Website trends for 2019
Website trends come and go, some are timeless, others not so. No matter how we look at it, the fact remains that we must stay one step ahead of all current and emerging trends to give clients the most impactful website possible.
As a leading design studio, every year we try to evolve to align with the latest trends; this allows us to keep our work fresh and current, while still delivering the basics of what a user expects from a website.
Here are our website predictions for 2019 and beyond.
Dramatic Typography
The way we use typography is constantly changing. This year, there will be even more experimentation using large fonts that dominate the page, allowing brands to be more expressive and adventurous with the fonts they use on their website, and how they present them.
2019 will also see brands create their own bespoke fonts which sites like Uber, Airbnb and IMB already do very well.
Breaking the grid
Gone are the days of rigid, structured grids where everything is inline with padding and margins; instead, we’ll see much more freedom of structure with the continued growth of websites which break the grid. A popular trend is to systematically break the grid with little to no rules.
While we do try to adapt to and grow with the latest trends, this one disregards everything I was taught at university. That said, there are some great examples of modern websites that have implemented this approach including B&O.
Illustration
Whilst we’ve been doing this for a while at MadeByShape, there seems to be a snowball effect happening with illustration-based designs. These sites have little or no imagery, instead replacing them with illustrations. This adds character to a company, making them appear down to earth and approachable.
Personally, I love working on projects which feature bespoke illustrations - a blast of vibrant colour can do wonders for your company. When appealing to customers, most brands don’t want to appear rigid and corporate - illustrations remove that serious approach.
Take our new website for instance; we think the illustrations are very friendly and colourful and tell you a little about us as a company. More importantly, they make us feel approachable, which is exactly the position we wanted to create for MadeByShape.
Card-based designs
Similar to Brutalism, card-based websites will remain a staple in website designs; they are a simplified layout for magazine sites, news websites, portfolios and blogs. No matter how much websites change over time, some designs should just keep to their basic layout. Websites which are showcasing this well currently are: Awwwards, Facebook.design and Site Inspire.
Vibrant blocks of colour
This trend has not lost popularity for many years. I think 2019 will be the year for vibrant, ‘in-your-face’ colour schemes and tones, using the Google palette for quick and efficient selection. Magnum ice cream is a great example of this.