Each trend report manages to identify a shape or two that rapidly populate every designer’s kit of parts like words that enter the news cycle based on a sheet of talking points. Every pundit uses the phrase like it spontaneously leapt to their lips, and every designer uses the shape of the hour with the same impromptu reflex. The best I can do to identify the cause of this eruption is to look at the previous year’s trends and designers’ affinity for the use of canted parallelograms. Those previous shapes strongly resemble this year’s crop, but these shapes have approachable, organic curves.
For each rounded bend there is a counter corner that draws to a point like the tip of a leaf. No surprise that this shape has found its home in a number of marks that are eco-centric and hope to reflect the language of nature’s building blocks. Foliage, feathers, grain, cresting waves or any number of other receptive contoured forms. This shape stacks, reconfigures and pairs well with other soft shapes or blends with harsher geometrics to soften their effect. It serves as a refreshing addition on a number of stiff sans serif fonts, to add a wisp of nature and whimsy.
SMITH & DICTION / KINDNESS.ORG
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