While Color Trend don’t change overnight when the bells strike midnight on 31 December, there are shifts and developments that can almost come to define each year. The last year has been dominated by bright vivid, almost electric colors, neons and continued use of duotones and colour gradients.
While some classic colour palettes are here to stay, there are many design settings that will see new tendencies in the New Year – both in the colors that designers use and the way they use them. Here we run through seven colour trends to keep a keen eye on in 2020. For how colors are classically used, see our colour theory explainer.
1.) Muted palettes
The trend through 2019 has been largely bold, vivid colors, with many brands brightening up their branding with almost dayglow electric hues. When peer-to-peer lending company Ratesetter updated its branding mid-year, the biggest change was to up the saturation and intensity of its purple brand colour.
But the counter movement has already begun. With vivid colors now so prevalent, 2020 will see a growing tendency to step back towards more muted tones. Some brands have already started to take the edge off colors, desaturating them by infusing them with black, white or a complementary colour to make them less abrasive and easier on the eye.
Medical cannabis company Dosist shows how muted colors can give a more mature look to stand out from competitors. By using muted colors, you also avoid creating a harsh contrast with the white background. LinkedIn has been using muted colors in marketing posts on social media to make its material stand out without shouting. The brand colors are still being used, but they’re toned, showing a possibility here to develop a secondary colour palette based on brand colors by adding some black or white. It feels modern and natural.
Don’t be surprised to see the trend extend into imagery too, with designers opting for more subdued and natural-looking photography in place of oversaturated images.
2.) Earthy colors
Following on from the tendency towards more muted palettes, the recent penchant for vivid neon colors and a cyberpunk aesthetic is starting to give way to a return to more earthy tones. This can sometimes generate an even retro-looking effect conjuring up the homely feel of the 1960s and ’70s.
Melbourne’s Studio io has been specializing in this throwback look in its packaging designs for the city’s oldest brewery 3 Ravens. It turned to vintage juice and ice cream cartons and labels for the colour inspiration and the resulting labels feels nostalgic, but also fun and authentic.
The Nike Hyper Court app in the Philippines went for similar earthy colors to appeal to youngsters and looked much cooler than it would have done had it gone for a more obvious neon-infused futuristic palette. Estudio Santa Rita’s artwork for Dropbox’s Spotify playlist also show earthy colors can give a sense of artisan craftsmanship to tech companies.
3.) Monochrome
The trend over recent years for the use of duotone and colour gradients is now getting even simpler as brands start to put the emphasis on a single brand colour. It’s another sign of a step back from so many Color Trend, and an attempt to stand out from the noise with a simple, clear identity across all material.
Latin American on-demand delivery startup Rappi uses tones of its brand orange through the landing page for its Rappi Pay payments service in Colombia, and Argentine insurance company Iúnigo adds colour accents in only its brand colour blue throughout its illustrations and UI (designed by DHNN).
While monochrome filters may look old-fashioned in print materials, they’re getting a new lease of life online. Monochrome Color Trend filters are being used once more in all or partial elements in graphic composition, like the purple filter on the imagery on this site for Intelligent Artifacts.
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