Top 8 Design Trends of 2023 [With Resources]

If the general public gets excited for a new tech product at the beginner of the year, so does a typical UX designer in his/her career who is looking forward to some of the best design trends. Sometimes it's the big corporates who come up with their unique style while other times a freelance designer can come up with a blog that makes headlines in the design industry.

This year is no exception. We are about to see some big design trends which most of you will surely follow up to catch important points made in each of them.

Here are the top 8 of those.

1. Abstract Art

By definition from Artists Network:

Abstraction literally means the distancing of an idea from objective referents. That means, in the visual arts, pulling a depiction away from any literal, representational reference points.

This type of art in a design fosters freedom, adds the subtle or bold touch of culture, or communication. What works for abstraction is that here designers have no traditional constraints. They run their imagination run riot and it has the potential to inspire the curiosity for both the designer and the viewer.

This year, expect to see excessive colors, intense art forms, the exceptional arrangement of patterns, and more.

Get inspired:

2. Socially Aware Design

At the end of the day, it's about humanity.

2020 was the year when the people wanted the change. 2021 will be the one that will take this message further and beyond to the masses with its design. Designers from all over the world are stepping up and telling stories, contributing to society with their talent. Whether it's about staying at home or ending police brutality, there is so much to explore and become aware of via design.

Get inspired:

3. Glassmorphism

While last year was full of ups and downs of the Neumorphism era, towards the end of 2020, we saw a sudden surge of designers taking inspiration from Microsoft's Fluent Design System and Apple's BigSur update.

Some of the main pillars of Glassmorphism can be (but not limited to): Transparency, subtle borders, and floating objects. With this designers get an edge on to see which layer is on top of which, hence the 'glass' effect.

Get inspired:

4. Pop Art

When graphic artists dive deep into comics and sticker design, we can say either colors 'pop', else they make their work like 'pop art'.

Expect to see a good amount of vivid colors with comic-themed typography, vintage filters, heavy inking patterns all across the canvas, and more. Apart from all this, there are multiple shading techniques, flat design, heavy use of 'in-the-face' art which speaks to you more than words. A big font also goes well.

Get inspired:

5. 3D Illustrations

Yeah, still here. It blew up in 2020 but guess what, it's here to stay. 3D is widely used in various animations, to display key visuals in UI designs, and more importantly to make scenes and objects look realistically possible.

3D illustrations or design manages to impress and make the viewer immerse in the depth. Thanks to various free, paid, or freemium illustration packs developed by designers, it's now even easier to integrate them into our projects.

Get inspired:

6. Minimalism

Well if one designer loves to make retro and pop posters, then there are a good amount of people who absolutely adore things to go simple, with less clutter and as we say minimalism.

If you need something aesthetically pleasing, readable, with not many 'wow effects', then this is the way to go. Working for an architectural website? Or on some resume writing competition landing page? Go for it.

Get inspired:

7. Natural Elements

How pleasing it looks when you have a look at trees shedding their leaves in autumn right? The same thing can be done when you want to fuse the outside world of nature with their imagination.

Be it about leafy patterns, green-colored grass packs, or a simple illustration on a packaged milk bottle. Natural products or non-natural, there are multiple ways you can use elements of nature.

Get inspired:

8. Big Typography

For a total impact in one go, something which is 'in-your-face', the big typography trend is something that works so well.

First, you need to choose a typeface that matches the overall theme of the UI project, then if you like you have to position the entire text correctly, and also don't forget that your text is the center of attraction here so a good copy does wonder.

Get inspired: