The same lists turn up every January. If you go back and check the previous year’s, a lot of the predictions haven’t held up. That’s not because trend writers are bad at their jobs. Most of what gets called a trend is really a wave, and by the time it’s big enough to name, it’s usually already on its way out.
So rather than predicting what 2027 will look like, we’ve sorted what’s around now by how long we think it’ll last. Some of it is here to stay, some is fine to borrow for a while, and some will make a brand look dated by next summer.
Here to stay: signs of a human hand
This is the biggest one, and AI is the reason for it. Once generated images became free, that polished, rendered look stopped suggesting effort and started suggesting nobody made much effort at all. You can already see the response everywhere: print grain, halftone, risograph texture, hand-drawn lettering, and photography shot in real light. Anything that shows a person made a decision.
We think it’ll last because it’s about value as much as looks. It works the same way hand-stitching does on clothes. As long as the default is machine-smooth, anything visibly made by a person reads as premium, and the default isn’t going back.
Here to stay: type doing the heavy lifting
This means big typography with real character, carrying an identity without a mascot or illustration system to lean on. It lasts because it’s one of the cheapest ways to be distinctive and one of the hardest to copy. A licensed or commissioned typeface with a point of view keeps paying off across everything a brand makes, for years. We expect more brands whose whole personality lives in one typeface used with total commitment, and fewer that spread it thinly across seven average assets.
Here to stay: motion built into the identity
Think of the logo that arrives in a particular way, or the transition a brand always uses. Motion is moving from something added at the end to something written into the guidelines, alongside colour and type. It’ll last because screens are where most people meet brands now, and there’s still little enough good motion around that it helps you stand out.
The version that won’t last is scroll-jacking and six-second intro animations on pages people visit every day. That kind of motion wastes people’s time and tells them nothing.
Fine to borrow for now
Chrome, liquid metal and glass effects look great right now, and they’re everywhere. By the time they reach supermarket own-brand packaging, they’ll look as 2026 as bevelled glass buttons look 2008. Use them for a campaign, but keep them out of the logo.
Y2K and 90s rave nostalgia is genuinely fun, but it won’t last long. Nostalgia moves on in fairly predictable cycles, and the next revival is already lining up.
Hyper-gradients and blurry “aura” backgrounds are already the house style of a thousand landing pages, and one more AI tool default could make them the beige of 2027. They’re fine in content, but we wouldn’t build an identity on them.
Already dated: the AI default look
This is the purple and blue glows, the fake depth, the over-lit 3D blobs and the smooth, same-everywhere finish of unedited AI output. It has already dated. It doesn’t look bad exactly, but it looks like everyone else’s straight away. Most of the reason to pay for design is to look different from the default, and this is the default.
How to use trends without getting burned
The simplest rule we know is to keep trends at the edges of your brand, where things change anyway, and out of the core, where everything has to last.
Your positioning, name, logo, typeface, colour logic and tone of voice sit at the core. Base those on decisions about the business itself and they’ll hold up for years. Campaigns, covers, seasonal drops and one-off launch pages sit at the edge, and trends can live there for as long as the trend itself does.
Keep trends at the edges
Built this way, a brand can look current every year without ever being rebuilt. A brand built on last year’s wave ends up choosing, every couple of years, between looking dated and paying for another redesign.
Frequently asked questions
What design trends will be big in 2027?
We expect more signs of the human hand, like texture, print effects and hand-drawn marks, as a reaction to how samey AI imagery has made everything. Motion will increasingly be treated as part of a brand’s identity, and more brands will lean on bold, characterful type where they used to use illustration. Chrome, heavy blur and hyper-gradients are likely to peak and fade fastest.
How do I stop my brand looking dated?
Build the foundations (positioning, typography, colour and tone of voice) on decisions about your business rather than on what’s in your feed. Then only let trends in at the surface, through campaigns, seasonal content and cover images.
Should a small business follow design trends?
Treat them like the weather. It’s worth knowing what’s going on and dressing for it now and then, but you wouldn’t rebuild your house around it. Small businesses rebrand rarely, so the identity needs to outlast several trend cycles. Spend on the foundations and try out trends through your content.
