbi Nicole

4. Nightcrawler

Another series of poster designs which are right on the money from communications agency BLT, this time for the Open Road Films title Nightcrawler.

Slanted typography on an angled type-path evokes both the neon signs of a night-time Los Angeles and the unhinged personality of the film’s lead character. Text set in jarring yellow against moody, nostalgic images makes these poster designs achingly cool.

Design: BLT

5. Portrait de l’Artiste en Motocycliste

Swiss design studio onlab put together this graphic and eye-catching poster for the Museum of Fine Arts in La Chaux de-Fonds, Switzerland. Slab serif typography not only makes text ultra-readable, it also creates a frame for gradient-infused photography.

Learn how to place images inside text with InDesign, or check out how to create a gradient effect in InDesign.

Design: onlab

6. Jane Eyre

A final hit from BLT Communications to get your creative juices flowing – this beautifully pared-back series of posters for movie Jane Eyre showcases poster design at its simplest and loveliest.

Super light, spaced-out typography is laid over dreamy, gauzy imagery, creating a perfect balance between text and image.

Check out our movie poster InDesign tutorial to learn about using spaced-out typography.

Design: BLT

We hope these stunning poster design examples have inspired you for your next InDesign project!

The post Poster Design Inspiration appeared first on InDesignSkills.

These candidates advertise their qualifications and skills in all sorts of different ways, from elegantly minimal CVs to witty tongue-in-cheek resumes and even going so far as to create a complete personal brand.

Read on to find inspiration for your own resume design, and use Adobe InDesign to bring it to life!

1. Introduce a Pop of Colour!

Most resumes are traditionally rendered in black and white, but a subtle pop of colour can really give your layout a lift!

Here, User Interface Designer Molly Nix presents her credentials in a mostly traditional format, but engages the eye with a multi-colored feature at the top trim edge of the page.

Design: Molly Nix

Slovenian Web Designer and Developer Admir Hadzic gives a very slick update to his tech-inspired resume, with a flash of neon yellow.

Design: Admir Hadzic

Texas-based designer Justin Pocta gives his elegant, traditional resume a burst of energy with a subtle splash of orange.

Design: Justin Pocta

2. Make a CV Memorable with a Photo

Danish graphic designer and art director Pernille Posselt livens up a minimal resume layout with a couple of friendly, artfully-executed photos.

Use photos with caution in your own resume design, but a well-chosen image(s) can lend warmth to your design, and give your CV instant memorability. Learn more about working with images in your own InDesign layouts here.

Design: Pernille Posselt

OK, so it’s not a traditional ‘photo’, but graphic designer Anton Yermolov’s quirky digitised self-portrait certainly gives his resume that elusive stand-out quality, and is paired with beautifully-presented icons summarising his skills, experience and interests.

Design: Anton Yermolov

3. Present your CV as an Infographic

Infographics are an eye-catching and memorable way of presenting large amounts of information, and are super simple to recreate using the drawing tools available in InDesign.

French digital designer Gabriel Ghnassia transforms his credentials into a simple, easy-to-digest infographic design, rendered in tints of grey and pastels.

Design: Gabriel Ghnassia

An unusual and ambitious design from London-based designer Matteo Reggi, this infographic-inspired resume surely deserves to be mounted on the wall!

Design: Matteo Reggi

4. Push the Boat Out!

If you’re applying for a super-creative job in design or advertising, consider using your resume to showcase your creative talents.

Norwegian designer Vidar Olufsen created a witty ‘top secret’ file to contain his CV (incorporated into a passport design, complete with fingerprints!) and references. Perhaps not the best design choice for more formal roles, but an ad or design agency will no doubt swoon over such a clever and creative resume style.

Design: Vidar Olufsen

5. Market Yourself by Creating your Own Brand…

Why not consider giving your own good name a marketing makeover, and create a personal brand?

This can be an understated move – consider transforming your name into a slick and simple logo, to make your name memorable and elevate your status from immemorable candidate to an investment-worthy brand.

Nottingham-based graphic designer Ross Sweetmore takes the personal brand concept to a whole new level. A signature-based logo is incorporated across a range of self-promotional materials – from beautifully designed business cards to a beautifully minimal CV. A simple, eye-catching colour palette of white, black and yellow makes Ross’ resume seriously easy on the eye.

Design: Ross Sweetmore

Whether you swing towards minimal and classic or want to create something more experimental, we hope these resume examples have helped to get your creative juices flowing. Happy job hunting! Find more design inspiration here.

The post Five Ideas for Creating an Effective CV appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Give your own business card designs an artistic touch! Recreate the look in InDesign with simple typography and placed hand-painted images.

1. Holli Thompson

These stunning business cards designed by Viewers Like You for health guru Holli Thompson are picture-perfect. Smudgy, colourful images of fruit and vegetables by illustrator Marta Spendowska make a pretty but modern pairing with a subtle thin typeface set in a pale grey. Simply gorgeous!

Design: Viewers Like You; Client: Holli Thompson

2. Tide Retreat

A quirky dip-dye paint effect gives these cards, by Bland Designs for Tide Retreat, a dreamy quality that evokes the away-from-it-all feeling of a luxury beach holiday. Simple sans serif text and a single dividing black stroke completes the look.

Design: Bland Designs; Client: Tide Retreat

3. Sycamore Street Press

American paper printing company Sycamore Street Press produce incredibly beautiful cards, prints and gifts that they sell through their online shop. So it seems fitting that their company business cards set the standard just as high. A foiled stamp in a vintage gold is layered over a simple, organic splash of watercolour.

Tip: Create your own designs in InDesign ready for foiling by separating your foil artwork onto a different layer to the rest of the artwork.

Sycamore Street Press

4. The Great Catering Co.

Strategy Design & Advertising created an incredibly strong brand for New Zealand catering firm, The Great Catering Co., using simple painterly elements. Each splash of paint represents a fruit or vegetable, giving the branding a fresh and fun feel. On business cards, single images are split across several cards, giving them an extra collectable edge. Straightforward, clear text set in no-fuss black reign back a serious, corporate slant to the cards.

Tip: Try the typeface P22 Underground for a similar look on your own card designs.

Design: Strategy Design & Advertising; Client: The Great Catering Co.

5. Mylène Poisson, Sommelière

Montreal-based agency Studio Caserne collaborated to create this creative and high-impact business card design for sommelière Mylène Poisson. Dipping the bottom of a wine glass into Indian Ink, minimal cards were adorned with a rustic ‘wine’ stain. (Like wine? Take a look at our wine bottle design ideas.)

Tip: Put together a minimal business card design using InDesign, and have the cards printed before applying artwork by hand for a truly unique design.

Design: Studio Caserne; Client: Mylène Poisson

Have you experimented with the painterly trend in your own designs? Please share your results with us in the comments below.

Find more design inspiration and ideas here.

The post Business Card Trend: Painterly Designs appeared first on InDesignSkills.

One trend we’re excited about is the gradual move towards a more subtle, and all round much fresher, take on vintage styles in print design.

The hipster-led, letterpress-inspired styles of previous years are starting to look frankly a little old-hat. Instead we’re seeing a move towards beautiful contemporary designs that pick and choose from the best design lessons of Art Deco, Mid-Century and Soviet posters, book covers and typography.

Feast your eyes on some of the best recent examples of the trend across print design.

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel, Movie Poster Artwork

Wes Anderson’s critically acclaimed 2014 movie was inspired by the work of early 20th Century Austrian author Stefan Zweig.

Appropriately for the plot, set in a fictional Eastern European hotel between the Wars, the poster artwork was inspired by styles from the period, referencing Art Nouveau and Art Deco.The design styles’ qualities were exaggerated to give a comic, fairytale-like appearance to the poster artwork.

Lead Designer: Annie Atkins; in collaboration with Director Wes Anderson and Production Designer Adam Stockhausen

2. Stefan Zweig Book Covers from Pushkin Press

Pushkin Press is a UK-based publishing house with a fantastic track-record for exceptional cover design.

Last year and in 2015 too, Pushkin focusses its efforts on bringing Stefan Zweig’s work to a larger audience. Supporting the release of The Grand Budapest Hotel (see above) in 2014, they published The Society of the Crossed Keys, a selection of Zweig’s work, with a fabulously kitsch cover to match. Shooting Stars and The World of Yesterday also have wonderfully retro covers, referencing mid-century design styles.

Find out more about Pushkin’s cover designs here

3. Cover Design: Marshlands by Matthew Olshan

This cover for Olshan’s experimental and hard-hitting novel is a collage of vintage-inspired textures and colours, giving the design a raw, almost map-like feel. The influence of 1960s and 1970s styles is evident, and draws comparisons to old exercise books, giving the cover a rough, worn look.

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

4. The Double, Movie Poster Artwork

An independent British film directed by Richard Ayoade, the cinematography for The Double stylishly nods to Film Noir and 1960s Brutalism.

The more commercial poster design is a fitting tribute to these styles, and a perfect example of the blend of vintage and modern graphic styles; but it’s the more interesting alternative poster that really captures our attention. A brutalist city-scape set in moody Soviet-style concrete, with a single lit figure, lends the artwork a sense of retro drama and foreboding.

Design by Empire Design; Check out The Double artwork and their other awesome movie poster designs here

5. Cover Design: The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt

An English-language edition of the much-cherished 1960s Dutch childrens classic, the cover for The Letter for the King, in both its original layout and its special winter edition (see second image down, below), owes much to the design styles favoured in the decade of its first publication.

Sketchy illustrations and lovingly hand-drawn typography, teamed with muted colours, give the book a love-worn design.

Publisher: Pushkin Children’s Books; Illustrations by Tonke Dragt

6. Cover Design: Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère

A fantastic book cover design drawing inspiration from Soviet poster art and 1980s graphics.

Designer Richard Green demonstrates how vintage styles can still have relevance today, connecting the cover design with the Soviet-era setting of the book, while bringing the style bang up to date.

Designer: Richard Green; Publisher: Penguin UK; Allen Lane

2015 is shaping up to be an exciting year for print design. We’ll keep you updated on the modern vintage trend as it develops!

Find more print design inspiration here. You can also check out our selection of great InDesign tutorials to develop your own print design skills.

The post 2015 Design Trend: Modern Vintage appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Be inspired to create your own unique card designs this year…

1. Vaspur New Year Cards

Russian visual marketing agency Vaspur reimagined the subject of their company logo, a pomegranate, to create a luscious-looking greetings card for their clients. The cards really do look good enough to eat, with raspberry envelopes to match and restrained white sans serif typography adding modern, elegant appeal.

Corporate greetings cards don’t have to be dull. Using full colour across the design, teamed with sensual photography, makes designs tactile and exciting, and ultimately memorable.

Design by Vaspur

2. ‘Audace’ Cards by LaPlanche Design

These fun cards from New York- and Paris-based agency LaPlanche demand to be played with. The design invites the recipient to connect the dots, revealing a New Year’s message. White and red combine to create a festive palette, but it’s the introduction of black that keeps the designs stylish and business-appropriate.

Design your own cards with function in mind – can the card have an additional function that will keep the recipient engaged for longer than it takes to open an envelope?

Design by LaPlanche Design

3. ‘The Hidden Word’ Cards by LaPlanche Design

Also from LaPlanche Design are these equally fun word search-themed cards. Rendered in muted primary colours these push the envelope (no pun intended…) without shouting. LaPlanche’s consistent brand look applied to their greetings cards each year makes them recognisable from the envelopes alone. Their clients must look forward to receiving these at the end of the year!

Design by LaPlanche Design

4. Chase Christmas Cards

UK-based creative consultancy The Chase created these oh-so-simple but oh-so-clever cards to send out to their clients for Christmas. The tree design, made up of stamps that equate to the cost of the card’s first-class postage, is finished with a few festive-red ‘bauble’ stamps.

Complex designs aren’t always necessary to make your cards stand out. A simple design executed in a clever way can give your cards a unique feel.

Design by The Chase

5. Mikel Cans Studio Christmas Cards

Based in Barcelona, Mikel Kans has produced some fantastic print work showing a strong visual identity and a leaning towards a mid-century minimalist aesthetic. These minimal cards, designed for the Coll·legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya, are loaded with coal-like texture and use airbrush-style silhouettes to create a stylish summary of the festive period.

Minimal designs and high-contrast monochrome can prove to be a winning choice for Christmas cards. They make a great antidote to the sickly sweet colours and styles of the majority of cards.

Design by Mikel Cans Studio for Coll·legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya

6. Sanna Annukka Greetings Cards

Brighton-based designer and illustrator Sanna Annukka was inspired by Finnish decorations and the nature of the Northern hemisphere when she created these beautiful greetings cards. Printed on recycled paper and with embossed gold foiling, the cards are tactile, sensual and have a textile-like appeal.

Why not try using collage-inspired patterns on your own cards to create a visually playful layout?

Design by Sanna Annukka

7. Atipus Light-Up Christmas Cards

Atipus, a graphic design studio based in Barcelona, created these Christmas greetings cards with an illuminating twist. Designed for a hotel, the cards light up from the inside, passing a green glow through a die cut tree, made up of various festive silhouettes.

Cards are meant to be fun! If budget is not so much of an issue, think of ways to make your own cards think outside the box and revise the traditional print card.

Design by Atipus

Have you spotted any bold and beautiful card designs we’ve not mentioned here? Please share them with us below. Find more design inspiration here.

The post Card Design: Bold and Beautiful Greetings Cards appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Restricting yourself to InDesign (with a workspace orientated towards text manipulation and layout) can provide excellent discipline for logo design and in turn lead to high-impact results.

We’ll show you five different brands that have skillfully utilised typography in their logo designs. Along the way we’ll pick out 10 valuable lessons, all of which can be applied using InDesign.

Rio Galeão Airport, Brazil

This modern logo for Rio Galeão airport plays on the famous mountainous landscape of Rio. The design combines colourful abstract illustration with bold grey text. Design by Ana Couto.

What can we learn from this design?

Lesson 1:

When combining a graphic with text, choose a font that matches the character of the illustration. Here, the playful curves of the Pluto font family echoes the style of the colourful waves. Mixing up different weights, Bold, Semi-Bold and Regular, of the same typeface is a simple way to create a hierarchy.

Lesson 2:

Think about structure. The left alignment of the lines of text forms a hard edge that holds the composition together. The edge maintains just enough order in an otherwise fluid design.

Absolut.

At the beginning of 2014 Swedish vodka house Absolut unveiled this refined version of their logo. The single line of extra bold type set in all caps encapsulates the no-fuss purity and iconic status of their product.

What can we learn from this design?

Lesson 3:

A row of tight, condensed capitals can create a powerful block-like composition. The uniform height of the characters combined with tight kerning gives the word a graphic feel.

Lesson 4:

Creative use of punctuation can lend personality to your design. Here the full stop further adds to the statement made by the heavy type.

Cardiff Metropolitan University

The logo of the prestigious Cardiff Metropolitan University gracefully incorporates two different languages in a stylish, custom-made serif typeface.

What can we learn from this design?

Lesson 5:

Small details can make a big difference. Here a thin and precisely placed line helps to impose order in a logo that combines multiple elements.

Lesson 6:

Repetition can add rhythm. In this design, highlighting the word Cardiff in both English and Welsh adds symmetry to the design, holding the composition together.

 Food Network

The original food television channel’s logo, design by Troika.

What can we learn from this design?

Lesson 7:

Does the logo work at small-scale? Most logos need to be just as effective (and legible) at thumbnail size. Here the dramatic hierarchy of words prioritises the legibility of the word food when the logo is reproduced at a smaller size. The circle behind the text also increases visibility against any complex background.

Lesson 8:

Simple shapes can be an effective way of transforming text into something that looks more like a branded icon. A note of caution – using a shape just for the sake of it can look clumsy; here the tail of the f and the stem of the d are neatly framed by the circle.

 Yves Saint Laurent

The iconic logo for Yves Saint Laurent was created by Cassandre, a Ukranian-French commercial artist and typeface designer.

Finally, what can we learn from this classic logo design?
(To be attempted by brave logo designers only…)

Lesson 9:

Break the rules. In the fashion industry, Cassandre’s design broke away from the norm of modern serifs (think Calvin Klein, Armani, Vogue) and uppercase Grotesques (such as Chanel, Hugo Boss, D&G), the result is truly outstanding and unique.

Lesson 10:

Treating each letter as a separate object can open the door to creativity. Be warned though, placing letters this way is much easier to get wrong than to get right… the harmony and balance achieved in the YSL logo is nothing short of typographic genius!

That’s all folks, now go forth and start creating superior typographic logos!

The post Typographic Logos: 10 Rules for Success appeared first on InDesignSkills.

From the minimal to the extravagantly ornate, there are all sorts of label styles here to inspire your next packaging design project.

1. Andevine Wines

This Australian wine brand showcases moody, vintage-style flora on their dark, dramatic labels. An absence of typography on the front of the label allows the illustrative design to shine, and reinforces the luxurious, mysterious feel of the brand.

Dark label designs don’t have to be boring. Borrow from old styles of painting and photography to give your packaging designs a grown-up, opulent look.

Andevine Wines; Design by Co-Partnership

 2. Mount Franklin Lightly Sparkling

A limited-edition design for the Australian drinks company, with illustrations by fashion designer Akira Isogawa. The intricate Japanese-inspired design wraps around the bottle in an organic, delicate way, allowing the typography and logo to be beautifully framed. The choice of colours also lends the product itself a fresh, summery feel.

This design shows how effective it can be to print designs directly onto the bottle, without being limited by the sizing restrictions of a standard bottle label. 

Mount Franklin; Design by Creative Platform and Akira Isogawa

 3. Mask Spirit New World Wines

Certainly not shy and retiring, these designs for limited edition New World wines showcase cartoonish illustrations alongside glamorous gold typography. A fun way of introducing perhaps less well-known wines to the consumer.

VinProdService LLC; Design by Brandiziac

 4. Karadag Wines

Beautifully illustrated label designs from Russian graphic designer Nadie Parshina. The monochrome artwork was intended to raise awareness about an endangered conservation area in Karadag, in Crimea. 

Karadag Wines; Design by Nadie Parshina

 5. El Grillo

Following the trend for black and white labels, this is an outstanding example of how minimal label designs can often be the most effective. The puritanical artwork for Spanish wine brand El Grillo (‘The Cricket’) doesn’t need to shout to hold attention.

The typography and logo reference digital, modernist styles, while maintaining a lively sense of humour and freshness.

El Grillo

 6. Janzen

These fantastic labels for Californian wine brand Janzen really take into account the printed texture of the wine label, resulting in a design that is tactile as well as visually pleasing. The branding is also flexible, working well across different colour palettes.

Janzen; Design by CF Napa Brand Design

 7. B Meadery and Vineyard

New York-based designer Joli Glantz has put together these simple yet striking labels for B Meadery and Vineyard, a Virginian company that produces mead (a drink made with fermented honey, rather than grapes). The label designs are accessible, rustic and look fantastic as part of a series of products.

The designs also reflect a less masculine aesthetic than some of the other designs we’ve featured here, using decorative typography and subtle colours, opening the product up to a broader consumer audience.

B Meadery and Vineyard; Design by Joli Glantz

The post Bottle Design: Beautiful Wine Label Designs appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Be inspired by our edit of the very best menu designs.

1. Polpo

Polpo, a London-based restaurant serving Venetian food, commissioned beautiful menu designs from Richard Marazzi which blend old-world illustrations with a contemporary mix of typefaces for a high-impact, unique aesthetic.

Why not layer modern Sans Serif fonts over vintage-style illustrations for an individual, quirky look to your own menu designs?

 2. Ateneo Condesa

A strong minimal logo inspired by the jaguar takes centre stage on these menus for Mexican eatery Ateneo Condesa. The designs, by Cardumen 467, are graphic, simple and high-contrast, while maintaining a luxe feel with feline-print textures and wooden covers.

If the restaurant you’re designing a menu for already has a strong logo or brand identity, consider making this the focal point of your menu design. Or why not offer to design a new logo for them!

 3. El Burro

It’s great to see menus with a splash of colour, and these menu designs for El Burro show how introduction of just one strong shade can transform a menu from traditional to exciting and invigorating. Designed by Monday, these menus give a fresh update to Mexican-style illustrations and typefaces.

Try introducing just one stand-out colour in your own menu designs, contrasting against an otherwise monochrome palette. 

4. Royale Eatery

Also designed by Monday, the more restrained designs for Cape Town restaurant Royale Eatery showcase minimal, traditional designs printed on luxurious textures, with logos and text pulled out in gold foil. We love the vintage-style line illustrations, which give a homely, localised feel to the menu.

Some restaurants won’t suit a menu design that shouts; instead incorporate subtle design elements to create a harmonious, calming layout.

5. Cozmo Café

With a fun look and a nod to the industrial design trend the menus for Cozmo Café are young and lively, promising great food in a relaxed environment. Designed by W8, the menus give off a disposable vibe, which adds to the casual-cool feel of the restaurant.

Mix grungy fonts with casual textures, like brown paper and wood, to give a young, casual feel to your menu designs.

6. Fat Cow

Japanese beef restaurant Fat Cow turned to Singapore-based studio Foreign Policy to design their fantastic minimal menus. Lending a contemporary edge to the simplicity of the Japanese design aesthetic, the simple, four-column menus work in calm harmony with branded wooden covers.

Think about the final printed result when designing your menus. What will you print the menu on? Can you encase the printed menu in unusual materials, which will add to the sensory dining experience?

7. Kayaba Coffee

A cute and gorgeous menu design from Japanese coffee chain Kayaba Coffee. Tiny detailed illustrations of each item on the menu are a wonderful feature, earning this menu a spot on our ‘Delicious’ list.

Special, bespoke artwork can give your menu designs a truly individual feel, and can even double as a PR-friendly souvenir for customers to take away and treasure.

8. Café Kafka

An immersive, vintage-inspired menu design for Barcelona-based haunt Café Kafka earns the final spot on our menu edit. The branding carries over to business cards and table settings, and brings grand, formal designs bang up-to-date. Designed by Lo Siento.

Lift your own monochrome InDesign layouts with high-impact, vintage-style illustrations or photographs.

Want more inspiration? Check out more inspirational designs here.

The post Menu Design: Our Pick of the Most Delicious Designs appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Struggling to find a starting point for a cover you’re involved with? Why not try experimenting with this winning formula yourself?

1. H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald

Chris Wormell’s illustration of a proud hawk is enhanced by bold, slightly irregular typography in a rich black. It reminded us of vintage educational posters. Publisher: Jonathan Cape

 2. The 10 P.M. Question, Kate de Goldi

Here a more scratchy text is beautifully matched with a vibrant, textured collage image. The grungy background ties it all together and adds a slightly edgy, sinister note. Illustration by Sarah Maxey. Publisher: Templar Publishing

 3. A Love Letter from a Stray Moon, Jay Griffiths

In this design the striking natural colours of the macaw pop against a plain background. We like the way three colours from the bird’s plumage are picked out for the text. Publisher: Text Publishing

 4. The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt

Designer Keith Hayes lets Carel Fabritius’s painting, The Goldfinch, take centre-stage on this cover. The little bird is framed with simple elements: white paper, masking tape and casually drawn charcoal text. Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

 5. Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls, David Sedaris

This somewhat provocatively titled book caught our attention. The instantly recognisable silhouette of an owl (a long-eared owl to be precise) is paired with childlike handwriting. The playful composition suits the mix of upper and lower case characters. Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

If you have favourites of your own please share them with us below. We’ll also be publishing a book cover design tutorial very soon.

The post Cover Trend: Birds with Hand-Drawn Typography appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Discover ten books that showcase excellence in book design. Each project has its own individual character, and all of them demonstrate a strong aesthetic consistency throughout.

Perhaps you’ll pick up some inspiration for the next time you create a book.

1. Sydney Seafood School Cookbook

A playful, high impact cookbook designed by Arielle Gamble. Note that the hand-painted and contemporary typefaces marry perfectly with the big bold imagery.

 2. Three Men in a Boat

First published in 1889 this is a fresh take on Jerome K. Jerome’s classic English story, designed and illustrated by Sarah Ervine.

 3. Kim Clijsters Book

Only 400 copies were ever produced of this limited edition book. Tim Bisschop aces the design with beautifully crafted column-based layouts and attention to detail.

 4. Monumentos de Escrita

Generously margined single column layouts let the artwork do the talking in this catalogue design by Lisbon designer Rita Neves.

 5. Republica

Another project by Rita Neves combines ornate design with luxurious printing using metallic inks.

6. A Wine Book

This clean, simple design by Polish agency Luksemburk makes a big impact with a cleverly deployed colour scheme of orange, white and black.

7. The Liquor Book

A well balanced layout punctuated by thin black lines. Design by Yushan Cheng.

8. Maximilien Vox

A timeless look from master of typography, Maximilien Vox.

9. The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm

Ornate illustrations matched by equally ornate font choices. Note the text wrapping around Laura Barrett’s silhouetted illustrations. Design by Taschen.

10. City of Refuge

A minimally-designed and moving 9/11 memorial book. It’s hard not to be affected by Johanna Bonnevier’s serious, heavyweight typesetting.

A single well designed page can be enough to set your imagination to action. Hopefully something from this collection will inspire you to create your own book. Check our awesome range of quick tips and tutorials for InDesign here.

The post Book Design Inspiration appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Get inspired for creating your own magazine designs with these creative and effective examples.

1. The Sanahunt Times

A fantastically-designed high-end newspaper/magazine for a Kiev-based fashion chain. Art Direction and Design from design studio Non-Format emphasises luxurious, monochromatic layouts with impactful introduction of rare bursts of color.

Why not contrast enlarged typography with dramatic photographs in your own designs?

 2. Influencia

Striking monthly trend magazine with designs from duo Violaine & Jeremy. Minimal layouts allow quirky illustrations to take center-stage, giving the whole publication a well-loved, notebook-like feel.

Try introducing illustrations as a focal point in your own magazine layouts.

 3. Lucky Peach

A quirky, hip, and above all, design-led foodie magazine. It’s the publication’s striking covers that blend photography with illustrative annotations that really catch the eye.

Learn how to create your own foodie magazine with our series of tutorials.

 4. iD

Probably best known for their winking-eye covers, iD Magazine is a brilliant source of inspiration for anyone wanting to create a high-concept but accessible fashion magazine. Their design ethos is simple, playful and strong. Though the covers take center-stage for their icon-status alone, the inside layouts are also well worth a look, with bold use of typography that still allows the photography to shine.

Why not contrast black-and-white photos against strong neon color in your next design project?

 5. Bloomberg Businessweek

This publication continues to lead the way in contemporary, fresh and audience appropriate design for the current affairs genre. Though it rarely shouts, Businessweek‘s aesthetic is direct and always in touch, mirroring its cutting edge editorial content.

If you’re creating a more formal magazine, try to introduce understated design quirks and editorial appropriate images, such as infographics.

6. Esquire

A heavyweight commercial title, Esquire has really upped their design game over the last few years. Their covers are crowded with text, yet utilise clever 3D effects to create a image-centric focal point. While most publications are sticking to flat design, Esquire embraces a dynamic, lively aesthetic. Their layouts are crowded yet restrained in use of color, creating an incredibly cool look and feel to the magazine.

Why not experiment with hand-written typography in your own magazine designs?

7. Port

Another mens’ title, but with a decidedly more classic look, Port Magazine is a lesson in restrained and timeless design. The covers are subtle but impactful, with equally minimal inside layouts to match.

If in doubt about your own design direction for a magazine you’re working on, it’s a great idea to stick to classic, minimal layouts. Try using a classical-inspired typeface, such as FF Quadraat.

Inspired to create a magazine of your own? Check out our tutorial for creating a foodie publication.

The post Magazine Design: Exceptional Layouts and Covers appeared first on InDesignSkills.