The world’s first open-source design trend database, made by designers for designers. Brought to you by AWOL Company, this free site is a database of our curated design trends that we’ve been tracking for several years, looking at viable aesthetic trends across all design disciplines. Pull down the TRENDS tab...
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PRIMITIVES
Form has traditionally been one of the most creatively stressful parts of the design process. Designers, marketers, and consumers put such a premium on unique, iconic, and novel forms that a disproportionate part of the creative process goes into exploring and refining them. But in the last few years, designers...
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PANELED SURFACES
Traditionally in design, an object’s form takes priority. Once a form is finalized, then it is subsequently broken up into pieces for production, via parting lines, panels, segments, or assemblies. With the Paneled Surfaces trend, the construction methodology becomes the aesthetic: arrays of discreet panels interlock to define a surface,...
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O21C ORANGE
As colors go, orange (specifically Pantone O21c) has had a good run in the design world. Despite taking a back seat through antiquity to various golds, blues, reds, and whites, it would seem the visual merits of the color were finally recognized in the mid 20th century. As the legend...
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HALFTONE RE-IMAGINED
The halftone pattern has been a staple of the graphic and print disciplines for over a century. It is typically defined by a repeated geometric dot pattern that fools the human eye into perceiving a gradation of color or value. In its purest use, the halftone pattern is meant to...
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EPHEMERA
We are surrounded by objects that are constantly fighting for our visual attention. From consumer electronics like TVs and smartphones, to consumer packaged goods like cereal, detergent, or soda, from fashion to furniture, the products we depend on in our lives are always shouting “Look at me! Pay attention to...
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FORM REINTERPRETATION
In keeping with the Reinterpretation theme’s principle of modifying a single aspect of a design, the Form Reinterpretation trend focuses purely on…FORM! This general stylistic mode seeks to present familiar cultural icons back to the consumer in fresh ways that create both a sense of familiarity and surprise. In these...
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EXAGGERATED CRAFT
Some aesthetic themes arise purely as a counterpoint to an established visual mode. For decades, we’ve surrounded ourselves with increasingly polished, seamless, perfect objects; from smartphones to automobiles, the stylistic vector has been ever towards shiny, sleek, rational, and technological. Made by machines, with all hints of an artisanal human...
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ORGANIC FORM/ GEOMETRIC MATRIX
The interplay between the organic and the geometric is at the heart of the Geo-Organic category. This trend is very closely related to Geometric Form/Organic Matrix, but inverts the relationship between form and structure. Whereas the previous theme employs highly rational, primitive, geometric forms supported by a chaotic cellular internal...
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VECTOR LINES
We’ve posted several trends about the interplay between the digital and physical worlds. One aspect of the digital aesthetic that has emerged, coinciding with a broader revisiting of 1980’s design cues, is the Vector Line. Originally, this element was introduced via early 1980’s (even late 1970’s) arcade graphics: Asteroids, Tempest,...
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MODERN FORM/PRIMITIVE MATERIAL
In keeping with the Juxtaposition category’s deliberate fusion of disparate ideas, this trend focuses on the union of both form and material, and past and present. This one-two punch of clashing design elements and design eras tickles our creative minds in all the right places. Using this method, we see...
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