Branding has evolved fast over the years, and it is now completely different from conventional strategies of even a few years ago. Now, each year we come across several new branding trends emerging and staying for a few years. In 2022, some of the previous year’s trends in designing brand visuals will continue, while newer ones will also come up. 

What is branding?

Branding is the process of researching and developing content that compels people to have an intended perception of the products or services of a company. Once a brand message is ready, the company promotes it aggressively across all online and offline platforms, which we call branding. 

In this way, you develop a brand’s personality and project your unique selling point amongst your target audience. Consequently, people can relate to your brand in a certain way to find it helpful. But branding strategies change very often with time as per people’s mindset and taste for things. 

Here are the prominent branding trends marketers are likely to adopt in 2022.   

1. Different logo versions

Logos are generally static visual identities of businesses as they appear as the same design across all online and offline platforms. But a new branding trend of creating different versions of a logo is fast picking up. Now, companies have one master logo, but it comes in many versions. 

So, it could be that the complete logo with its all elements appear on print ads, while it appears as a stripped-down and straightforward logo for Instagram stories. In this way, different versions of a logo can provide a range of visual identities of a brand. 

You should now redesign your logo in its several versions for different virtual platforms. Make sure that the redesign suits best to your choice of an online platform. Still, some elements of your static logo must find a place in the redesigned logos so that people can identify it with your business. 

2. Use of bold and playful fonts  

A brand must convey its message loud and clear to the target audience. It best gets communicated when a visual has bold typefaces for everyone to see immediately. So, the new branding trend of using bold but playful fonts has become the norm. 

The designers are mainly using bold fonts if the brand is fun and playful. They have included some motions to make it attractive. Such fonts are also in use to create animated letters and kinetic typography. 

Fun and playful fonts also create a logo if these fonts can convey your brand message. 

3. Quirky Branding 

Another branding trend developing today is the use of quirky elements in a design for excitement and engagement. Unfortunately, the designers are creating visuals with overlapping elements with no symmetry, which makes a design chaotic. 

Conventional industries such as finance and health make their visuals look quirky to generate interest, individuality and drive attention. 

The designers use odd imagery, fun typography, clashing colors, colliding elements, fun illustration, and distorted shapes to make a quirky design. They use such components also to get a business logo.   

4. Bring back old era 

For decades, many brands in the market have been creating visuals with some elements from the old era. They want to convey the message that they have been in the business for decades and are trustworthy. 

For example, Burger King has changed its logo from shinny and colorful to the present logo of a flat design with dim colors. In this way, the intention is to show that the brand has evolved naturally. The B2C sector is more likely to incorporate elements of the bygone era in its brand visuals. 

With such old-era elements, brands can ensure a strong emotional response from the users and target customers. 

5. Minimalist designs 

Minimalist designs will continue to rule the branding world. In 2022, a wide range of visuals for branding purposes will use simple text, some basic shapes, one or two colors, and a lot of white space. 

Business owners can draw people’s attention to one or two design elements that convey a brand message with such brand visuals. The target customers can focus on the message more with such designs. 

6. Color gradients  

Color gradients are everywhere these days, and the trend is likely to grow further in the coming months. You can see color gradients in various designs, including websites, social media posts, and presentations, and the designers see these elements as versatile. 

The trends so far developing in color gradients include photo overlays that generate extra interest. But the gradients are well-crafted, seamless, and are not jarring to the eyes. Radial and linear gradients are mainly in the trend, but the designers also use tri-angular gradients to give depth and dimension to a design. 

7. Social activism 

Marketers are making a brand look like it supports social causes and actively resolves social issues. Marketing teams are now devising ways to promote their brands as caring for a specific social cause since customers see such activism as a brand that cares. 

In the coming months, we will see more such brand strategies to raise social issues and help resolve them. Brands will drive customers’ attention based on burning social concerns, and the emphasis of brands will be on how they contribute to making this world a better place. 

Because of social concerns, a whole new sector of sustainable and eco-friendly products has emerged up in the market. We can already see that most brands make their presence felt when people raise concerns about biodiversity, climate change, afforestation, and black lives.  

8. Brand talking

The new branding trend is brand talking. It’s no longer about sending out a marketing message to the audience but instead talking to them in a human tone and voice. So, conversational style of messaging is the way today to connect with the target audience. 

Now, after posting a message on social media, brands respond to the users’ comments. They address the issues raised by the users in the comment section of the social platforms then and there. The intention here is to ensure better brand engagement and build trust. 

The conversational style of brand talking helps treat customers like peers if you add humor in the response. 

9. Influencer branding

Marketers have been using influencers to promote a brand. But in 2022, marketers will start categorizing influencers based on data about the sectors, expertise, and reach. So instead of exploring the reach of big influencers with millions of followers, micro-influencers will be the center of strategies. 

Micro-influencers may have fewer followers, but they come from a specific field, and the influencers have a good hold on them. So, brands will explore these influencers to reach out to people in a cost-effective way. 

10. Branding without brand 

People get fed up with being targeted so aggressively all the time with products and services, and they do not want to see branding everywhere around them. So, this has given rise to the concept of branding without a brand. 

Under this concept, there is no direct mention of a brand. Instead, the marketers cleverly promote a solution to the customers’ problems. For example, a hoarding talks about the importance of comfortable shoes but does not show any logo or a brand picture. 

Consequently, brands promote the solutions they can provide to the customers rather than showing up the product images or any visual identity. 

Wrapping Up 

Branding can take some new turns in 2022 with trends such as different versions of a static logo, playful fonts, and the quirky elements involved. Other trends likely to pick up include minimalist designs, color gradients, social activities, brand talking, and micro-influencers.