Question: What do “Supernova,” “Doodles,” and “Jawbreakers” have in common?

Answer: They’re all branding design trends.

So says brand expert Bill Gardner, president of Gardner Design, one of the nation’s top branding firms, with clients that include Fortune 500s such as Chrysler, Hallmark, Cessna Aircraft, and Kroger.

Gardner released his sixth annual report of logo trends in GD USA, a national design magazine. The report discusses 15 trends found all over the world and provides insights on how they may influence customers.

One trend, “Facets,” is composed of logos that remind the viewer of highly polished gems. Another is called “Animotion.” These moving logos are designed for the online audience.

What else does Gardner see among these trends?

• Clean, simple, more succinct identities–in type, in line, in color.
• Getting “metricized”: Increasing value of design on the bottom line.
• Less emphasis on “greenness” in logo design. It is not that unique anymore.
• More vivid colors. Out with desaturation; in with chroma.
• Less is more common: less calligraphy, Photoshop tricks, artificial highlights.
• Found pattern and illustration still hanging on.

Seeing all this, what’s his advice on logo design? “The key is to study the trends, then evolve forward — as far forward as you can leap — from them,” he says.

For a branding resource offering a database of more than 75,000 logos: LogoLounge.com

For a look at emerging trends: http://www.logolounge.com/trends

Christine Babick is a marketing strategist and linguist specializing in marketing language, website text, “emo copy,” and cause and relationship marketing. More…

Article Tags: Babick | brand | Branding | Design | Identity | logo | Research | Trends | Visual
Filed under: Branding, Design, Industry News, Marketing Trends, Research, Visual Identity