Weekly Design Inspiration #15 - Vector-gradient art: Fad or Innovation?

This is my Weekly Design Inspiration, this is a space where I share some design work that has either inspired me or caught my attention for its execution or concept. The things I feature on here can include (but not limited to) branding, web design, app design, illustration, typography, video games or anything that shows creativity in a unique way.

If you have spent any amount of time on Dribbble you will have undoubtedly seen flat style illustrations using simple shapes and gradients, usually contained within organic blobs, dominating your stream. While there’s nothing wrong with this style, and some designers do create some really interesting things in this style, I can’t help but wonder if this is either a fad or an innovation and shift in design styles.

Looking at this style from a technical standpoint, it’s not too difficult to achieve. Perhaps this is why there is such an influx of this style on platforms like Dribbble, because it is quick and easy to turn around and generally gets a fair amount of attention. To create these pieces you generally only need to use Illustrator and draw out simple characters and props using soft, rounded shapes and use a mixture of gradients (including linear, radial and gradient mesh) and you are pretty much done. The most tricky part of this process can be getting the colour scheme correct, matching colours and themes can make or break these designs. But thankfully there’s a tried and tested colour scheme to use, can you guess what it is?

This is my main issue with this design style and why I think I’m leaning more towards this being a fad rather than a credible design style that’s going to stick around for the next decade. Due to its limitations in scope and depth, designs in this style tend to seamlessly blend into one and as a result there isn’t much character or distinction between brands (if it’s being used for branding). Now, as previously mentioned, I do feel that this style can be pulled off and achieved quite well, but to do so requires a bit more creativity and focus. Sometimes, to make these pieces more interesting or unique all you have to do is add some texture or noise to the design, this adds a more hand made quality and less of an out-the-box look. Or using exaggerated shapes and characters to add more personality or using flat colour instead of gradients. Any of these variations make this style more stylised.

While I do feel this style has quickly come in and become obsolete as fast as it came, it does serve a purpose in some sectors. It very much lends itself to things like software, apps and UX designs. This tech focused approach makes this style more easily digestible because of its clean modern look. I guess that with digital platforms supporting more vector designs and animation the application of this style comes hand in hand with this ability, where as before using this style could have looked out of place and potentially not as clean and smooth. But that is just speculation on my part, I could be completely wrong here. The difficulty is that this style is leaking into almost every sector, and like all other design styles, it doesn’t suit everything. I suppose the ease of creating this style makes it an appealing option to someone trying to come up with an identity. Maybe the designers are too quick to see if they could do it and and don’t stop to think whether they should.

My fear is that the more of this style that becomes popular the more likely that it will begin to look like Clipart or poor stock imagery (which some of it already does). This wouldn’t be great seeing as these illustrations and designs aren’t necessarily bad, they have just been done to death and could begin to get watered down to become something really unappealing if people try to replicate the style in a less polished and professional manor.

To conclude, I don’t dislike this style, in fact I quite like it (when it’s done well). I’m concerned about the popularity of it and how it is saturating areas of inspiration, making it more difficult not only to find inspiring things but for designers with original ideas to stand out in streams of similar vector-gradient illustrations. Hopefully this is just a fad and the popularity of it will eventually wear off and something new will come along and populate design forms, then I can complain about that too.

Below is my attempt at a vector-gradient style illustration, I tried to make it a little more interesting by doing some post editing bits in Photoshop including blurs, light effects, noise and colour enhancements.

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What Have I Been Listening To This Week?

Rise Against - The Ghost Note Symphonies, Vol.1

Rise against are a band that have such a dynamic range of sounds, from rock, punk, metal, acoustic and just about anything in-between. This album collates songs from across their vast library and strips them right back and it is seriously beautiful.

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Honorable Mentions

As part of my Weekly Design Inspiration I also like to share some bits and pieces that I have seen which have inspired me in the last week. I have captioned each image with some info and relevant links so you can find out more.

The good people at Green Chameleon have put together this fantastic Year In Review site that takes you through projects and concepts from the past year. The technical achievement of this is super impressive as well as the work that is featured.

A few weeks ago I posted the stop motion animation for Overwatch created around Christmas time and now there is a Behind the Scenes video showcasing the skill behind a project like this. It is really interesting to get an insight to how these things are created.

For anyone interested in learning new techniques in animation Motion Design School is an amazing resource of helpful tips and tutorials. They often break down more simple ways of achieving effects that are regularly used by motion designers in a fun and engaging way.