The internet is a visual media and website designers compete artistically to capture the eye of website visitors. Like any artistic endeavor tastes and style change from season to season. Here are some of the newest trends for the coming season.
Slab Typefaces and Typography
This season’s trends ask designers to use more slab typefaces. Slab typefaces are the bold broad fonts that bring the eye into the website. Some examples of slab typeface fonts are: Broadcast Titling, Shadowed-Serif, Alexandria, Acknowledgement, and Chunk.
Designers are also doing new and innovative things with typography, such as mixing fonts of various sizes and families and twisting and molding them to fit a variety of design purposes. By being more playful with the typography, designers can accomplish more with less.
One Page Websites
The trend this year is towards minimalism. Rather than loading a site with information, designers are stripping away all the superfluous and leaving a clean vital site. Think of this a modified business card design.
Hand Sketches and Retro Design
In the past many designers have steered away from hand sketches because they feared that the sketches would appear amateurish or unfinished—but this is the year to step out and put those sketches forward. Hand drawn sketches suggest an intimacy to the website visitor. They create interest.
Another hot trend is reviving the old and making it new again. Images from the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s give the visitor a sense of history and trust—while at the same time appealing to the visitor’s good memories of times gone by.
So if you’re thinking of creating a new website or re-designing your current website—step into the current trends, play with the typefaces and typography and don’t be afraid to incorporate hand sketches and a retro look.