Digital Information World

To start the year right for people in the design and print industry, Cardprinting, a plastic card printing company in Monsey, New York, has come out with another infographic called "9 Graphic Design Trends for 2015". In keeping with their previous infographics, this one is also intended to be used as a reference: comprehensive and straightforward for the professional who needs a refresher, yet simple enough for the amateur who is looking to create for personal use.

Although there are a lot of elements that can make a great design, this infographic enumerates and describes the top 9 which are essential in achieving a look that is representative of the coming trends for this year. In 2015, flat design is in and is already used by big companies. Borrowing from Swiss, Minimalist, and Bauhaus, this design forsakes dimensionality and will most likely use bright pastel colors. In terms of layout, Grid, which celebrates geometry and precision, will be used on more and more websites,

The loud, funky and brightly colored elements, and short quirky slogans of Kpop, which has boomed during the past few years, will be the choice for embellishments, mixed with non-traditional, custom and handwritten fonts which will be the rage, thanks to the rise of free typekits like Google fonts.

Stock photos are out, and illustrations are in, as well as the use of single shades of solid colors. Both taking an inspiration from the past, seemingly opposite designs - the zany colorways and flowery classic detailing of paisley pop, and the heavily geometric pixel play will both be favored for this year.

With the total number of mobile devices set to rise to 2.6 billion by 2016 - up from 1.9 billion in 2012 - responsive email design is quickly becoming more important than ever. Responsive email, for the uninitiated, is essentially email that's designed to deliver the same viewing experience regardless of which app or mobile device the user is reading on.

You see, even though our mobile devices are never far away from our fingertips, and can be used for an increasing number of purposes - from banking and personal finances to games and gizmos - it may surprise you to hear that email remains THE most used functionality. A phenomenal 91% of consumers check their email at least once every day on their smartphone, and it's been reported that mobile email opens have grown by 180% in just three years. In fact, Adobe report that nearly 8 out of 10 people use their smartphone for reading email - which is, amazingly, a higher percentage than the number who use it for making calls.

This creates a critical challenge for marketers. It's generally accepted that email remains a tool with huge potential - how else can you deliver highly personalized and target messages to 100% of your audience? But, with 30% of consumers now EXCLUSIVELY using their mobile devices to access their emails, failure to deliver responsive emails can fatally undermine the ROI of your email campaigns. After all, over 71% of users will delete an email immediately if it doesn't display correctly on their device.

This infographic from the team at Instiller - an email marketing solution for agencies - lays out the case for responsive email design. It explores changing trends in mobile adoption and email use, investigates the growing shift away from desktop-only users, and illustrates some stats around how email advertisers and the industry in general are adapting to these changes.

It's clear - if you aren't doing responsive email design, then you aren't doing it properly!

According to a recent study by JobVite, 73 percent of recruiters have hired a candidate through social media, and 93 percent of hiring managers will review a candidate's social profile before making a hiring decision. This means properly optimizing your social media presence is essential for your job search.
Take a look at this infographic, created by careerglider, that visualizes the future of social recruiting, and looks at how recruiters are utilizing social networks.

Did you know that, 8 in every 10 of generation Z - those born around the year 2000 - use some kind of social media. And that last year 1 in 4 of generation Z left Facebook.

This tech-savvy group is connected 24/7, have an attention span of around 8 seconds, they communicate with images emoticons and emojis are the norm and they think in 4D.

So how should we market to them? And what are the best ways to reach these consumers?

Take a look at the infographic (below), created by GlobalMessaging, for some useful advice and tips.

Using insights from 47 million images, music tracks and collection of videos, Shutterstock's annual infographic looks at which searches and styles are on the rise, and predicting what will rule the creative world in 2014.

According to Shutterstock these three trends are truly universal - impacting design, photography, and video across every continent.

Shutterstock also found that:

"The global aesthetic keeps trending toward simplicity, with outlined icons and other linear styles on the rise. Searches for “line icon” increased 921 percent in 2014.

Technology continues to evolve ever more quickly, and this was certainly reflected in our data, with breakout digital  trends like “emoji,” “Internet of Things,” and “selfie” on the rise."

Take a look at the infographic below for more trends and prediction.