As we navigate 2025, marketing design is at an exciting crossroads where technology and human creativity collide. With the rise of AI-generated visuals sparking both innovation and controversy, designers are exploring new ways to integrate digital precision while maintaining human-centric designs.
Following are the five marketing design trends shaping the industry in 2025 that our creative team is keeping top of mind.
1. AI Surrealism
The rise of AI shaped design in a big way throughout 2024 with no sign of slowing down in 2025. While the over-saturation of AI-generated designs have left many with a negative taste for generated art, seasoned designers are learning new ways to meld its capabilities with creativity. Many are leaning into the other-worldly potential of these tools to generate abstract concepts with ease leading to a rise of surrealist visuals entering mainstream marketing trends.
Where we’re seeing it: In our own work at Franco, we’ve found this trend to be helpful in the mobility and technology spaces to help visualize new products and abstractions of marketing concepts. This approach is helpful for elements like blog graphics where time normally would not be allocated for creating realistic renderings or custom illustrative visuals.
2. Organic Feel and the Craft Renaissance
As a direct backlash against the rise of AI art, we’re seeing a renaissance of craft and a more humanistic approach to marketing design. This includes personalized touches like illustrations, collaging and integrating real life textures and objects into digital spaces. This also includes rudimentary editing and processing to mimic a more lo-fi, humanistic approach versus the refined and over-produced content we’re used to seeing from brands.
Where we’re seeing it: For our clients with a significant social presence, there has been a shift in strategy from the production of highly polished social content that stands out in the feed to figuring out how to blend in. On Instagram for example, where previously we may have produced a video with professional equipment, flashy editing and staged shots, we’ve found success toning things down to match the capabilities of other creators on the platform to feel more authentic, stop the scroll and encourage engagement. This includes strategically including things that go against “best practices” to more similarly match average user behavior.
3. Bold Minimalism
In a time where micro-trends reign king, we’ve ping-ponged back and forth in the design world between maximalism and minimalism to a sweet spot right in between dubbed “bold minimalism” or “not quite minimalism.” This is marked by a mix of simplicity married with bright colors or simple elements that stand for themselves. The biggest driver of this trend can be seen in Charli XCX’s “Brat” branding, which perfectly matches simplicity with intrigue.
Where we’re seeing it: This trend has lent itself well in the tech sphere where refinement and sleekness must be paired with cutting-edge visuals that pop. While the trend in our usage for most clients is much more toned down from tongue-in-cheek visuals like brat, the same elements of bold neon colors matched with classic and refined typography showcase our understanding of the current culture.
4. Adaptive Branding
The need for brands to show up in a big way on social media is only revving up in 2025. Because of this, we are seeing a larger emphasis on how brand identities will adapt to both the digital and material world simultaneously when working with clients.
Where we’re seeing it: For clients with more classic identities, we’re seeing the focus of these branding projects not only revolve around modernizing their identity, but also on how these updates will adapt for the digital landscape. This includes color palettes that stand out online, patterns and assets that lend well to social media and brand imagery that’s less stock-focused and more human-centric.
Where we’re seeing it: This trend has lent itself well in the tech sphere where refinement and sleekness must be paired with cutting-edge visuals that pop. While the trend in our usage for most clients is much more toned down from tongue-in-cheek visuals like brat, the same elements of bold neon colors matched with classic and refined typography showcase our understanding of the current culture.
5. Socially Conscious Design as a Non-Negotiable
Things like sustainable and inclusive design have made the trends lists for the past few years, but in 2025 it has truly been solidified as a non-negotiable for brands. According to First Insight, Gen Z, like Millennials, are more likely to make purchase decisions based on their values making it more important than ever for brands to show up in these spaces from a marketing perspective.
Where we’re seeing it: In 2025 we’re starting from the bottom up to craft stories and narratives that represent the many facets of the human experience to create authentic visuals and campaigns that resonate with the very people we’re looking to target.
Where we’re seeing it: This trend has lent itself well in the tech sphere where refinement and sleekness must be paired with cutting-edge visuals that pop. While the trend in our usage for most clients is much more toned down from tongue-in-cheek visuals like brat, the same elements of bold neon colors matched with classic and refined typography showcase our understanding of the current culture.
As we navigate 2025, marketing design is embracing both technological innovation and human authenticity. AI is maturing into a sophisticated design tool, while hand-drawn elements and tactile textures provide a counterbalance to this digital precision. Bold minimalism continues to evolve through context-aware designs and brands are integrating social and environmental consciousness into their core visual language.
Success in 2025 will come from mastering this balance: combining cutting-edge technology with an authentic human touch to create designs that don’t just catch the eye but also capture hearts and minds.
Lily Stotz is an art director at Franco. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
