Graphic design styles to follow when creating your projects

Imagine: a client comes and says, I studied the trends of the year and I know for sure that I need a psychedelic! I want all this, poisonous acid colors, surreal pictures and melted font. And here let it rotate and sparkle!

The designer closes his laptop and is silent for a long time, because the technical specification is not a landing page for Burning Man, but an online store for belts made of dog hair. And here you can say a lot of different things about overly smart clients, but the question is primarily for the agency team.

There are people at Veonix who will calmly explain in their fingers how psychedelia differs from brutalism and why your audience will trust the classics. We understand how a brand's visual language works and are able to translate emotions into designs that sell products as well as text and video advertising. In this article we will tell you about the top 18 areas of graphic design: we rely on them when developing identity, because they will be relevant regardless of trends.

Brutalism

In 2025, brutalism is experiencing a new peak, because brands are tired of perfect glamor and want to show character. If we take, for example, a landing page layout, it will look like a draft: system fonts (yes, that same Arial), very large headings, often not in a grid, torn indents, no fancy grids or templates, minimal CSS and HTML, unedited pictures and videos, “as is,” with pixels and noise (sometimes this is done on purpose). Here the sites look like they are from the 90s: the title, the text that fits on the pictures, the “Buy” button.

The new incarnation of brutalism is called neo-brutalism. A striking example of this style is 99% Invisible: Without a grid, with contrasting combinations of gray and yellow, it resembles a glossy magazine with inserts and color blocks.

Home page of the 99% Invisible website.

Minimalism

Layouts designed in this style look like a breath of air. There is a minimum of identity, one accent color, large headings with large spaces between lines, high-quality large images. Why they are popular: people are tired of visual noise, they want to relax. Plus, simple websites and landing pages load faster and open correctly even on older phones. There are also advantages from a sales point of view: minimalism draws attention to key elements, such as CTAs, which increases conversion.

Swiss style

If minimalism is Zen, where air decides everything, then Swiss style is an engineering approach. Swiss-style layouts look like the epitome of visual discipline. A clear modular grid, precise typography, strict indents and geometric elements create a feeling of order and professionalism. This style dates back to the mid-20th century, but has now made a comeback thanks to brands that focus on structure and readability. A striking example is the design of Apple marketing materials.

Vanguard

The avant-garde does not know the word “impossible.” He breaks the grid, juxtaposes incompatible fonts, combines photos and abstractions into one visual experiment for the sake of effect: to surprise, knock out the usual, make you look. In graphics, this is manifested through dynamic compositions, collages, diagonals and unexpected combinations of colors and typography.

In 2025, the avant-garde is again at its peak; the identity of music festivals, fashion campaigns and digital magazines is being created in this direction. It’s like an exclamation point; your gaze involuntarily lingers on a billboard or poster in this style. Example: London Design Biennale 2025 visual style.

Flat style

Flat style is minimalism, in which everything that sticks out even a little has been removed. No highlights, no shadows, no 3D - just shape and color. Even Apple once realized that it was time to archive skeuomorphism with leather buttons. Since then, flat has become the standard of the digital world.

A modern option with character - designers add soft gradients and light volume without violating the principle of “flatness”. This is how Google Workspace interfaces work, for example, where simple geometry and pastel colors convey confidence. Flat design is loved for speed, readability and control: nothing distracts from the CTA and the message.

Google Workspace home page.

Bauhaus

Bauhaus thinks like an engineer and feels like an artist. The trend originated in Germany a hundred years ago, but it still looks fresher than half of the landing pages on Behance. Its features:

• flat geometric shapes - rectangles, circles, lines;

• color palette: white, black, gray + accents of primary colors - red, yellow, blue;

• a clear modular grid, sometimes with “torn” elements, when the form deliberately goes beyond the frame;

• typography is strict, sans serif, often with a single register (a legacy of Herbert Bayer's Universal Typefac).

Its recognizable elements can be seen on music festival posters, in the design of websites and mobile applications. Example: the website of the online design magazine Design Week after rebranding.

Art Deco

It's like he's coming out in a sparkly dress and heels. Everything is symmetrical, shimmers, shines and knows its worth. Lots of gold, straight lines, geometry with pathos. The style was born in the 1920s to show that we can indulge in luxury, but follow the rules.

In 2025, Art Deco has resurfaced in the identity of premium brands, especially in fashion and horeca. Bulgari, Ritz-Carlton Residences or Moët Chandon - the same golden lines, clear symmetry, rich emerald and burgundy shades, contrast with black. This style is chosen by companies that sell status and eternal youth. Art Deco is like champagne, always appropriate if presented beautifully.

Art Nouveau (Art Nouveau)

If Art Deco is strict symmetry, then Art Nouveau is a free flow. He came to graphics from architecture and painting at the end of the 19th century, when designers began to be inspired by plants. Today, the style is back in the works: Gucci, Maison Margiela and Dior Beauty are bringing Art Nouveau back into packaging and visual campaigns - fluid typography, enamel and brass textures, graphics with floral elements. In the digital environment, modernity is used by brands that value sensuality and a “handmade” feel.

Expressionism

Expressionism is design that has lost its brakes. Here the color screams, the forms conflict, the lines live their own lives. The main thing is emotion, everything else is secondary. The style comes from painting at the beginning of the 20th century and is still used when it is necessary not to inform, but to excite. In 2025, expressionism returns to poster design and digital campaigns. Spotify Wrapped reports, posters and design of festivals like Primavera Sound are made in the spirit of expressionism: broken compositions, bright strokes, contrasts, deliberate chaos. This style hits the eyes like adrenaline and is remembered at first sight.

Victorian style

If Victorian graphic artist started TikTok, she would make videos under the hashtag #MoreIsMore. The middle of the 19th century, the era when design first came out and decided to show everything at once. The posters and packaging of that time mixed patterns, ribbons, frames, vignettes, and complex typography with shadows and swirls. The compositions are symmetrical, the colors are rich - burgundy, dark green, gold, with an emphasis on the texture of the paper and engraving.

In 2025, Victorian aesthetics have returned to the visuals of craft brands and premium packaging: look at Fortnum Mason, Whittard of Chelsea limited edition collections - they retain a similar richness of detail.

Classic style

Classic is the golden ratio of graphic design, timeless aesthetic, style is based on proportions, symmetry and harmony. The shapes are simple, the colors are muted - white, beige, warm gold, deep blue. The typography is strict, serif, inspired by Roman inscriptions.

In 2025, classics can be seen in the identity of premium brands, publishing houses and architectural firms: The Met website, Penguin Classics series. Even in the digital space, the style maintains posture - a clean grid, symmetry, visual silence. But there is another option: when famous classic works are played out in the spirit of pop culture. This approach takes advantage of the contrast of eras: neon, graffiti, cats, aerosol strokes and other creatives are added to marble busts or Mona Lisa to fit them into a modern digital aesthetic.

Retro

Retro preserves the mid-20th century aesthetic, from 50s signs to 80s posters. But unlike Art Deco or Art Nouveau, this is not a separate movement, but a remix: designers take recognizable elements of eras (fonts, patterns, textures) and transfer them to modern media. This is how it turns out to play on the emotions of the audience, evoke memories, and therefore the brand receives a credit of trust even from those who have never used its products. Moreover, this works for all generations: millennials rejoice at the return of packaging and advertising from childhood, and zoomers like vintage. Therefore, in 2024, 7UP rebranded in a retro style, apparently following the example of Pepsi, which in 2023 returned the 1973 logo. And a number of young brands catch the wave of hype based on nostalgia and immediately order design development in retro style.

Typographic style

The typographic style speaks for itself. It appeared in the 1920s and 1930s, when text became the main visual element. The foundations were set by Jan Tschichold, author of the book “New Typography” (1928), and the designers of the Bauhaus school. They introduced grids, asymmetry, sans-serif fonts (primarily Akzidenz Grotesk) and maximum flexibility in layout.

The typographic style grew out of constructivism and suprematism, and later became the foundation for the Swiss style. They are often confused, but still, Swiss grew out of typographical. Examples: text logos of The New York Times, posters of the Pentagram studio.

Pop art

Bright, loud, ironic and obscenely mass-produced, this is the style that made tin cans an art form in the 1950s and 60s. The origins were Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Richard Hamilton.

In graphic design, pop art is easily recognized by its large typography, contrasting colors, the visual language of comics, and Ben-Day's signature technique of halftone printing, where an image is created from multi-colored dots overlapping each other. In 2025, brands use pop art in digital campaigns, collaborations and posters - KAWS + Warhol UT by Uniqlo, a limited-edition Absolut bottle in honor of Warhol's "Absolut Blue" and Absolut Haring Artist-Edition in honor of Keith Haring.

Psychedelic style

This is the style of sleeping at 40: the colors scream, the lines flow and the letters breathe. He was born in the 1960s, influenced by the counterculture, festivals like Woodstock and artists like Wes Wilson and Victor Moscoso. Their posters and records by the Grateful Dead, The Doors and Jimi Hendrix set the visual code of the era with acidic gradients, kaleidoscopic patterns and fonts that were impossible to read at first glance.

Modern companies use psychedelics in fashion and graphic design to convey freedom and informality. The most striking examples are the Diesel SS25 collection, where the graphics look like hallucinations, and the Coachella festival posters.

Punk

If design could slam a door, it would be punk. The style was born in the 1970s with London's King's Road and Jamie Reed's Sex Pistols covers - torn collages, newspaper clippings, typewritten fonts, acidic colors and a challenge to everything decent. Punk graphics are a challenge and protest against the system, made with scissors, glue and a photocopier.

Now brands and festivals are bringing back this rebellious language to show independence and character. Punk aesthetics are visible in the design of websites, festivals such as Riot Fest, as well as in modern visual fashion culture. A striking example is the Vivienne Westwood collection, where punk DNA is expressed through the deconstruction of forms, irony and visual protest against gloss.

Memphis

In the early 1980s, Ettore Sottsass and the Memphis Milano group challenged minimalism and created chaos: simple geometric shapes, bright colors, zigzags, plastic, laminated surfaces. This is postmodern irony, where form is more important than function. The symbol of the style is the Carlton shelving unit (VA Museum), and its legacy lives on in Corporate Memphis, Google’s signature style of illustrations with cartoonish primitive people. Memphis remains a reminder that design can be fun and irreverent without losing its meaning.

Memphis style illustrations on Google Travel.

Abstraction

Abstraction creates mood and meaning through composition. The origins of the style are in the paintings of Kandinsky and Mondrian, where lines and color spots replaced the plot. In modern design, abstract solutions are found in identity and advertising: Adobe MAX 2024 design with digital strokes and organic forms. Headspace's visual language with warm colors and rounded lines that symbolize calm and relaxation. In these times of deadlines, calls and mass burnout, abstraction allows brands to speak through sensations and emotions, and it works.

You can come to Veonix with any idea, be it psychedelic or Victorian curls, and leave with a design that works for the brand. We don't argue with trends, we manage them.