Keeping the eye on the ball, we’ve collected a bunch of hot trends in the sphere of digital illustration. Enjoy and get inspired!

Illustration steadily keeps its positions as a visual media for various goals. Websites and landing pages, magazines and newsletters, screens of mobile apps, social network pages and posts, posters and banners – a big proportion of the resource we deal with daily feature illustrations and love them for their diversity, flexibility, and originality. We’ve prepared a brief review so let’s together take a glance at what illustrators make trendy this year. As usual, we packed it with various examples.

Exaggerations

One of the popular trends illustrators turn to in their artworks is visual hyperbole. Broken proportions and exaggerated body parts now seem to be an integral part of the digital art stuff around.

Stylish illustrations in Pablo style by Icons8 feature exaggerated details and broken proportions that together form a kind of artistic approach

Dynamic blog illustration by Fireart Studio uses the approach of visual exaggeration for a character

Magazine illustration by Folio Illustration Agency is also built on visual hyperbole

Geometric Motifs

Geometry doesn’t lose its positions in the illustration trends: a variety of styles and approaches feature geometric motifs. With deep roots in academic drawing, geometric shapes of all kinds fill the digital artworks with abstract vibes, solidify compositions, and add visual harmony.

Geometric characters by Radostina Georgieva

Neat vector illustrations in Clip style by Icons8 feature the consistent usage of geometric elements

Funny and playful geometric illustration by Tania Yakunova

Illustration by Fireart Studio devoted to the theme of teamwork bases its composition on geometric shapes

Digital illustrations by Ivan Mesaros turn basic geometric figures into funny characters

Lines and Curves

Line art and narrow curvy lines are also popular: they add a pinch of decorativeness, create mood, and beautify the image. This approach is used for not only outline illustrations but also to add detalization to the images based on color spots and shapes.

Vector illustrations by Ivan Haidutski in Crayon style for Icons8 vectors library features sophisticated and lovely line art

Digital artist Brad Cuzen uses the lines as the trick detalizing character images

Lovely artwork by Timo Kuilder, the master of line art and elegant curves

The artistic story of this spring lockdown by Diana Stoyanova uses the bright color contrast and the power of lovely lines and curves

Contrast outline illustration for blood donors program by Tubik Arts also takes advantage of a line art

Limited Palettes

Having hundreds of colors and shades at their hands, more and more designers tend to try their skills in limited or even monochrome palettes. As a result, the world of digital art is showing the trend of illustrations that take more expressiveness of fewer colors and play with bright details.

The illustrations in the Taxi style by Ivan Haidutski on the Icons8 vectors library uses a limited color palette based on bold black and yellow contrast.

Elegant and expressive digital illustrations of hotel interiors by Ksenia Shokorova are done in a limited color palettes

The editorial illustrations for Virginia Tech Science Magazine by Matt Carlson is done in the limited and eye-catching color scheme

The limited color palette and bright accents help digital artist Lana Marandina to set the scene of the calm night atmosphere

Atmospheric illustration by Tubik Arts is based on a limited and contrast color scheme to set the scene of impressive sunset

The web page by Dannniel is based on bold prominent typography for a tagline integrated into an animated theme illustration, all in a black-and-white monochrome palette.

Volume

This year continues showing the growing interest in 3D art which has already formed a strong direction in digital illustration. 3D illustrations demonstrate more and more diversity in styles and plots, characters and environments.

The webpage designed by Mike Creative Mints featured the funny and catchy 3D illustration as a hero image

Impressive 3D artwork created by Vitality Studio for a landing page design

Animated 3D illustration by Tubik Arts also features geometric elements

Lovely 3D artworks by Peter Tarka impress with the attention to details and perfection of the general composition

What other trends in illustrations do you find growing popularity this year? Welcome to share your thought in comments!

About the author: Marina Yalanska, design researcher and content creator, editor of Icons8 Blog

Check more digital art in the collections of illustrations on teamwork, landscape illustrations, hero illustrations for web design, review popular UI design trends and learn how illustrations improve user experience