The great debate between graphic designers everywhere is whether they prefer minimalist or maximalist design. 

There are many graphic design styles, including Contemporary, Flat, Scandinavian, Retro, Psychedelic, Art Nouveau, New York, Grunge, Geometric, Victorian, and a lot more. 

However, all these graphic design styles and trends can be categorised as minimalist or maximalist. 

Current graphic design trends lean more towards minimalist design, and at our design agency, our graphic artists create both minimalist and maximalist designs to fit the needs of our clients. 

Whether you are minimalist or maximalist depends on what branding you want and your overall brand feel. 

When marketing your product, your branding has to fit your brand to seem genuine, so whether you have minimalist or maximalist design is crucial in attracting the right audience for your brand,  

What is minimalist graphic design? 

Minimalist graphic design uses the most essential elements. This includes basic shapes and colour palettes to create something simple but memorable.

Less is more in minimalist graphic design; you have to remove details that aren’t important to the overall design. 

To create a minimalist graphic design, you use the power of white space and allow the shapes and designs to convey a brand message. Minimal graphic design’s key characteristics include a limited colour palate, minimal shading, and bold lifework. 

This explanation of minimalism may sound boring, but it must look anything but. Graphic design is a crucial element within branding, and if you have a boring graphic design, you have a boring brand, and no one wants that.

What is maximalist graphic design? 

Maximalist graphic design is the opposite of minimalist graphic design. To create a maximalist graphic design, you use oversaturated colour schemes and bold patterns in its design. 

Maximalism fills the page, rather than relying on white space like minimalist graphic design.  Clashing colours, patterns, competing elements, and bold layouts are common in maximalist graphic design. 

Despite maximalist graphic design’s eccentric explanation, it’s still important to get across a message and not just slap every design element onto the page and hope for the best.

Similarly to minimalist design, maximalist graphic design has its own problems. In the same way no one wants a boring brand story; no one wants a confusing one either. Your brand’s design needs to give a good user journey to potential customers so they understand your brand. 

Which design style is best for me? 

Your graphic design style depends on the branding you go with.

If your brand has a playful tone of voice and an overall playful attitude in your business, then maximalism may be more up your street, as you can play with bold and bright colours and shapes within your graphic design. 

Whereas, if you have a more serious tone of voice and a more informative attitude within business, you may opt for minimalism, so there are neutral non-distracting colours and shapes. 

This doesn’t mean you have to use maximalist design if you’re fun or minimalist design if you’re informative.

Our design agency worked with Wild England to create eye-catching minimalist graphic design that conveyed their brand personality.

Wild England wanted to inform potential customers that they are a luxurious high-end toiletry brand and to be informative about their sustainable products. After creating Wild England’s branding, we fulfilled their brief with a minimalist design featuring hand-drawn style typography and neutral colours. This displayed their dedication to creating sustainable and high-quality toiletries by appearing informative but retaining their natural and fun core with hand-drawn typography and earthy neural brand colours. 

Not everything requires minimalist graphic design. When working with Nickelodeon Adventure Lakeside, we knew that maximalist graphic design was required as Nickelodeon Adventure Lakeside’s main audience is children who aren’t so much interested in neutral colours as much as they are interested in a lot of colours. 

When it came to designing the DL leaflet and other marketing materials, we used clashing colour combinations and many graphics of various Nickelodeon characters that feature around the attraction.

Whatever you want your brand to look like, our design specialists can create the perfect designs for you. Get in touch with our Bournemouth creative studio and let the CuCo Creative team create the perfect branding and graphic design for you.