What Graphic Style for Your Website? Trends and Inspirations

Today more than ever, your prospects and future customers are online!

In fact, your website (and your social networks!) have become the first point of contact between you and your target audience.

It is the showcase that will allow you to:

Build your brand image
Communicate your commercial message
Make yourself visible on search engines
Seduce and then capture your audience

Therefore, your website’s content and message must be well thought of, in terms of … :

Offer: your products and services must be regularly updated to match the reality of your business
Content: your texts and articles need to be carefully thought out to be the most meaningful and informative
Navigation: your visitors must be able to access information and complete their goals as easily as possible

… but also, and this is what we’ll cover in depth today, in terms of Design.

As with any form of creation, the Graphic Design of a website is influenced by fashionand trends that are more or less relevant depending on your industry and your goals.

For the uninitiated, choosing a suitable graphic line is therefore a difficult choice, and it is advisable to hire the services of experts in Digital Marketing in order to hit the mark!

In this article, KNOK STUDIOS will focus on presenting you the different graphic lines that you can choose for your website, defending their respective pros.

Also, we will introduce you to the concept of Styleboards and explain how they can help in choosing the style for your website.

The “3D” style, to highlight your expertise or creativity.

3D flip menu by Minh Pham

What are the pros of the 3D Style?

The use of 3D to illustrate a website is a fundamental trend that is growing year after year on the internet.

One of the main advantages of the 3D style is that it allows to achieve a very realistic result, and to animate scenarios that would be complicated or even impossible in real situations.

This style allows a story to be told with objects and elements that seem real, which increases the effect and the feeling of immersion. This style also allows, among other things, to highlight all the technical capacities of a group or a project.

When to choose a 3D style?

Depending on your industry / sector of activity, you will find different utilities for using 3D.

Luxury, cars, new technologies and more generally, manufactured products.

These industries will gladly use 3D representations of their products so that their users can observe them from every angle, and even more.

Indeed, the 3D diagrams also make it possible to show by “cut” the various elements which make up a product, a car, a watch, a high-tech device.

It is then a question of emphasizing on the know-how, the precision and the technologies implemented, qualities which are sometimes unsuspected, but which deserve to be highlighted.

3D is therefore an excellent educational tool to show the consumer all the mechanics behind a product, and therefore makes it possible to justify a high-end marketing placement.

The Penzhydromash company uses animated 3D on their website to illustrate their creation of systems for the oil, gas, chemical and petrochemical industries.

Construction, real estate and architecture

These areas, we know, have been pioneers in the use of 3D, using this tool since the end of the 90s.

Why is that ? Because, apart from the classic “hard” models (but which can still be expensive!), it is the only way to give life or to make a representation of a life-size project in order to promote it.

But in this context, 3D simulations are not only of commercial interest. They make it possible to simulate real conditions in order to provide additional light and expertise.

It may for example be a matter of simulating various climatic conditions in order to account for the appearance of a building, and thus to better understand its behavior and its integration into the real landscape, or even to report on the capabilities of the building. dating and use by men.

The Vallorec group uses animated 3D on their website to present their expertise in stadium construction.

Creation and Marketing

These are naturally industries where 3D can reach its full purpose and its genius. Without any physical constraint, 3D makes it possible to create entire universes from A to Z. Creatives can therefore use their imagination with no limits, with the help of the virtual tools, and provoke very real emotions or feelings in the viewer.

It can also be a question of mimicking reality or adding a touch of fantasy. This type of use is very present on the most recent websites, as we can see on the website of our Web Design agency:

Are you looking at Outsourcing 3D Art in Vietnam? Contact us now!

The “Graphic” style, to efficiently convey complex information.

Kimoby, promoting their mobile SMS communication application.

What are the pros of the “Graphic” style?

Another style that can be found in businesses is the graphic style.

This style consists of abstract vector shapes, brightly colored wallpapers, diagrams and tables, all put together to tell a story or describe a service.

These elements are not put together randomly: their mix and their coordination make it possible to visually convey a message.

This style is perfect when we want to give our site and our message a certain simplicity. The message is clear, often summed up in a few sentences, and the emphasis is on illustration.

When to choose a “Graphic” style?

This style will be particularly suited to high-tech industries or to highly complex business sectors, where information and instruction are king.

In order to retain visitors in search of precise information in a digestible way, it is necessary to take them through a visual teaching method as refined as possible.

This is therefore particularly relevant for the following business industries:

Banks and financial institutions
Insurance
Education
Legal
Logistics

and also:

Development of web and mobile applications, software or IT services.

Color on Code, services for the creation and development of mobile applications.

Syscoin, online crypto currency platform

The “illustrative” style, for a peaceful and human message.

Perlego, online bookstore

What are the pros of the “Illustrative” style?

This style can be declined in graphic illustrations, or “handmade” illustrations.

Hand-made illustrations are often imperfect, giving the creation a human and light touch. This is particularly suitable for services that are intended to be intimate and personal.

The websites which use this style thus resemble books in a certain way (children’s books, beautiful books, etc.). Thus, a certain poetry emerges from these creations.

When to choose an “Illustrative” style?

A style like this will be particularly relevant for all “serious” subjects, which, for matters of sensitivity, must be treated with tact and gentleness, to “de-dramatize” the issues. This is to avoid, for example, the use of real images considered too “graphic” or even shocking.

Thus, this style is suitable in priority for the following industries:

Hygiene, Medicine and Health
Personal services
Non-Governmental Organizations and Associations

In other circumstances, the illustrative style can be used by companies on a human scale, which wish to highlight “Handmade” qualities.

Examples:

Food and drinks
Fashion and creation

Koox, and their refined food products

The minimalist style, to get straight to the point.

Fllow, project management software

What are the pros of the “Minimalist” style?

This style is used to convey simple messages or to prompt decision making / action.

Its stance is the following: Excess information (text or image) hinders conversion.

Consequently, Minimalism is generally based on three components reduced to their simplest expression: a photograph, a text, and a call to action (button) … in order to generate a maximum of leads / sales.

But make no mistake: the minimalist style is far from the easiest to produce.

It requires a real culture of the slogan, namely to master impact and conciseness, but also to have a perfect knowledge of visual rules in order to master empty spaces and the right proportions.

When to choose the “Minimalist” style?

Big brands

Apple and their latest iPad Pro

This style is often found in major brands that stand out as much as possible, to highlight a single service or product.

By “purifying” or “standardizing” their design, the big brands no longer really seek to differentiate themselves, but on the contrary, to have their products adopted by the greatest number, so that they are no longer really considered. as “brands”, but as simple everyday objects.

Scotch, fridge, even iPhone or iPad are all terms created by brands that have created or supplanted words, often using minimalism.

Marketing

Intercom, chat bot marketing solutions, live chat, emailing campaigns and push notifications.

This last example goes in the direction of “conversion before aesthetics”. Thus the marketing sector (or an X or Y marketing campaign) will choose minimalism.

The “photorealistic” style, to make you dream with the real world.

Ralph Lauren and their new collections

What are the pros of the “photorealistic” style?

Unlike the minimalist style, here the emphasis is on an uninhibited use of photographs.

This style is perfect for highlighting products, places, a lifestyle.

It allows you to show and stage people in specific contexts, perfect when you want to tell a story that involves human relationships.

Using photos of people, whether they are in a situation or looking directly at the lens, makes it possible to directly touch the emotions of visitors.

When to choose the “photorealistic” style?

The photographs used can be deeply thought out (in their staging, their composition), with a real artistic approach, or they can also be basic, depending on the chosen industry.

In the first case, this style is particularly suitable for areas of creativity. :

Fashion, clothing and accessories
Lifestyle
Luxury

Lacoste

The second example of “simple” photographs is more suitable for industries that revolve around nature and authenticity. In the following cases, a real world photo will be worth all marketing campaigns:

Tourism

Ice Website

Food and Beverage

Vntea, by KNOK STUDIOS

The “artsy” or “conceptual” style, to stand out and inspire.

Si le soleil uses different elements seen above in a unique mix. Photographs, graphics, illustrations, minimalism … assembled here to sell sailboat cruises

What are the pros of the “artsy” and “conceptual” styles?

This style is made up of a mixture of illustration and photography, which come together and give an artistic direction to the brand.

It is effective for communicating on abstract things such as values, an atmosphere, a lifestyle.

When to choose an “artsy” or “conceptual” style?

This style is often seen in the world’s biggest brands and trendsetters.

They often have nothing more to prove, except precisely in terms of creativity. They can then dare to take creative risks to inspire their target.

This style is therefore more difficult to choose when a business is still at the launch stage and therefore unknown to the general public.

However, if done well, it is a visual direction that can strongly impact and seduce.

The industries that match well with it:

Art
Press and cultural media
Lifestyle
Fashion and Clothing
Event

The House Hunters Journey, a website that offers you to find the house of your dreams

In conclusion, what to choose? The Styleboards solution

Choosing the right visual style to showcase your services and products, and to illustrate the problems your business solves, will determine the website’s success with your audience. And as we have seen, different styles can be relevant for the same concept or the same industry.

So, before you make a final decision on one or the other, why not just do some testing?

This is what KNOK offers you!

For you, we make a “Styleboard”.

What’s a styleboard?

This is a graphic proposal, one or more boards, incorporating the main elements and guidelines of the visual identity of your website: fonts, colors, shapes, atmosphere, composition.

Case study: Dental clinic

Recently, KNOK were hired by a dental clinic in Vietnam to realize, prior to the creation of the website, a collection of 3 styleboards. These 3 styleboards explore different graphic universes and quickly give a concrete example of what the identity of the final website could be.