We take a closer look at the design trends uncovered in September's new brand designs. Recent projects particularly stand out for their use of motion, which captures movement found in the real world, unique gradients that create a futuristic feel, and minimalism that allows other elements to take center stage.
Naver Blog's blinking cursor logo design, Stanbrew's fragrant brand application, and Comedy Central's bouncy logo animation express the essence of a brand through motion.
The World Sports Federation's electrifying logo, Fhirst's psychedelic colors, and ATMOS's mysterious transparency create a futuristic feel.
Blank Street's rectangle, QSAM's framed variation, and Brompton's linear rectangular grid highlight the visual elements that represent the brand's personality with minimal techniques.
Recently, brands are leveraging typographic motion to visually express real-world movements that are closer to the essence of their brand. This method goes beyond simple text to vividly convey the sensory experience of the brand.
Naver Blog actively incorporates motion into its logo. The word "blog" appears in motion on the app splash screen and home tab, intuitively conveying the act of "writing." Because this wordmark's meaning is difficult to convey without motion, descriptive animation is applied in the area where it appears.
The use of the lowercase 'b' also resembles the natural typing experience on a keyboard without the need for capitalization, reflecting the actual user experience. The full 'N blog' logo also exists, but its shape is somewhat different, making it feel more like a promotional graphic element than a standalone symbol.
Coffee brand Stanbrew used motion typography to capture the movement of hand-drip coffee. The dripper depicts the coffee dripping from the dripper, one drop at a time, with multiple typography appearing sequentially. This visualizes the waiting time and the thoughts that arise during the brewing process.
“Phrases like "HAPPY STANBRU TIME" and "FRESH COFFEE ROASTING" evoke anticipation for the unique Stanbru experience that awaits those moments of anticipation. Playful, hand-drawn icons and micro-interactions add a friendly touch. These icons feel as if they're alive, like the toys in "Toy Story.".
Comedy Central uses motion itself to express "funny movements without human presence." Unpredictable, exaggerated movements, pulsating changes, and shapes that scatter and break down create laughter. The bright, vibrant yellow color scheme evokes a youthful feeling, making the sloppy movements all the more adorable and endearing.
Gradients have long been a visual language synonymous with futuristic imagery. While more complex to implement than solid colors, they're a powerful tool for creating a distinctive impression among brands.
Recently, amidst the retro craze of the 1990s and early 2000s, the computer graphic style of the era has been gaining traction again, and gradients are also making a comeback along with this trend. Especially with the frequent use of border gradients in the UI of AI services, certain color combinations have even become established as a trend. Times have changed, but gradients remain an effective element for conveying a progressive and futuristic feel.
The World Sports Federation Championships uses a sparkling logo with a fluorescent gradient from mint to blue to convey a sense of exhilarating energy. The sticker-like graphics, placed on a black background, are highly saturated, yet blend with colors close to white to create a holographic, shimmering effect.
Instead of the usual red that symbolizes passion, a blue gradient was used to convey an electric, pulsating sensation, focusing on the thrill of the most enjoyable moment rather than the pain of sweating.
Fhirst faithfully reflects the Y2K style with bolder colors and compositions. It utilizes nearly every color, including the rainbow, and combines photography, special effects, and collage with a 90s computer graphics aesthetic.
Gradients are actively applied to text and backgrounds, and subtle gradients are also used for special effects like lightning and water droplets, creating a unique texture. The overall design is colorful and playful, with a kind of "bad bubblegum" feel that strongly attracts the eye.
Atmos Rewards creates a futuristic atmosphere through a more calming and sophisticated color gradient. It utilizes a style reminiscent of Apple's "Liquid Glass" style, making elements appear distorted beyond the glass, much like an airplane window.
Rather than simply "looking out the window," this design offers the experience of examining each travel photo in the background with a magnifying glass. This effect is particularly pronounced with video content, and it's likely to be used in conjunction with the "ATMOS REWARDS" wordmark rather than on its own.
Minimalism is a style of expression that leaves room for interpretation. While it's a powerful aesthetic in itself, it can also be a double-edged sword. If the form is too simple, the viewer may not understand the meaning, or even the message itself.
thus How to keep the elements as minimally identifiable as possibleis the most important task in minimalist design.
Blank Street incorporated a rectangular element, inspired by the windows of its first store, into the center of its wordmark. Because this rectangle would be difficult to convey on its own, it's placed alongside the logo. The space between the words in the wordmark is filled with this rectangular element, adding a unique character.
Since it is rarely used horizontally, it does not put a lot of burden on readability, and its simple form makes the colors and background images stand out more.
QSAM (QUANS SAN ART MUSEUM) replaces the letter "A" with a square, representing artworks in the form of rectangular canvases. Although the letter "A" and the square are not morphologically similar, the square is naturally accepted as a symbolic element of the canvas that holds the artwork. In motion, actual artworks are displayed by arranging them in square sections.
But a single square isn't enough to create a unique piece, so visual variations are applied to the Q and M to add originality. For example, the tail of the Q is cut off like a square, and the left side of the M appears to be cut off, giving the piece a sense of protrusion. This subtle, repetitive overlapping of squares creates a visual rhythm and identity.
Brompton actively utilizes rectangles composed of lines to visually express its product characteristics as a folding bicycle. These rectangles are repetitive throughout the brand's wordmark, website, and product descriptions, functioning as a sort of grid system. The rectangles surrounding each letter organically adjust their size, demonstrating a refined order and alluding to the brand's long history and mechanical precision.
The typeface is based on a slab serif, and its nearly right-angled block form evokes brickwork. The slab's angular form complements the rectangular grid, conveying a strong, sculptural feel and an industrial mood. The typeface's individuality stands out within the linear grid, and the overall composition is completed with a design where the typography itself becomes the visual centerpiece.
