Here are the top 2019 trends to expect in web design, audio, video, graphics design, and more—all picked by the Envato team.
Out with the old, in with the new.
Well, not quite yet—there’s still a week or two left before the fireworks go off and we all start making those beautiful, optimistic resolutions that shine as bright as a Roman candle before fizzling in the February gloom. But still, it’s a good time to look back on 2018 and peer forward into 2019 to spot some trends coming our way. So we asked our experts across the company what trends they expect to see in the coming year
Here’s what to watch out for in 2019:
Design & Illustration Trends
Pantone recently set some new design trends in motion with its selection of Living Coral as the Pantone Color of the Year 2019. But design, of course, is about much more than colour. Over on Envato Tuts+, designer Grace Fussell took us through some other trends to watch out for in 2019, from nautical stripes to chiselled serif typefaces. Here are a couple more design trends you can expect to see next year.
01. Brand Customisation
A strong trend I expect to see more of over the next year is brand customisation and personalisation. Think custom cut fonts and illustration styles all to yourself that set brands apart and elevate them above the norm.
Steven Scott – Envato Designer
For example, why not use one of these unique fonts, or take them as inspiration for designing your own?
02. Abstract, Colourful Patterns
Perhaps influenced by the resurgence of 80s style, abstract and colourful patterns will be popping up in design. Think Memphis Group patterns and colour schemes.
Sharon Milne – Tuts+ Design & Illustration Editor
Learn more about the Memphis style and how to use abstract colour in your designs:
03. Depth and Layers
I see that people are playing with dimension and layering again. Different to the super flat style a while back.
Kate McInnes – Quality Media Specialist
Web Design Trends
WordPress just shook up the web design world with its launch of Gutenberg, a completely new way for people to create posts and pages on WordPress sites. Here are some of the broader changes that our experts expect as a result of that change, along with some other exciting new trends and technologies now coming to the fore.
04. The Rise of the Page Builders
I think we’ll see even more minimal/clean SVG types and performance-focused themes which utilise Gutenberg. Modern development techniques like WP Rig and Mythic will definitely help in theme development, which is getting more and more complicated nowadays.
Kailoon Chan – Senior Reviewer, ThemeForest
Kailoon also thinks themes could now provide a fully fledged page builder based on Gutenberg, including header/footer customisation. It’s going to be a year for content-creation tools as well, he says, with users flocking to plugins like Elementor and WP Page Builder, which provide pre-designed templates, elements, add-ons, etc.
05. New Features, New Layout Boundaries
Competition in the design application space has never been fiercer! Sketch, Adobe XD, Figma, Invision Studio and others are all upping their game and smashing out features to make UI and UX design better.
Ian Yates – Tuts+ Web Design Editor
Why not start off 2019 by getting up to speed with those new and improved apps?
In terms of actual design for the web, expect layout boundaries to be pushed further. It’s taking time to shake off old habits, but CSS Grid and Flexbox now enjoy enough browser support for designers to use them with confidence.
06. Voice Assistants
The use of voice assistants will continue to increase in 2019. They will remain a predominantly non-visual medium, so finding the right balance between visual cues and providing context and direction with words in the user interface will be crucial.
Lauren Macnab – Digital Content Strategist
Video Trends
In the video world, too, a big player made a major move in 2018. This time it was Adobe, with its launch of a brand new editing app called Adobe Rush. See what our experts see on the horizon in 2019.
07. Rush, Particle Animation, and More
Adobe has a new NLE on the scene, Rush, which works with Premiere templates: a boon for video makers who don’t need a full-fledged production suite. Particle animation, enabled by ever-more-powerful graphics cards, will trickle down to all kinds of video projects and programs. Instagram-esque presets and quick-changing picture styles will remain popular, too.
Jackson Couse – Tuts+ Video Editor
08. A Plethora of New Templates
What that means is that After Effects template authors now have an entirely new audience in which to create content, and Premiere editors have a burgeoning ecosystem of gorgeous graphics to choose from.
Adobe’s development of the Essential Graphics panel and Motion Graphics Template format has forever altered the video industry. Users of the once graphics-stunted Premiere Pro have been given a brand new arsenal, allowing Premiere editors to add robust, professional animated graphics into their video projects with just a few clicks.
Tyson Frantz – Senior VideoHive Reviewer
As more and more video editors flock to the graphics template market, 2019 could very well signal the largest period of growth for the Premiere template category.
How many templates can you handle?
This is just a tiny sample of the 50,000+ After Effects templates on VideoHive. The newer Premiere Pro category has more than 1,500 items, with more being added all the time.
Audio Trends
What will people be listening to in 2019? We can’t predict the chart-topping albums, the breakout acts or the celebrity feuds coming our way next year, but we do know a thing or two about stock audio. Here’s what to expect.
09. Upbeat, Energetic Audio
2019 is looking like another exciting year ahead, where upbeat and energetic vibes will dominate stock audio demand. Regardless of styles, from epic to inspirational, tracks that convey confidence and healthy energy will always be go-to winners, especially those with subtle but memorable leads, making room for great stories and narratives to happen.
Adrien Gardiner – Audio Content Specialist
Here are a few excellent examples that made waves throughout 2018:
Code Trends
The launch of WordPress Gutenberg will affect more than just web design. There’s a whole ecosystem of plugins and extensions that can now take advantage of WordPress’s new capabilities. Read on to find out how that will play out in 2019.
10. An Explosion of Block Plugins
In 2019, I predict we’ll see an explosion of Block Plugins for the new WordPress Editor (Gutenberg). We should see phase two of the Gutenberg project moving on from the editor to improve other areas of WordPress (like widgets and menus). I also predict that page builders like Elementor will continue to improve at an amazing pace and the eco-system around them (templates, add-ons, etc.) will continue to grow as well!
Aaron Rutley – Product Manager
Photography Trends
Expect 2019 to usher in a new aesthetic in photography. Some of the most popular trends have now run their course, and we could be all set for a year in which the photos we use more accurately reflect the real world around us.
11. Ditch the Special Effects
For 2019, the current demand for authenticity is expected to maintain its growth. The heavy vignetting, retro filtering, desaturation and added lens flares/effects will start looking old (and not in the way it was intended). This is a great opportunity to embrace diversity and inclusion, while producing natural-looking, credible images that customers can actually relate to.
Gaby Jalbert – Photo Content Specialist
Another photography trend to watch out for is drone photography, as the technology keeps evolving and becoming more accessible every year. Drone shots are now widely used in movies and advertisements, as well as on YouTube and social media. This fresh perspective on life should retain a strong presence for years to come.
A Quick Look Back at 2018
In 2018, Envato announced a new addition to the family: Placeit. If you haven’t tried it yet, you really should. The site lets you create logos, mockups, flyers, T-shirt designs and a whole lot more—all from your internet browser.
We also covered a lot of ground in other areas this year. A few highlights from the blog and elsewhere:
- Video arrived on Envato Elements, and we took you through how to make a launch video using assets from the site.
- Later in the year, audio followed suit as Envato Elements gave you access to thousands of music tracks and sound effects.
- We ran some guides for web designers, showing you how to use Elementor to speed up your project, the rules of designing UX for millennials, why voice UI is a big deal, and more.
- If you’re a graphic designer, we had you covered too. Elements continued to expand its huge library, and we discussed things like how ubiquity can be a liability for a brand, what you need to know about millennial pink, and how Comic Sans became the world’s most divisive font.
- And we must be getting old, because we also got all nostalgic on you and started spinning yarns about the old days in a Sydney garage and reflecting on how you handle all that growth without losing your core values.
Plenty more cool stuff also happened, of course, and you can read about it all in our Year End Review.
As the inimitable Yogi Berra once said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”
Our experts are immersed in their respective fields every day and have drawn on a wealth of experience to tell us what to look out for in 2019, but they could be sideswiped by a major product launch or an unexpected cultural shift.
What do you think? Will these predictions will come true, or do you have your own ideas about what’s coming in 2019? Jump over to the Envato forums and have your say.
Want more? Read the Envato Year End Review:
In the course of 2018, we processed a lot of data about what people are searching for and buying. In our Year End Review, we crunch those numbers to reveal some interesting insights about what happened this year and what to expect in 2019.
Head over the the Elements Blog to read up on our Mid Year Trend Review for 2020!
