Design trends come and go, especially in retail environments. What might entice customers to buy one day might deter them the next. To ensure your retail graphics are encouraging customers to continue to seek out your products, take a look at some of these impactful retail graphic design trends to use in your retail space.
Think Like Gen Z
The latest generation to begin exploring their freedom to buy is Gen Z, so catering to Gen Z design and graphic preferences will serve retail entities well in the coming years. Those who fall into the Gen Z age range, typically defined as anyone born after 1995, are exposed to augmented reality more so than any member of previous generations because of the technologies now available to them. Virtual reality gaming was in its infancy for prior generations, but the resurgence and reinvigoration of its popularity comes through in many retail graphic design elements.
This popularity and comfort Gen Z has with innovation and augmented reality results in a trend toward experiential design. Any way retail graphic designers can create an experience for shoppers, whether with virtual fitting technology or even augmented in-store experiences, it will help the store engage customers before they even look at the price tags. If the experience is enjoyable, Gen Z will stick around and make a purchase.
Mobile Phone Interactivity
Gen Z shoppers are Internet natives, and they don't know a world without mobile phones. With this innate connection to technology, creating engaging retail graphics displays and experiences that can connect to Gen Z shoppers' phones will help boost sales. This not only creates a top of mind connection for shoppers in-store with opportunities to scan codes and research items that are merchandised for engagement, but also to stay top of mind after Gen Z shoppers leave the store.
Embrace Instagram and YouTube
While in-store graphics create an engaging experience, those experiences can be translated into digital press and awareness in a lot of different ways. Engaging in-store graphics and the experiences Gen Z shoppers have with them are always subject to showing up on highly visible platforms such as Instagram stories, Snapchat clips, and YouTube vlogs. Ensuring your retail graphics and related interactive experiences truly speak to Gen Z values and needs will create better awareness and brand reputation for your store.
A Call to Innovation
New frontiers are explored almost daily, and with the spark of innovation present virtually everywhere consumers look, incorporating innovative elements into retail graphics is a must. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
Bold Colors & Contrasts
Color choice is an important element in establishing your brand's innovative reputation. While brand standards are obviously important to keep in mind, recent trend studies have shown a preference for reds and purples among participants (darker colors like blues and blacks are also engaging). The key is to always consider how they will contrast one another and how that contrast will create an engaging environment that gets your key customers to the final stage of their buying journey. The contrast of light and dark colors is another color preference trend emerging among retail shoppers; as innovation continues to drive retail graphic design trends, it gives retail designers and shoppers within the stores a chance to explore new horizons through innovative and experiential designs.
Space Themes
Space themes in retail graphics tend to entice and intrigue consumers. Abstract geometric patterns and shapes within designs are a popular and well-received trend. Often referred to as a "Glitch Aesthetic," in-store designers can include physical elements that reflect digital design, appealing to a digitally-minded audience while engaging traditional customers at the same time.
This aesthetic and other digital design elements such as color bars, asymmetric patterns, and the jarring shifts in design that do feel like a true computer or technology glitch speak to an appeal of the future unknown. Here, too, open composition including plenty of literal space to invoke the potential journeys innovation creates in the universe beckons shoppers to think of the possibilities before them in the store’s products.
Creating Engaging Retail Graphics
The journey to creating engaging, innovative print graphics isn’t a one-man job, nor is the task of bringing an innovative, Gen Z-focused experiential retail design to life via mobile phones and heavy Internet usage. The Vomela Companies have the capabilities to bring those bold colors and ideas to retail spaces via close collaboration with retail graphic designers and leveraging our own experience in the field. We know that forward-thinking companies are taking risks with their design, and we’re the ones who can execute those designs and prints for them.
