We look at some of the design and typographic themes from LogoLounge’s 2022 Trend Report, from Art Nouveau embellishments to beautifully spaced wordmarks.
Each Spring, designer and LogoLounge founder Bill Gardner gets down with a long list of worldwide design submissions and methodically works his way through them, coaxing out telling trends and patterns in the logo design field. Gardner examined more than 35,000 designs from more than 200 nations this year, and documented his results in LogoLounge’s annual Trend Report.
“Brace yourself for this fast-paced, intense and pithy design forecast. The world of identity design continues to evolve, bringing unexpected changes with it. As we watch marks break free of conventional rules, there are bound to be some missteps along the way. But at the same time, we’re uncovering new paths that will push our craft even higher.” says Gardner, who’s worked on the document for the past two decades.
This year, he’s identified everything from recurring patterns and graphic shapes to shifting attitudes toward type, as usual. Greater attention to wordmarks and typography is a significant theme for 2022, with Reverse Stress, Super Traps, and Tight all being listed as trends.
Whiplash
The Art Nouveau movement is back and better than ever, and its effects can be seen all across the design world. “Intoxicating letter forms, cartouches, and imagery best signalled the graphic aesthetics of this movement in round one,” according to the LogoLounge analysis. This logo style was seen in packaging design across a variety of industries, most notably the cosmetics and beverage industries.
Loopers
Loopers is a departure from the recent trend of “blanding” everything. These firms filled their logos with sans-serif typefaces that were nonetheless beautiful and contained dashes of whimsy in a world when many enterprises tended toward a more austere aesthetic.
Over Arching
When you see a logo on a horizontal plane, you expect it to be straight, but when you give the typography a dramatic arch, everything changes. The trend of logos taking an unexpected turn—literally—around a brand’s symbol has been spotted by LogoLounge. The arch not only serves as a kind of entrance to the artwork, but it also lends a contemporary framework to an approachable design.
Reverse Stress
A type designer at William Caslon’s type foundry created a typeface that mocked other designs by having broad vertical strokes and delicate horizontal lines. Instead of being a parody, the design approach took off, resulting in a typeface with lots of personality that’s great for journalism. But it’s also exciting to watch these vibrant typefaces make their way onto logos and even packaging. This aesthetic was most prominently seen on RuPaul’s House of Love canned cocktails and mocktails.
Further info:
There’s a lot more in the research, including bow tie-shaped motifs, rooty images, almond forms, looping letters, and bursting rays, which you can read about in detail.
