4 Branding Trends To Get Your Business Noticed In 2021

Branding styles have changed over the years, particularly in how they have been used in promotional videos and other marketing materials. Remember when 3D-effect logos were all the rage, only to be replaced by something more comfortable to read? That’s one way brands respond to changing consumer demands and aesthetic preferences, helping them to stay memorable and relevant to their customer base.

However, as we enter a new year, it is unsurprising that current events have had a hand in encouraging companies to adapt their designs to a more natural, muted style of branding. 2020 was a year which left people feeling frightened, meaning that more and more businesses seek to provide positivity and trust with their customers.

In part, these changes are evolutions of popular designs from the last few years, whilst others have become more widely-used because they are in opposition to recent styles which have run their course. Whatever the reason, read on to discover the branding trends that will help your business stand out for 2021 and beyond.

Once upon a time, what you could call the “house style” of the internet was dense and complex, with eye-popping content filling up every corner of a webpage. However, in more recent years, and following countless studies, trends have indicated users’ preference for a more minimal approach, which is more attractive, and combines images and text helps to draw the eye.

Having plenty of white space means your customers will be better equipped to digest the information on the page. It is also essential to make the text as legible and clear as possible, which can be easily done by using classic, straightforward fonts, clean lines, and flat (ie: two-dimensional) icons and images.

Up until last year, neon colours were all the rage, with its bright, vivid tones helping logos and straplines to instantly stand out and grab the attention of everyone who comes across your content. However, after all of the events of 2020, trust and safety is paramount for a lot of people.

As the sea of vibrancy swells, it has begun to take a more muted approach to get noticed. As a result, taking the edge of your colour scheme by using softer hues is now increasing in popularity with many businesses. Muted colours are also more natural, giving your audience a soothing and safe feeling with your brand. Our recent promotional video for London Northwestern Railway keeps the colour palette low-key, instead letting the text animation and music do the hard work of grabbing viewers’ attention.

Another approach to the minimalist trend is by using novel ways to group the elements of your video together. One way to approach this is by overlapping designs and text elements, which helps you to maintain enough white space to keep your branding design readable. The overlap also helps to add depth and definition, whilst creating associations in customers’ minds between the different segments in the video.

Another new branding trend that will grab an audience’s attention even as the colour scheme of your videos is toned down is through the shapes and patterns you use in both the foreground and background of your marketing materials. As with the comfort we are all taking from less brash palettes — with primary colours and low-key shades being the order of the day — using basic geometric shapes and familiar patterns can also help viewers feel reassured.

Using classic symbols also adds a touch of elegance to your branding, and helps to lift your brand away from your competitors. Although these shapes and patterns are used by a huge number of brands, trusting a video production company to find a unique way to put them together will go some way to separating your business from the pack. Take our motion graphics work for eBay, which uses animation to eye-catching effect, even though the video works with block colours and familiar shapes.