Design examples
14
min read
Every year, graphic design trends promise to show us what’s next. As designers, you probably spend hours scrolling through them, hoping to stumble across that one perfect idea. But more often than not, you’re left with a moodboard that says a lot and means very little.
At TodayMade, we don’t care about looking trendy. We care about making designs that work and help products get funded, gain traction, and stay usable. And the truth is, most trends don’t last because they were never built to.
Still, some of them are worth watching. Those are the ones we keep our eyes on and are going to share in this guide. You’ll find bold ideas starting to find their place across the digital space, and maybe the spark you need to experiment with something of your own.
Good designers pay attention to trends. Great designers know which ones to ignore.
When looking through popular graphic designs, consider them raw material. They are interesting, useful, and often overhyped. They can give your work a current edge, but they can just as easily blur the edges of your brand if you follow them blindly.
The trick is knowing when to care. Here’s a simple way to nail this:
A good gut check: if a modern graphic design feels like it’ll age poorly in two years, don’t build your brand around it. Use it in a campaign. Add it to a one-off landing page. But don’t let it define you.
So, what’s actually worth your attention this year?
We’ve sifted through the noise and left a shortlist of styles, moods, and visual directions that are starting to shape the way products look and feel in 2025.
Some of them are already influencing brand campaigns and landing pages. Others are just starting to take hold. But all of them are worth watching, playing with, or pushing against.
→ Silver and grey tones
→ Glossy or reflective textures
Molten silver, chrome finishes, and mirror-like reflections are making a comeback. Liquid metal feels futuristic without looking cold, and it’s being used to add a premium, high-tech vibe to otherwise minimal layouts.
Latitude’s web design nails it. The shiny, fluid main visual gives their product an edge. It’s a look that stands out, especially when paired with tech-isometric line art.
→ Chunky pixel fonts
→ Low-res UI elements
Graphic designers embrace lo-fi pixels like it’s 1999, relying on chunky fonts, jagged icons, and old-school interface elements. It’s a nod to early web nostalgia, but with better grids and sharper design instincts.
A perfect example is the ToyFight’s site. It uses a layout with massive headers, lots of white space around them, and a pixelated type.
→ Hand-cut photo layering
→ Scanned textures and tape
Cutouts, torn edges, scotch tape, marker scribbles — the handcrafted, collage-style aesthetic is everywhere again. It brings a personal, messy touch that breaks away from polished digital sameness.
The Commissioner example makes it work beautifully. Layered visuals, rough textures, and analog vibes create a sense of depth in this creative chaos.
→ Hyper-detailed renders
→ Unreal textures in real contexts
AI-generated visuals are showing up in more places, and they’re hard to look away from. The style blends photorealism with surreal textures and unexpected compositions that feel more like dreams than renders.
Scroll through popular brands and you’ll see it in full force. In this reel, AI presented the LEGO House as Van Gogh’s iconic Yellow House, grabbing attention like nothing else.
→ Dramatic color pairings
→ Visual tension between light and bold
This year’s visual contrast is cranked all the way up. In a rush for something extraordinary, designers are playing with screaming colors, bold text next to delicate lines, and slick surfaces against raw textures.
To see it in action, look no further than Ordinary Folks’ site. Their layouts feel loud but deliberate, using sharp contrast to guide your eye and keep things interesting.
→ Oversized type
→ Unique or custom font choices
In 2025, typography trends shape design. Big, expressive fonts are front and center, often doing the job of imagery entirely. Tight kerning, oversized headlines, and playful, custom letterforms are able to carry the brand voice on their own.
Color Monkey has the best graphic design. Their homepage lets bold, funky typography take over the space, making the message feel loud, confident, and alive.
→ Playful micro-illustrations
→ Casual marks layered over clean design
When the right elements are paired well, they can bring personality to your site. And doodle style can help you achieve just that. It helps make things feel light, human, and approachable, especially when placed in clean layouts.
Take a look at Manischewitz. This site mixes tidy design with sketchy marks that are spontaneous and fun. It’s a great way to add warmth without over-designing.
→ Pure black or deep grey backgrounds
→ Subtle color accents
Dark mode isn’t a new trending graphic design, but it’s evolving. Instead of soft greys and safe contrast, websites are now going full black, pairing it with sharp typography, glowing accents, and cinematic visuals that feel high-impact and intentional.
Mitchell Eaton’s portfolio uses this approach in a unique way. The black background is broken up by gray lines and visuals that reveal subtle pops of color when you hover over them.
→ Neon gradients and glitchy grids
→ Saturated, arcade-inspired palettes
Gradients, grids, neon, and synth-style typography are the bold chaos of the 80s, making another comeback. These kinds of visuals hit with a wave of nostalgia that pulls you straight into it, vibe and all.
Dogelon Mars goes all in. The site leans into retro-futurism with a visual style that feels pulled from an arcade screen and dropped into Web3.
→ Bold geometric forms
→ Layered content blocks
Previously, geometry was used as a background decoration. But today, it confidently steps into the spotlight. Designers use simple shapes as central elements, creating rhythm, structure, and personality without relying on complex visuals.
You can see this trendy graphics in action on Rekorder Studios’ website. Here, ovals, squares, and rectangles take center stage, guiding your eye through the content.
→ Illustrated characters and elements
→ Bright, friendly color palettes
Choosing a cartoon style for your website doesn’t mean making it childish. This way, you can show off branding, UI, and microinteractions in a way that feels expressive. It’s a smart move for products that want to connect emotionally.
Irys uses illustrated characters and playful animations to create a distinctive vibe. The style softens digital interfaces, adds personality, and helps brands feel more human.
→ Cut-out photos and floating elements
→ Overlapping, layered compositions
This trend looks like a crazy one, in the best way. Cut-out photos, emoji-style graphics, scribbles, and layered textures come together and break a few rules to get the brand noticed.
For a great example, check out Off Menu’s site. At first glance, the elements feel randomly stacked, but the more you look, the more it all clicks.
→ Editorial-style sketches
→ Visible grids and structured whitespace
There’s something inherently unique about handwriting, and that same feeling carries into this trend. Content that looks like an editorial spread doesn’t scream for attention, but speaks through structure and quiet confidence.
Black and white are the go-to colors here, just like in Carl Hauser’s portfolio. The sketches lead the way, staying sharp and minimal.
→ Asymmetrical layout choices
→ Layered or broken visual patterns
If you’re ready to melt your brain a little, this is the trend for it. It throws harmony out the window, yet somehow makes it work. The mismatched elements create a kind of beautiful tension that makes the viewer pause.
The site for 4thSex is at the center of this chaos. Nothing lines up quite how you’d expect, but the energy is undeniable.
→ Iridescent gradients
→ Futuristic sheen applied sparingly
Glossy, glowing, and a little bit otherworldly — that’s holographic design. These days, it doesn’t include rainbow foil overload. It uses subtle gradients, light shifts, and iridescent surfaces with restraint.
Anaglyphes does it right by pairing the holographic effects with static content. The balance keeps your eyes engaged, giving the design room to breathe.
→ Moving letters with smooth animations
→ Scroll-triggered text motion
Not long ago, designers stuck to strict typography rules to keep text clean and readable. That’s completely changing. Current graphic design trends encourage creators to let type stretch, spin, bounce, and shift as users scroll.
To achieve full effect, Airborne Studio uses multiple font combinations. Each word moves differently, guiding your attention and adding rhythm to the experience.
→ Emoji-style icons and badges
→ UI elements designed to feel playful
Stickers have always been a staple, and now they’re gaining even more popularity across graphic design trends in 2025. The trend is to layer emojis, badges, icons, and playful visuals in a way that feels spontaneous and slightly chaotic.
I’m Happy pulls it off with confidence. The site is bursting with energy from stickers that show up at just the right moment, in the right place.
→ Macro textures and blown-up elements
→ Minimal layouts anchored by a single high-res visual
If you thought design elements shouldn’t overlap or dominate the screen, think again. This trend zooms in so close that users can catch even the tiniest details. Here, all you have to do is bring texture and form to the forefront.
Such a trend needs to be executed with care, and Koffi Racha gets it right. The moment you land on the site, you’re met with a massive 3D bottle that you can almost touch.
→ Faded edges and worn-in surfaces
→ Grit layered over flat color
Flat colors are taking a step back, making room for graphic design styles with more grit and depth. Noise textures — subtle grain, dust, static, or visual “imperfections” — are being used to make digital layouts feel more tactile.
Background Noise is a prime example. Their site leans into a barely noticeable grainy background, creating a mood that polished design often lacks.
→ Text and image living side by side
→ Scroll-based choreography
One side tells, the other shows. Split-screen layouts are gaining traction as a way to guide users through content with clarity and rhythm. This trend lets visuals and text work in parallel without fighting for attention.
Immortal Magura’s website makes the most of it. As you scroll, each half of the screen unfolds its own narrative: images on one side, story on the other.
→ High-poly 3D models
→ Clean lighting and realistic shadows
Polished 3D is showing up in more interfaces as a core part of the design. These aren’t the over-textured, chunky renders of the past. These elements are smooth, intentional, and blended seamlessly into clean layouts.
Among popular designs, Sixb Dentaire is a great pick. The site features a large 3D model of a tooth that rotates and lets users view the detail from every angle.
→ Blurred panels and transitions
→ Light diffusion behind text or UI elements
In some layouts, you can observe how blur is used as a background trick. Latest design trends suggest using this element as part of the main design, sometimes even overlaying other elements. It adds softness, depth, and mood.
To see it in action, check out the Mirror Report website. It uses gentle blurs to subtly draw the viewer’s attention toward the content.
→ Off-center alignment
→ Tilted blocks and overlapping sections
Designers are letting go of rigid symmetry in favor of brutalist layouts that feel spontaneous and bold. Unconventional grids add personality and movement by intentionally disrupting the usual balance and making space dynamic, not chaotic.
Nitromost’s site does this well. The text and visuals refuse to snap into neat alignment, but the rhythm still feels deliberate.
→ Full-screen background footage
→ Slow motion or ambient loops
Video is stepping into the role of mood-setter. Instead of flashy intros, many sites use quiet motion graphics that set the tone and add depth to the page without pulling focus from the main message.
Rhiannin’s website uses this approach to create an immersive atmosphere. The background video adds rhythm and encourages users to watch until the end.
→ Freely placed images
→ Overlapping or tilted frames
This trend brings in the energy of a moodboard — unstructured, expressive, and a little messy (in a good way). Photos are no longer locked into neat grids but spread across the screen to create texture.
You can see this idea in action on Uplift Founders’ website. The images break free from rigid structure, yet still feel casually and intentionally placed.
→ Rounded, inflated letterforms
→ Playful 3D or glossy finishes
Bubble letters are having a moment that is impossible to ignore. This trend brings in childhood nostalgia and cartoon-like boldness, but designers are giving it a refined, graphic edge.
The entire experience of Alphabet Vol. 2 is built around this concept. The homepage features big, bouncy type that feels fun and loud without being juvenile.
→ Minimal supporting text
→ Scroll-driven visual pacing
In the latest trends in graphic design, teams are flipping the usual templates, leading with visuals and letting words follow. The result is interfaces that feel more like lookbooks or visual essays, where mood and form come before messaging.
The Upstairz site puts imagery front and center, using just enough copy to support the story. It’s a subtle shift in hierarchy that gives visuals space to breathe.
→ Reduced white space
→ Compact layouts
Designers are pulling back to a busy space. Instead of the usual airy minimalism, they’re cramming elements closer, fitting more content into tighter areas, often with sharper contrast and stricter alignment.
Hot Corners takes this approach to the extreme. Nearly every corner of the site is occupied by visuals, making the layout feel tightly packed and intentional.
→ Progress bars and chapter markers
→ Visual pacing tied to narrative flow
There are graphic design themes aimed at creating interfaces that guide users through content like a story. Small cues like progress indicators and reactive sections keep viewers engaged and moving.
You can spot this trend on React.gg, where the visual feels like a board game. It moves with the scroll and stays in sync with the reader as they navigate the story.
→ Visible borders around sections or visuals
→ Page layouts that feel structured and self-contained
Frames are used to control space, focus attention, and give cool graphic designs a tidy, intentional rhythm. They’re subtle by nature, but they add structure without relying on heavy backgrounds or high contrast.
This technique is used on the Frame One site. At first, you see a rich blue background. Look closer, and thin white lines along the edges bring a quiet precision to the design.
Not every trend deserves to make it into the new year. Some graphic design styles have been overused, over-polished, or just overstayed their welcome. As brands shift toward bolder, more opinionated visuals, a few familiar looks are quietly heading for the exit.
The soft, safe, washed-out palettes that took over websites are starting to feel... tired. They once signaled friendliness and approachability, but now they often just blend into the background. Bolder color stories are taking their place.
At one point, 3D organic shapes appeared on homepages, pop-ups, contact forms, and any empty corner they could fill. But when everyone uses the same shiny blobs, they stop being interesting. Custom 3D elements are pushing these out fast.
Minimalism was used as a graphic design basis for a long time. Sparse layouts, extra-wide spacing, and safe type choices have become so common that they barely register. What used to feel intentional now often comes off as unfinished.
If you’re relying on graphic design examples to stay current, you’re already late. By the time a design style shows up in a roundup, it’s probably been used, copied, and watered down across dozens of websites.
So, how do you sharpen your instinct to build something that fits?
Here’s how we track what matters and ignore what doesn’t:
→ Follow great studios, not Pinterest boards
Look at work from teams that experiment and take risks. Places like Behance, Awwwards, Dribbble, Lapa Ninja, and One Page Love are full of inspirational ideas that go beyond the limits.
→ Watch the weird corners of the web
Indie games, digital zines, and meme accounts are packed with raw graphic design ideas that haven’t been overused yet. These spaces move fast, which makes them perfect for spotting what’s next.
→ Read beyond design
Architecture, fashion, tech, and subcultures often shift visually before the design world catches up. If you’re paying attention to how culture looks and moves, your visual instincts will stay sharper.
→ Look at student work
Seriously. Design school portfolios and grad showcases are filled with rule-breaking, low-budget brilliance. It’s where fresh thinking lives before it gets dulled by client revisions and corporate briefs.
→ Go offline
Museums, galleries, packaging from niche brands, signage in different cities, and posters can tell you what visuals people are actually seeing out in the world. They’re rawer, grittier, and often more inspiring than any curated feed.
At TodayMade, our graphic design outsourcing team treats trend-spotting like training a creative muscle. We collect what catches our eye — screenshots, scraps, half-finished ideas — and toss them into a shared radar.
Not everything becomes a direction. Most of it just helps us see what’s shifting, what’s stale, and where we might want to push next.
When you look at the most iconic brands today, none of them clearly follow current design trends. And that’s not an accident. You’re not supposed to follow a checklist or do what the trend blogs tell you to do.
All you really need is a point of view that can’t be mistaken for anyone else’s.
So, do trends matter? Of course they do. They always have. They’re part of the ecosystem — tools, raw material, inspiration. They give you somewhere to start, not somewhere to stay.
What you build with them is entirely up to you. Break the layout. Mismatch the type. Overdo it on purpose just to see what happens.
And if you ever need a design team that’s not afraid to challenge the brief, push your vision, and make your brand impossible to ignore, the TodayMade team is just a few clicks away.
We don’t follow trends. We help you set them.
