An illustration is a way to visually represent written text. It can help explain an idea, tell a story, and add detail. Like any cultural object, illustration evolves and changes, influenced by time, literature, cinema, painting, and technological progress.
Combining photographs with illustrations and textures
A new visual aesthetic is in trend – combining photos with 2D hand-drawn illustrations. Elements of illustration are added to the photo, or they complement each other. “Mixing two realities” opens the door to creative and marketing ideas.
It is possible to combine a photo with an illustration in different graphic editors. Plus, you won’t need a lot of tools here – just your time and the idea itself.
Lines and minimalism
Line drawing is an easy, simplistic illustration style. Minimalist design uses only the most essential, thin lines and a very limited color palette (often two-color) to create a memorable style.
Illustrative Lettering
It’s also called handwritten lettering, but whatever this trend sounds like, one thing is clear – it’s thriving, and for good reason according to Jamie Clark. “No matter how large the range of fonts available, sometimes lettering is the only way to showcase a particular illustration style in an image.” Martina Flor and Carl James Mountford’s cover designs are excellent examples.
Patterns and textures
There has been a noticeable increase in the use of patterns and textures to date, but you don’t have to use them following the example of your competitors. The trend is the combination of several patterns at once in one design, in several parts of it.
Virtual web users face a shortage of texture and three-dimensional images. For this reason, the full immersion format is becoming increasingly popular.
Atmospheric gradients
Although gradients were at the peak of trends in the 2010s, they are now making a comeback!
Soft transitions of saturated or muted tones are a real trend this year. The most stylish are two-color gradient transitions consisting of harmonious shades.