7 Creative Branding Trends for 2021

Just like the brands themselves, branding trends need to reinvent themselves every so often to stay fresh. The branding trends that once looked modern and cutting-edge suddenly become stale and old-fashioned. To stay relevant in the eyes of your audience in the new year, it’s best to incorporate the top brand design trends of 2021.

1. Put a face to the name

If it’s one thing humans like to see, it’s other humans—especially in social media posts. Lately branding designers are catching on to this and we’re seeing a lot more imagery of people representing the brand, particularly faces, and particularly faces with personalities. After all, faces humanize a brand very well, and a lot of branding trends in 2021 lean towards this overall humanization.

Often with this branding trend, companies use an illustrated depiction of a real person. This not only allows for better control over the final look, but also opens up opportunities for different artistic styles, which can communicate the type of brand you are.

2. Use quirky ar

Especially if you’re targeting younger markets, you want your branding materials to display a distinguishing uniqueness—the quirky factor. Using one-of-a-kind imagery, particularly if cute, funny or whimsical, is a great path to memorability and recognition, two branding cornerstones.

More often than not, brands use hand-drawn illustrations for this style, although by the definition of quirky, all art styles are in play. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Anthropomorphized animals are a popular choice, especially when dressed up nicely to accentuate the absurdity. But setting yourself apart means not just doing what others are doing—feel free to try an offbeat style if that suits your brand personality.

3. Embrace expressionist brand colors

Traditional branding posits that simple, consistent color schemes are best because consumers learn to associate your brand with its key colors. And while that’s true, at the same time it restricts your brand, what if you want to express your brand identity with more complex color schemes and use different colors to give meaning to each of your products? The solution: expanding your brand color palette to a variety of expressionist colors.

In 2021, meaningful and intense colors express what a brand stands for.

4. Stand for something

We’re not going to sugar-coat it: there’s a lot of bad stuff going on in the world. People in general are finding it harder to stay neutral, and the same goes for companies. For more and more customers, brands that don’t stand for something really stand for nothing.

That’s why one of the branding trends of 2021 is taking a stance on an important issue, ideally the same stance as your target audience.

5. Extend your brand with geometric patterns

One of the more surprising 2021 branding trends is using patterns as an extension of your brand: large blocks of repeated graphics to create a hypnotizing wallpaper look. Just to be clear, patterns aren’t replacing logos or main images. But in the right spot, like an ad, t-shirt, swag, webpage background or printed menu, patterns can take your brand experience so much further.

6. Make it rough on purpose

Intentionally imperfect brand design, usually combined with illustrations and handwritten typography, resonates well with younger, more counter-cultural audiences. This branding trend originates as a response to the pixel-perfect brand design from the past with no hair out of place, for many people, that kind of perfection nowadays comes across as suspicious.

7. Create an immersive experience

Your branding is not just your logo or website or packaging—it’s all of that and more. In 2021, people expect to receive not only a well-designed product, they expect you to take them on a journey. If you want to go the extra mile and really wow them, give them an experience.