Identity Design Trends for 2021: 

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Developing the identity design for a brand involves putting together a system using 5 things - a wordmark, a symbol, a colour palette, a typekit and brand messaging. All of this is put into a brand manual at the end and handed over to the client. 

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Let's look at design trends for 2021, and look at each of these items individually. 

1. Wordmark:

A wordmark is the lettering that is in use in your logo. For example, in Coca Cola, there is no symbol, and the letters themselves form the logo. This is its wordmark. I have found that over the last few years there has been a rise in popularity in display typefaces using serif fonts. Individual foundries such as Violaine and Jeremy’s VJ Type in Paris are creating exquisite typefaces that have the grammar of serif fonts, and the glamour of the 1920s. We recently used one of their fonts to design a wordmark for Engram - a young hardware design shop based in Kolkata. 

There is definitely a move away from using script and handwritten typefaces. While it is tempting to use these fonts as they have a lot going on, it's best to let this trend die with the last decade. Humanist sans serif such as the Helveticas retain their position as evergreen digitally reliable fonts. Look up fonts by pangram foundry to see some interesting new fonts in the space. 

2. Symbol:

The world is moving away from the symbol - wordmark - tagline stack. 

As more brands get more digital, there is a need to remove the clutter. While some brands such as mastercard and nike chose to drop their wordmarks, some brands are choosing to not have a symbol at all. In choice of symbol, more people opt for monograms, which is a combination of letters. Here is a monogram we developed for Tarun Tahiliani which has 2 Ts joined together. This also makes a pi, a symbol Mr. Tahiliani resonates with.