Brighter, bolder, braver: creative trends 2025

Calling all creatives! We’ve been busy consulting with the powers-that-be of the design world and compiling our top 5 picks for what creative trends are taking the spotlight this year. The main takeaway? It’s time to tap into your rebellious side. The rulebook is going out the window when it comes to convention. That means bold, brave designs, a sensory overload of colour, and playful takes on typography. Oh, and let’s officially welcome AI to the creative team. It’s gonna be a whole lot of fun. Let’s get stuck in.

1. Welcome to the team, AI

If 2024 was the year of dabbling with AI, then 2025 is the year of diving in. Time to up your prompting game, humans! Creatives who can tame the AI beast are not only going to shave precious time off tedious design tasks in Figma or Photoshop, but also open themselves up to a whole new world of creativity—just look at the amazing work of media artist Refik Anadol. You see, it's not about replacing human creativity, but using it as a collaborator to supercharge it. A study by MIT Sloan found that human-AI collaborations in creative tasks resulted in a 20% increase in innovation and originality compared to human-only teams. So, buckle up and enjoy the ride, our AI overlords are here to stay.

2. Dialling up the quirk

Brands are leaning into their weird side and we’re here for it. We’re talking cheeky taglines, playful character illustrations and wacky visuals that show off a brand’s personality, flaws and all. Polished, safe perfection is yesterday. In a world that’s cluttered with one-size-fits-all design, authenticity is what’s going to cut through this year. Embrace who you are and have fun, with so much going on, we need to not take everything too seriously. The nostalgic rebrand of classic Californian steakhouse Sizzler is a perfect example of dialling up the quirk, while staying true to its iconic past.

3. Minimalism, but make it *extra*

Genzies might not want to hear it, but minimalism is not dead yet, it’s just reinventing itself. Like a cheekier, louder younger sibling, “maximalist” minimalism has entered the chat and is giving look-at-me-energy. Think clean layouts but ‘punctuated’ with bold focal points; lucid typography against confident use of colour and imagery for clarity and that extra punch—it’s not about adding more, it’s about getting noticed, in a good way. Look at the much-talked-about Jaguar rebrand or the JazzFM Romania website (we adore the illustrations, btw) for a taste. We’re also taking inspiration from singer Charlie XCX and her album Brat; the cover of which became so iconic that “Brat green” became the unofficial colour of 2024. 

4. The unconventional type

In 2025 we will continue to see a lot of fun, puffy, wobbly and kinetic typography. And it is finally time for even the most conservative designers to be bold (pun intended), leave bog-standard fonts in the past and experiment with typefaces of all shapes and sizes. The keyword here is unconventional. Unique and custom typography is a great way to add a big dose of personality and individuality to brand storytelling. See examples from OMSE’s rebrand of UK-based Black Bee Honey or the rebrand of Conrad Design Group.

5. Brain rot as an art form

Imagine hyperpop colours paired with raw, outlandish sceneries, plus a hint of chaos. Not exactly, subtle, right? That’s the point to this trend: it’s the “brainrot” of the design world (fun fact: ‘brainrot’ was the Oxford word of the year in 2024). In other words, we’re visualising overstimulation and crafting designs that feel like a sensory overload—both disturbing and mesmerising—and somehow, it works. The surreal backdrop for the Collina Strada FW24 Runway and the intriguing work of digital creator niceaunties show us how it’s done. 

Images/screenshots courtesy of Sizzler, Jaguar, Collina Strada