How To Choose The Right Graphic Design Style

In the ever changing world of graphic design, trends really do come and go, ranging from the cartoony human illustrations and fabulously colorful illustrations of the 1950s, all the way up to the sleek, digital designs intended to convey a serious element of futurism. Sometimes the lines between modern vs. vintage graphic design styles can get quite blurry; a steampunk looking style of graphic design is thoroughly modern, but relies on imagery from over a century ago. The exact place to draw the line between vintage and modern is getting even blurrier as “modern retro” designs incorporate the style of digital imagery from the 1970s to the 1990s, when digital imaging technology was in its infancy and was still relatively crude.

The advantages of vintage designs in graphic design style are quite simple but also rather potent. Depending on your exact target audience, an image invoking the computer generated images of the 1980s may be a great idea or an absolutely terrible idea. Vintage imagery tends to make it easier to entertain an audience, as long as they get the reference.

Further, these styles tend to require fewer elaborate graphical fine tuning unless one wishes to combine crude vintage graphical styles with state of the art modern technology, say a crude block of pixels with a dizzying array of details inside each individual pixel. Most of these designs play quite well with audiences between 18 and 40 as they are the target demographics most likely to remember these designs when they were new, or have learned to appreciate such vintage technology from their older peers.

Modern design styles’ advantages are somewhat simpler. They have a wider appeal and more audiences will easily understand the design. Vintage designs tend to be understood more by specific age groups that remember when those design elements were new. In cases of vintage designs for imagery that is so far out of date nobody alive remembers them, these design styles are even more obscured and appeal only to a small base of enthusiasts.

If your design absolutely needs to appeal to a wide range of people for whatever reason, a modern design style is almost assuredly the way to go. Additionally, if your design needs to handle a number of fine details, modern is the way to go. Vintage design styles tend to be crude and uncomplicated, meaning that they perform rather poorly if one wishes to create a detailed design.

100 Years of Graphic Design – What’s Changed?

Graphic design has evolved in leaps and bounds from the early days of the 20th v=century to today when advances in technology have made graphic design more approachable, as well as making the process both easier and more intuitive.

In the early days of the 20th century some of the most recognizable trends in graphic design used minimalism and geometric shapes in order to convey a message. This was especially prominent in poster design. Piet Mondrian, the Dutch painter used red, yellow and blue, combined with black and white to provide inspiration for many other graphic artists during this period.

 

 

In 1907, AEG called on the services of Peter Behrens, an architect and designer from Germany as an artistic consultant to AEG, Behrens built the entire corporate I.D. of the company from the ground up. His minimalist approach resulted in the AEG logo that is still in use today, as well as many logotypes that have stood the test of time.

The use of white space and a minimalist approach was to be a feature of graphic design for decades and its influence can still be felt today.

Graphic design began to change to reflect political and social events as World War ii got underway. The propaganda posters are exceptional examples of graphic design that appealed to the emotions using bold colors and human figures to personify an emotional appeal. At the same time advertising began to use these approaches as the first real boom in above the line advertising got underway. This was the time when the first graphics, icons and payoff lines began to make their power felt on the advertising scene.

 

The 1950’s were the age of sex in advertising. Not coincidentally magazines like Playboy also became big business. This was also the age of advertising featuring ‘happy, beautiful people’ engaged in everyday activities. A trend that is still around.

The 60’s really kicked off modern graphic design. Along with some really clever uses of words and images the rise of the psychedelic image was just around the corner. Advertising and graphic design was now taking inspiration from a myriad of social issues.

In the 1970’s it was music and technology that were driving graphic design – and typography was really coming into its own.

The 80’s were a mixed bag as far as graphic design was concerned. Geometric shapes, blazing color and the future were all up for grabs as subjects for the cool graphic designer.

In the 90’s humor seemed to be the way to go. Typography that looked hand drawn and colors that fought for attention on the page were some of the standouts from a decade that would shape graphic design into the 21st century.