Forward Focus: Key Branding Trends Defining Success in 2024
2023 has been an interesting year. The disruption caused by the arrival of AI is still very much here but forward-focused brands and creators are quickly learning how to adapt. We see brand strategists, marketers, and designers opening up to what AI can do, and using it to streamline all key elements of branding as well as its different stages including, brainstorming, ideation, conceptualization, and more.
As a branding ally, we are here to help you with that.
These are the top 8 branding trends for 2024 that will influence brand direction for the coming year and beyond. Let’s dive straight in.
8 Key Branding Trends for 2024
Branding encompasses various facets of design, from visual to non-visual. Accordingly, you’ll see our trends list incorporating a broad theme. Sit tight as we help you take notes on elevating your branding for 2024 in more ways than just visual.
1. Artificial Intelligence
We started the article talking about AI and it’s now on top of our trends list, too. The reason it’s got this place of honor is because it has quickly made itself relevant to almost everything we do. As an AI-backed logo maker program, we are no strangers to the power of artificial intelligence.
In fact, we have unique insights into making AI work for you. Here are a few ways you can explore its potential in 2024.
- Use AI-powered graphic design programs such as Free Logo Creator to design great logo designs on the go.
- Tools like Dall-E and Midjourney can be used to augment your digital content for social media and websites.
- Content writing programs like Jasper.ai are going to forever change the game for you. You can use them to write blog posts, social media captions, video scripts, and much more.
- AI-powered color and font tools can help you explore color and font choices, combinations, and compositions for your branding, logo design, infographics, web design, social media, and more.
As you start playing around with AI, it’s easy to blur the lines between taking help from it and relying on it completely. The latter can spell disaster for your brand. Not only does it damage the authenticity of the brand but also hurts you in terms of creative transparency.
AI tools can make mistakes, render problematic imagery, and if you aren’t careful, can give you extremely redundant results.
Use AI more as an ‘augmented intelligence’ or a really smart helpful tool, not as a full-on replacement for your own creativity and unique perspective.
2. Ethical and Sustainable
Your customers want more from you than just what you’re selling. They expect fair trade practices, ethical sourcing (including labor and raw materials), and transparent financials. They want to know that you stand for something beyond just profits.
45% of global consumers want to find brands that are sustainable or environmentally friendly. Sustainable products are set to enjoy a growth rate of 9.48% for 2024-25 (and beyond), which is almost double the growth rate of conventionally marketed products.
If you aren’t a sustainable brand yet, you’re already behind the times. Catch up quickly. If you belong to the sustainable brand category, it may be time for you to amp up your marketing and make it the central theme of your branding.
Use storytelling devices, meaningful product packaging, purposeful design, and other avenues available to you to demonstrate your ethical and sustainable practices.
Image Source: dribbble/Sasha Dusky
Image Source: dribbble/Sara Vera Design
Image Source: dribbble/Loud Mob Media : A Modern Creative Studio
3. Meaningful Logo Designs
Meaningful logo designs top the list of visual branding trends for 2024. Consider them an extension of the customer’s desire to see their favorite brands as something more than just retail or commercial entities. Focusing on purpose, a deeper meaning, or just another dimension to what the brand stands for are some of the key factors that will inform brand identity designs in 2024.
Use these vital spaces to show the lesser-known side of your brand. Incorporate descriptive elements about your products in your logo to show the brand in a transparent light. Ensure that the colors or font combinations you choose hold some meaning to the brand, and aren’t just aesthetical devices.
Remember that meaningful visual designs tie in neatly with the rising customer expectation to interact with more authentic brands with more altruistic end goals.
Image Source: dribbble/Arup Baidya
Image Source: dribbble/Anoop Benzier B F
Image Source: dribbble/Arup Baidya
Image Source: dribbble/Malan Alankara
Image Source: dribbble/Arup Baidya
4. Purpose-driven Brands
Talking about altruistic end goals, consumers are looking at brands to support causes that are far greater than just monetary profits. They want their favorite brands to be on the right side of history. How much money you make in the future or how your brand progresses is now going to depend a lot on the causes you support.
That’s not to say that customers want brands to take a stand on every issue, but if you are perceived as being on the side of oppressors or supporting practices that hurt local economies or the planet, you can see yourself quickly out of the consumer’s favor.
While millennials were the first generation who made purpose an integral part of their spending habits and turned conscious consumerism into more than just a passing trend, the torch is now in the hands of Gen-Z.
It’s an impactful, no-nonsense generation that wants more from their brands and is even more quick to act than millennials. Through social media, they quickly rally the troops and brands then have to scramble to fix the mistake have been caught in making.
As an authentic and responsible brand in 2024, your success lies in transparency, compassion, learning, and action. So, align with causes that resonate with your audience and morals, to not only attract more people to your brand but also to instill a sense of purpose within your business and motivate employees.
5. Minimalism vs. Maximalism
For years we’ve promoted the use of minimalism, but post-pandemic branding has told us that people are no longer interested in stark and empty visuals. They want to see your heart, soul, and ideas. In 2024, this trend is only going to continue.
While the minimal design will have its place — especially in information-rich design pieces like infographics where white spaces serve a highly functional role of keeping things clean — visual maximalism is where things are headed.
From heavy compositions to bold colors, chaotic layers to excessive patterns, and luxury materials to intricate decorations, maximalism is expressive and full of character. In terms of personal branding trends, it is a tailor-made way for huge personalities to stand out and make some noise.
Brands that aren’t afraid of attention will do well to incorporate excess in their branding and embrace the more is more philosophy.
6. The New Vintage
From technology disruption to social turmoil, 2023 has proven to be a chaotic year. All the mayhem has given consumers a newfound appreciation for things that take it easy.
In direct contrast to more visually loud designs that propagate maximalism, the vintage trend is being driven by consumer segments that want to feel taken care of, understood, and nurtured by the brands they choose to engage with.
You can see a recognition of this need/expectation by Pantone, which has released a calming and warm peach color as its 2024 Color of the Year. Peach Fuzz, as described by Pantone, is a “shade that resonates with compassion, offers a tactile embrace, and effortlessly bridges the youthful with the timeless.”
This bridging of the youthful with the timeless is at the foundation of brands adopting a more vintage feel in their branding. Textured backgrounds, floral prints, and hand-drawn imagery lie at the heart of it. Ideal for brands that traditionally align with health and wellness messages, these visuals are equally perfect for more tech-focused brands, apparel brands, and service-focused businesses.
Image Source: dribbble/Mustapha Elkasimi
Image Source: behance/Dima Lytvynenko
7. Serif Fonts
For years, modern branding trends have been dominated by clean and streamlined font choices. Sans serif fonts were celebrated for their minimalist appeal and comfortable presence. In 2024, like other branding design trends, this one too is going out the window.
In its place, we see the focus shift to serif fonts. As one of the most traditional fonts in the world, serif typefaces represent classic and legacy brands, such as The New York Times. When adopted by a brand, serif fonts help them establish a perception of being trustworthy, reliable, and authoritative.
In the current climate of rising conscious consumerism, serif fonts can allow brands to instantly lay down a trusting first impression. That positive first impression can be the catalyst to further engagement where your brand can hopefully convince a user to engage with your products and try your services.
On the functional side, most serif fonts outshine sans serif typefaces in terms of ease of readability and legibility. On print as well as screen, most serif fonts on average offer a better reading experience to users and may help improve your blog analytics.
Image Source: dribbble/Silver Stag
Image Source: dribbble/Fonts Styles
Image Source: dribbble/Namara Creative for onedsgn
8. 3D & Interactive Elements
The new branding trends for 2024 include a healthy smattering of 3D and other interactive elements to elevate the storytelling. Brands are including AR and VR capabilities in their digital stores to allow consumers to interact with their products and services on a much deeper and more personal level.
Try-on technologies allow customers to virtually try on the products before they buy. Brands like Warby Parker, Sephora, and Nike have been pioneers in try-on technologies and helped consumers engage with products in a much more personalized environment.
3D design elements, as part of the interactive design arena, support visual branding by creating delightful dimensions in designs. Enriching digital species, 3D elements help everyone reimagine creativity and help us see what it could be.
AI-powered graphic design tools can create 3D elements with unique shapes, helping you present your brand in an engaging way online. 3D logos can make your brand identity instantly more meaningful. In web design, incorporating 3D elements helps create an interactive UX that can drive conversions by being more direct and descriptive.
Image Source: dribbble/Peter Tarka
Image Source: dribbble/sophie tsankashvili
Conclusion
Trends are interesting phenomena in all spheres of life. They herald what’s coming, what’s popular, and what will be in fashion. Being updated on trends allows you to remain on par with times and never lose touch with the current reality.
On the other hand, following trends at the cost of your fundamental principles never spelled success for anyone.
As you consider digital branding trends for 2024, look at them through the lens of your branding purpose. Why you are here and what do you hope to achieve? As long as you are strongly tethered to these core principles of your brand, trends will only support your cause and strengthen your connections with your consumer base.