According to Deposit Photos image bank, these are the photo categories that will shape 2018 visual communication:

1. High-impact images: amateur photojournalism is beginning to really boom. Increased social awareness and the fight against ‘false news’ with real images that report or testify the world we live in, is driving the trend.
2. Real people: brands are increasingly using anonymous people, not professional models, to advertise their products, allowing their audience to identify with them.
3. Nature travel: people are still the most popular subject in stock images. However, searches are now focused on people in touch with nature. One very popular trend recently born on social media is that of van life: images of people escaping their everyday routines and searching for peace in nature. Instead of dreaming about exotic travels, images are centered on the sheer joy of escaping the city.
4. Expressionless photos: this popular trend from the 1950s has returned as an easy and effective way of pushing back against highly saturated and perfect images. These honest photos show people and products as they are in real life and it’s an increasing popular theme for food-related images.
5. Moving graphics: GIFs have been around for 30 years but they are still as popular as ever. Moving images are fun and fascinating. In 2018, we’ll see a lot of experiments with images and videos. Moving graphics add another dimension to static images and combine the current trend for video with fixed images.
6. Creative collages: Cutting images, combining them in unexpected ways and playing with different tools and effects bring the unexpected to visual content. They add a creative touch of personality and visual interest to online and printed materials.
7. Color effects: to highlight content we need to opt for pure and strong colors, pastel colors or visual effects. In 2018, we’ll see more two-shades effects, technical ‘errors’ and double exposure to add an artistic touch to images.

Photo by Leo Serrat

A few simple black lines are sometimes all we need to identify a company, institution or even an idea in seconds, whatever language we speak. Logos are one the most important elements of a corporate identity. Their design can even mean the success or failure of a product or a company. The Logobook website brings together designs that have made history, from the London Underground to a football competition, or from an airline to a publishing house.

Photo by John Jennings

An icon can change the world. At least that’s what the designers collective Noun Project proclaims: “We believe using the power of visual language can make a positive impact in the world”. Their initiative Icons for Change consists in offering free icons to use for demonstrations and collectives. The themes of their designs revolve around the defence of immigrants and the environment, gender equality and respect for diversity.

Photo by Harpal Singh

The planned exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union means that the British passport will need to be redesigned. Dezeen magazine launched a competition to design a new document that “showed the world a positive view of the United Kingdom post-Brexit”. The winner was the Scottish designer Ian Macfarlane, chosen for his “simple and poetic” document in red (48%) and blue (52%), representative of the result of the referendum into the nation’s place in the EU. The organizers of the competition will submit the passport design to the British government, even if the contest wasn’t officially sanctioned.

Photo by Chris Lawton