The Latest Features in Website Design: Top Trends Through 2018

Staying ahead of trends is one of the trickiest things in creative industries. It is essential to be aware of what the trends are, but it is better to be one step ahead. This goes for all creative disciplines, including website design. Website design is hard to define for someone who isn’t working or extremely knowledgeable in digital industries. We can tell you that website design involves a lot of different skills and process including layout, colour, text style, structure, graphics, interactive features and much more. Read on to learn all about the latest trends in website design.

Layouts that are Off the Grid

The grid is somewhat of a cornerstone in all design disciplines. Even your average Joe Bloggs who has a killer Instagram account is aware and reliant on the grid. However, this year has witnessed an upsurge in websites that have managed to master an aesthetic miracle with a stunning design that is off-grid. For those who don’t know the grid: when looking at a web page, or poster or any other rectangular item with a design on it, imagine a grid of fine lines dividing up the space. Designing 101 is to use the grid to position all of your elements in a way that is aesthetically pleasing to the human eye. Therefore, going off grid means that elements appear askew. Humans are drawn naturally to order, however, art can in many cases be unordered and conceived as beautiful. Achieving the right off-grid style for website design is challenging but highly impressive if done right.

Brutalism in Website Design

Brutalism is a style in which designers do what they like as opposed to what they should. They forgo all the best practices and reliably successful looks and instead choose something edgy, shrill or outrageous.

More Use of Soft and Round Shapes

This trend is not only true of website design but also in interior design. Starting in late 2017 there was a rise in popularity of oblique shapes which made a steep change from sharp right angles and parallel lines which dominated for several years previous. More recently, we have noticed massive changes in digital moguls such as Facebook and Twitter who now boast softer rounded corners on text boxes. Another interesting twist is a design trend that mixes both straight lines and organic shapes together creating a striking visual experience that is hard to forget.