Period

2020s graphic-design styles

Styles that began in the 2020s, by the year the atlas gives for when each took shape. Stylogeny describes 9 of them. The earliest began in 2020, the latest in 2022. All are still in use.

← 2010s

The 9 styles

Oldest first. Each has its own page: its design choices, where it comes from, and real works.

Black Lives Matter Street Murals2020–present · North AmericaA single protest slogan painted along the roadway in capitals 20 to 35 feet tall, filling the street from kerb to kerb, so it reads whole only from rooftops, drones and helicopters.
Claymorphism & Soft 3D2020–present · Global / networkedA soft, toy-like 3D look from product design around 2020, given the name 'claymorphism' in a December 2021 article by Michał Malewicz.
Glassmorphism2020–present · Global / networkedAn interface style of translucent, frosted panels floating over vivid, blurred backgrounds, so that depth and hierarchy come from layered transparency.
Instagram Slideshow Activism (Social-Justice Infographics)2020–present · North America, Global / networkedThe text-led explainer slideshows that filled Instagram after George Floyd's murder in May 2020.
Neo-Brutalism2020–present · Global / networked, North AmericaA friendly, commercial descendant of web brutalism that keeps its blunt boxes but adds candy colour: thick black outlines, hard unblurred offset shadows, flat saturated fills and chunky sans-serif type on conventional, usable layouts.
Palestinian Watermelon and Keffiyeh Graphics2021–present · Middle East & North Africa, Global / networkedGraphics of Palestinian identity and of solidarity with Palestinians, made by Palestinian artists, the diaspora and supporters worldwide and shared mainly online, above all since the Gaza war began in October 2023.
Generative-AI Image Aesthetic2022–present · Global / networkedThe house look of pictures synthesised by text-to-image diffusion models since 2022.
Ukrainian Wartime Graphics (Saint Javelin, War Stamps and Be Brave Like Ukraine)2022–present · Eastern Europe, Global / networkedThe graphics of Ukraine's defence since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, made by the state, the national post, agencies, illustrators and volunteers at home and abroad.
Woman, Life, Freedom Protest Graphics (Iran and the Diaspora)2022–present · Middle East & North Africa, Global / networkedPosters and digital graphics made in Iran and the diaspora after Mahsa (Jina) Amini died in morality-police custody in September 2022.

The design choices they share

The choices these styles make more often than the 359 styles in the atlas as a whole, most telling first.

2020s graphic-design styles

The 9 styles

The design choices they share

Where they come from

Their branches

All periods