2023 is promising to be a richer, bolder, and geometrically-shaped year for graphic design. Post-pandemic creative harks back to the eclectic vibes of the Roaring 20s‘ art deco movement.
This can only mean one exciting thing. Next year, expect to see huge incorporations of bold and clean colors, geometric shapes with crisp yet delicate angles, and sharp fonts. The likes of these design elements were present in the design world in the early 20th century!
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Why Art Deco Elements are Perfect for 2023
Art deco design emerged in the western society 1920s. This was after a dark period in history that included a world war, a great depression, and a global flu pandemic. The struggle of post-war life lit an intense desire to progress forward. A vibrant spark of optimism took to flame in the spirit of society, particularly in the United States. The hopeful, bright, sunny, geometric style that became art deco was symbolic of the decade’s forward momentum.
Roughly a hundred years after the 1920s roared loud and proud, we’re feeling a sense of déjà vu! We’re seeing bold designs come back as post-pandemic signs of hope, after years of global uncertainty.
We’re pretty excited about the art deco trend. With the pandemic (hopefully) on its way out, we’re looking forward to this breath of fresh air and courageous resurgence of style!
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What Do Old and New Art Deco Look Like?
Before we get into how to incorporate art deco into your branding let’s look at, well, what its aesthetic looks like. The core concept of art deco came from trying to infuse opulence into the mechanically manufactured functional items, architecture, and design in general. Items with art deco design were often mass produced objects, so their designs needed to be stylish yet simple. This helped manufacturers recreate items on a large scale.
To do this, designers focused themselves on using simple geometric shapes. Motifs such as the female figure, foliage and flowers, arrows, animals, and most recognizably, the sun ray, all became conventional art deco elements.
When it comes to art deco color schemes, think of the most recent Great Gatsby film. Imagine an opulent hotel lobby. Strong, bold colors such as golds, pinks, reds, and greens flourish in these designs. Even though the design movement has its go-to color palettes, your color schemes are as diverse as you’d like.
The key to nailing an art deco color scheme is to make sure you select shades that are striking to the eye. Choose bold colors. Punctuate them with very shiny metallics such as golds, silvers, and even chrome. For the more neutral-leaning designers, creams, light pinks, and beige are often sourced and similarly punctuated. Black and white is also a very popular combination, used for its simple yet highly eye-catching style when used correctly. It’s all about the contrast; bright pops, and sleek, monochromatic-yet-glitzy sparks.
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Why Embrace Art Deco Design in Branding?
This jubilant trend is bringing us into a new era of zany design. This not only further enhances creativity in the graphic design industry, but also allows businesses to utilize sharp, clean, and playful boldness in their branding. New spins on art deco are eye-catching. They create a wonderful, anti-traditional elegance.
This will create a strong link between your brand, richness, and delight. This aesthetic provides a balance of quality and fun, and approachability and class. The modern customer wants to support a business that appears lively and involved, but also that appears to be professional and established. Art deco branding is the perfect way to incorporate all of those values.
Although most haven’t lived through the 1920s, art deco still has a beckoning ring of unique nostalgic charm. Its whimsy feels like a natural stepping stone in our mainstream modern design.
How to Create Art Deco Branding That’s Fresh for Today
2023 is going to be the year that gives designers a sense of confident freedom in the creative realm. It’ll be a year of vibrant and fresh brand identities that incorporate a sense of timelessness. There are plenty of ways to experiment with pops of color and shapes to make this design style as effective as possible for your desired customer.
Ready to get ahead of this trend and jump on board with the Roaring 20s? Here are the three most effective (but actually super simple) tips for incorporating art deco into your designs, no matter the audience.
Include Geometric Lines
Nothing stimulates imagination like the bold, geometric, and symmetrical shapes of art deco design. Sharp lines and shapes are an important element to creating a graphic design that subtly says art deco. Most objects in the world, especially in graphic design are made up of circles, triangles, squares, lines, and rectangles. In art deco we need these shapes to be geometrical and bold. We recommend playing with zigzag arrangements (such as chevron patterns) and mixing trapezoid shapes.
Don’t forget to also include popular art deco motifs. These include the aforementioned female figure, foliage, flowers, arrows, animals, and most recognizably, the sun ray. Shutterstock pattern collections, such as the one below, incorporate fan and foliage shapes quite well. These patterns are perfect to use in posters or social posts, which you can make in Shutterstock Create.
Try interlocking different colored shapes to create a geometric design grid. These patterns can look surrealist, yet modern and clean. Be sure to balance showy lines and vivid colors with more plain elements, such as white shapes or neutral contrasting colors.
Overlay Minimalist Fonts
Art deco has an elegant, yet retro and playful, feel to its typography. Font styles often used in this graphic design style are typically hard-edged and futuristic, with a vintage movie feel. When imagining art deco typography, think straight lines, elegance, and sleek, exaggerated shapes.
Look for elongated letters, thick-strokes, and plenty of decorative detailing. Art deco typography is usually elegant and used in all caps. This is actually what makes it a popular choice for branding purposes. All caps are easy to read, bold, and eye-catching for product and website headings.
A couple of our favorite fonts that beckon to the art deco movement with every letter are Cassandre, MB Picture House, Bjorn, Naïve Deco Sans, Gisbert, Delauney, and Cormier.
Use Gilded Colors
The colors of art deco call to mind the glamor and sophistication of old Hollywood. When choosing the colors to incorporate into your designs, we recommend opting for metallics. Think of shiny yellow gold, rose gold, and other metallics, accompanied by vibrant color pops.
As we mentioned, there are a couple of roads you can go down when creating your color palette for your art deco inspired branding and graphic design. Let’s take a look at how this works in more detail.
Have a bright, bubbly, more youthful brand? You could choose a vividly bold color scheme. Experiment with a mixture of hot pink, emerald green, royal blue, violet purple, and candy red. Keep a color “feeling” guide on hand when finalizing your full color scheme to design for your audience’s moods and needs.
Secondly, if you want more of a traditional or subtle look, you could opt for using a gold and neutral combination. Compliment the gold with a more solid neutral, like cream and beige. You could even choose a soft pastel.
Lastly for a luxurious or more masculine look, use a color scheme of glitzy metallics, such as polished brass, nickel, antique copper, chrome, or satin stainless steel. This tends to be popular with breweries (after all, the 1920s coincided with prohibition, so there are strong ties to that vintage era in the alcohol world) or premium product brands, catering to a more mature and upscale audience.
For example, Copper Muse Distillery has done a great job of mixing vivid color with a mostly metallic and gold based color scheme. Combine that with their usage of shapes and fonts, and you have a strong branding concept that evokes a sense of the past while bringing in modern elegance and luxury.
Art Deco Design is Entirely Customizable
With the glitzy, richly colored, geometric, and decadently detailed trend of art deco on the rise, we invite you to join in! Get ahead of the 2023 design movement and allow your designs to stand out while staying in tune with your customer base.
It’s important to remember that incorporating art deco design can be as simple or bold as you’d like! Experimenting with shapes, lines, and elegant typography can connect with any audience.
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