The Era of Illustration | Illustration trends for 2019

Illustration trends for 2019 | The Era of Illustration

Hot trends every illustrator and designer should be aware of

A picture is worth a thousand words. In this digital age, an illustration is worth much more. One of the most evocative forms of communication, illustrations perform the crucial task of both informing and entertaining an audience through widespread integration in published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, video games, and films.

Illustrations are changing the way we view the world. Children born in the late 80s or 90’s grew up with the dawn of the Internet. They were present in a world that progressed from handheld phones to smartphones; a world that transcended into hyper-connectivity. The immersion of the current generation of digital devices has propelled us forward and also altered the way we communicate forever. 

01. Bright colours and simple shapes

When it comes to branding, advertising and packaging, the overwhelming trend in graphic design this year has been for simplification and reduction. So it’s not surprising that that spirit has carried over to the world of illustration as well.

02.The Comic Book Style

This style is typically composed of strong black outlines, realistic sketches of people and dramatically strong colors. The most influential element in this style, however, is the halftone pattern, which is a dotted texture used to depict light and shadows.

03.Organic and handmade

While colourful, geometric, 2D vector art still dominates the landscape, there’s been somewhat of a counter-trend, in the form of illustration that's organic, hand-drawn and hand-crafted (or at least feels that way, even if it was created digitally).

Source : https://dribbble.com/Fugstrator

04.The Glitch Effect

This effect is created by using duplicated images and placing them at different positions and angles. Different hues play with each other to create a kind of ‘glitchy’ interference. The glitch effect has a wide range of uses.

05.Hyper-real landscapes

It is a radical departure from the vintage styles and gradient-infused flat designs we’ve explored so far. Hyper-real landscape illustrations which blend fantasy elements, sci-fi culture and incredibly skillful draftsmanship are the antidote to the naive, geometric illustration styles which have dominated design over the last few years. 

Source :  1 2

06.Isometric Design

Combining illustration with isometric type can create cool compositions. Expect to see more isometric illustrations with large typography.

Source : https://dribbble.com/erikdgmx

07.Non-Standard Proportions for Human Characters

Custom illustrations featuring people are one of the biggest design trends for the recent year or two. They quickly set the necessary associations, show processes or environment and create emotional appeal. Still, it would be boring if all the graphics followed the same style, so this year illustrators push the horizons and show lots of creative experiments based on broken proportions and original shapes.

08.Process and Workspace Illustrations

One of the most popular themes of digital illustration is work at all perspectives. Graphic designers share numerous artworks showing a wide variety of workspaces, teamwork, creative processes and workflows, communication and collaboration. The main reason for it is the popularity of such graphics as visual content for landing pages and blog articles.

Source: https://dribbble.com/Tubik

Source: https://dribbble.com/tedkdesigns

09.Paper Cutout

There has been a rise of digital paper cutout style recently which will continue to be popular in 2019! This illustrations based on the visual effect of the multilayered cut-out paper craft. Such artworks look deep and original setting the strong visual association with physical crafts.

1.Animal Spirit by Maxim Shkret https://www.behance.net/shkret

2.Spaceman https://dribbble.com/lobanovskiy

10.Expressive Shadows and Negative Space

One more trend in graphic design is trying bold and expressive style in illustrations, close to magazine illustrations.Limited palettes, catchy contrast, expressive almost photographic combinations of shadows and light spots, bold meaningful details, creative explorations of negative space in logos and illustrations.

Source : Malikafavre

Conclusion.

Storytelling is better told with visuals for higher engagement. Illustrations hold the attention of a reader and etch them into the reader’s memory for a long time to come. The illustration is one of the most important forms of visual communication: it informs and observes, delights and decorates, instructs and inspires. The future of pop art in the design world is bright and evolving, and 2019 is set to see it make a revolutionary. Come - Back.