Gabbi has been at the core of our design team since 2016. A designer who always brings an artist's touch to her work, she has a flare for creative UI, illustrative designs and personification through animation and colour. She is amazing at what she does, so when we wanted some insights into the design trends expected to take off in 2025, she really was one of the best people to ask.
Here are Gabbi’s design predictions for 2025…
Meaningful human-centric design
As the world of AI becomes ever more intense and pervasive, it goes without saying that it will continue to bring exciting capabilities and possibilities into the world of design. In terms of streamlining design processes or saving time on gruelling art-working tasks, AI will be a game change for a lot of design teams next year. But a word of caution, when used carelessly, AI can make designs feel robotic and even soul-less so while AI will be embraced in some areas, we can also expect to see design teams push back in others. Striving hard to establish genuine emotional connections with their audiences that only a human touch can bring.
In an already saturated AI market, we expect to see even more saturation in 2025 and as a result, a growing desire for real craftsmanship, a focus on authenticity and an appetite for unique designs and experiences that truly resonate with audiences and inspire real emotions.
A return to the physical
Alongside AI driving this need for more meaningful, emotional design, we can also expect to see more and more designers craving the physical, real, tangible, hand crafted elements in their work.
To quote Ell Jeffrey, senior designer at Waste Creative: "We're seeing designers, brands and illustrators turn back to the physical. Organic lettering, physical textures, zines, playful colours and hand-crafted elements that soothe as an antithesis to the current gloss and gleam.”
We can already see this need being expressed in the scrapbook story telling trend that is prevalent at the moment, mixing playful hand drawn elements with textures and meaningful imagery to create humanistic visual stories. Expect a lot more variations on this theme in 2025.
Using AI to make time for exploring ideas
Even though meaningful designs are in, and AI generated stock images are out, we are seeing designers use tools like “generative fill” and “remove background” to speed up their workflow and create more time for the things that really matter during the design process. Using AI effectively to streamline processes will be a growing trend in 2025 because it can help make time for designers to focus on generating ideas and concepts that will truly resonate with their audience, which all ties back to that need for more meaningful designs.
Minimalism meets maximalism
For years minimalism has taken centre stage, with its crisp clean lines, white space and sans-serif fonts and whilst this design style is still popular, we’re starting to see an influx of designers combining the simplicity of minimalism with the boldness of maximalism.
This trend combines the precision and simplicity of minimalism with the bold colours, oversized type and playful elements of maximalism, creating attention grabbing visuals. Expect to see a lot more of this as we move through 2025.
An increase in motion mania
The trend of using movement in design is nothing new, however it is more important than ever to stand out in a fast-paced, saturated market and motion remains one of the best ways to that. As a result, we will continue to see motion used more throughout designs in 2025, whether that’s applied through eye catching kinetic typography or seamless smooth website animations.
Not only is motion visually compelling, but it is also essential for engaging and captivating an audience’s attention and creating those elusive, scroll stopping moments.
That’s just five of Gabbi’s key design predictions for 2025, if you’d like to find out more about our thoughts on design, and even development and digital marketing, why not follow us on Instagram or LinkedIn and stay up to date with all our thoughts, ideas and predictions?