112,607 design-related projects were posted on Workana last year alone. That means over 300 projects requiring graphic design skills were posted every day, just in Latin America and Europe.

Regardless of how we choose to interpret this data, it is a lot of work! And this can make us wonder: Where does such a demand come from?

The web: an insatiable world of graphic resources

The best way to communicate an idea is through images. Text will always be necessary to state and describe concepts, of course, but what actually makes the difference between a regular website and a captivating website, is visual content.

This is due to two very important reasons:

• We are visual creatures by nature: our brains can process images much faster than processing text: ¼ of a second is enough for our brain to connect a symbol with its meaning. However, it takes 6 seconds to read between 20 to 25 words – the minimum time required to explain a concept.
  
• The ideal technology to consume graphic content by the thousands is readily available to us: Our computers, tablets and mobile phones are perfect to watch videos and images inexpensively and in absolute comfort: you just need an internet connection and you’ll spend hours navigating the web.

Moreover, the internet dynamics are not about creating long-lived content, but, to the contrary, the consumption of web content demands a fast-speed creation that keeps growing forever.

Logotypes, computer graphics, photomontage, banners, posters, icons, illustrations, presentations, pictures and even memes are the most demanded content. Being creative shouldn’t be difficult, but for a very important fact:

The Internet is constantly evolving

It may have happened to you – going on a vacation for just one week, disconnecting from everything, and then on your return home, you run into a new trendy meme you don’t know where it came from, the web pages you usually visit have had a design update or you find a new trend with the banner format, for instance.

The Internet is a swarm of ideas where you can find new cutting-edge proposals every day, some of which in time turn into a trend and shape the style of websites for a couple of months or even for some years.

If you want to see that for yourself and get filled with some nostalgia, have a look at this amazing website showing how web design has evolved throughout the years – hand in hand with graphic design, between 1991 and 2015.

Being at the forefront also means that there’s a rearguard: an area lagging, not evolving at the same pace – basically, a comfort zone where nobody wants to be. And to achieve that, there’s only one thing to do: stay up to date.

How can I stay up to date?

The freelancer lifestyle is one of the most hectic in the world of work. There are many things to do and probably you’ve faced a flood of projects more than once, keeping you busy for many weeks.

With all these, you might not have the time or be willing to spend several hours navigating the web to find out the latest trends.

Fortunately, some of the most important companies prepare reports, guidelines and collections supported by sound statistical information which you can check for free.

We set out to make a selection of the best inspirational and updated sources on design trends, and this was the result:

The Shutterstock guide 

Shutterstock is one of the largest stock repositories of images, photographs, videos and music worldwide. With over 270 million files carefully categorised, they know well what is in and what is out. On its guide of creative trends, you can find names, definitions, data and examples of the most popular visual styles.

Adobe Top 5

Adobe is the undisputed leader of the creative industry. With products such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere and After Effects, among others, this is the main graphic creation tool provider.

As such, they are also an authoritative source, well-informed on the latest design trends which you can check through their report for 2019.

Behance Trend Guide

Behance is the best platform to find and display portfolios of professionals from different industries, among them, graphic design.

We recommend that you dedicate a couple of hours to navigating their website, where you can find incredibly beautiful content that will captivate you, but in case you don’t have the time available, you can confine yourself to checking the guide of trends, where the graphic design trends for this year are displayed in a very easy and well-curated fashion.

The guide of guides for design 2019, by Real big words

Here you’ll find a calendar that is a must for designers, including five trend guides on web design and user experience. The web page of this content agency is an excellent example of ways to keep a website updated in terms of design.

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Ready? There are no more excuses. Making the most of these tools might make the difference between speaking seriously with your clients about visual styles and having a limited exchange to ask for a larger logo.