2024 GUIDE TO

THE STATE OF DESIGN

HOW HAS AI 6.17 %
Presentation
2.91 %
Motion

CHANGED
Design Graphics

THE GAME6.743 %Custom

FOR CREATIVE WORKFLOWS
Illustration
/ TEAMS 2O23?

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Brand

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Designer 1

Elements

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EXPERIENCE
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TOP 10 MOST POPULAR Designer 2

Graphic
Design

DESIGN TYPES
Apps

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WHICH DESIGN SERVICES

1 2 3 M a i n St re e t, N e w Yor k Ci t y, NY 1 0 0 1 5 w w w. ve li t. com

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OF 2023
RECEIVED THE MOST BRIEFS
WHERE USERS LEVERAGED
GEN-AI TOOLS?
 INTRODUCTION
Welcome to our second annual State of Design Guide! When
we started this annual project in 2022, we wanted to create a
macro view of what’s happening in design—notable trends,
insights, inspiration—and most importantly, intelligently guide
your creations ahead each and every year.

As the leading creative subscription services company in the

world, with millions of requests under our belt, we hope our data,
analysis, and recommendations provide a fresh look at how you
can make creativity a strategic secret weapon in the year to
come.

Russ Perry In this year’s guide, we once again tackle the trends and
CEO & Founder designs we’ve seen gain popularity and how teams are being
of Design Pickle organized inside the ever-evolving demand for content. And of
course, generative AI is here to stay, impacting the content we
create and the way we work inside the creative process. We take
an updated look at these tools and their impact on the global
creative landscape throughout 2023.

Finally – and most importantly – we

want to know what you want to know!
Please never hesitate to reach out and
give us feedback and recommendations
on how we can bring even more value to
this analysis, and focus on the questions
you’d love to see answered.

help@designpickle.com

Page 1 | State of Design 2024

 3 Top 10 Most Popular Design Types of 2023
See what kind of designs make up our top 10 most popular requests from 2023, and get a
deeper dive into the four wild cards of the top 10 that might surprise you!

5 Design Trends that are Heating Up

We watched these design types pick up steam as 2023 came to a close, some design types
as much as 400+% YoY!

7 Design Trends that are Dwindling

Check out the fastest-dying request types that are less popular and being requested less
frequently into 2024.

11 Big Ways AI Changed the Game for Creative Workflows/Teams

in 2023
AI tools took off in a major way in 2023. See how they impacted the creative workflows and
state of design in the Design Pickle world.

TABLE OF 17 A Shift in Roles Responsible for Creative Output

A look at the most popular titles of our Jar users in 2023, and a peek at fast growing new

CONTENTS
titles in the Jar which signals a shift in the roles who are responsible for creative and how
new teams and departments leverage Design Pickle in their workflows to maximize creative
efficiency.

19 The Tl;dr on the State of Design and Big Bets for 2024
After combing through all of the data, trends and research, we make our bold predictions for
what you need to know in 2024!

Page 2 | State of Design 2024

 TOP 10 MOST POPULAR

DESIGN TYPES
OF 2023
IN 2023, we watched brands get even savvier with 2023’S
social media and digital advertising design requests. We saw
users get specific in their request types, more expansive in the TOP 10 MOST POPULAR
requested dimensions, and across the board, brands were
adding new channels to their mixes. DESIGN REQUEST TYPES
1 Digital Ads/Graphics
Pretty impressive. Has anyone
2 Instagram/Facebook posts
given your digital and social
teams a high-five, yet?! 3 Multi-Channel Social Campaign
4 Flyers
5 LinkedIn posts
Overwhelmingly, social media and digital media asset types 6 Motion Graphics Templates
sweep the top 10 this year again (and no one is surprised). The 7 Blog graphics
newest asset types we’re lovingly welcoming to the top 10 mix 8 Presentation design
show us how critical design is to your business. Let’s take a look: 9 Logos
10 Basic Photo Edits

Page 3 | State of Design 2024

 FLYERS
A sign we’re back to more in-person events and
brick-and-mortar experiences like shopping or
attending conferences and conventions. We’re
even seeing direct mail requests increase. The
analogue nostalgia of a good ol’ piece of paper
(recyclable, we hope) is alive and kicking.
#4 BLOG GRAPHICS #7
We attribute this #7 ranking to all you
SEO-hungry content marketers who love to
feed the algorithm beast. We offer what we
would've wanted for file formats and sizes
when we were in your shoes.
(Pro tip: For even more ROI, name your
images with keywords before uploading to
your website CMS for added search engine

FLYERS FOR TARADEL

discoverability oomph.)

#8
11,179 requests to date
PRESENTATION DESIGN
You let us deck out so many slides this year
that the entire category of Presentation Design
requests made it to #8 in the top 10 for 2023.
"Layout is effective, We know you’re out there pitching and selling
utilized the provided and teaching and learning more than ever
references and before. Kudos to those all-stars who took it up
instructions well!" a notch and added animations to their decks.
We see you. (And we love it!)

BASIC PHOTOSHOP EDITS #10

We know AI doesn’t completely have a lock on
basic Photoshop edits (or it wouldn’t be #10 in a
list of half a million request data points across
"This looks much thousands of brands in 2023). When it’s critical
"This is just what we for your basic designs to be done well, your
better than the
were looking for! dedicated production powerhouse team will
original!"
Thank you!" rock them out (with same-day turnaround for
Pro, Premium & Power users).

Page 4 | State of Design 2024

 DESIGN TRENDS
#2
COMPLEX
VECTOR ART UP 400% YOY
THAT ARE HEATING UP
AS WE HEAD INTO 2024
This is impressive, steady and continued rapid growth, especially
given that last year’s growth was 412% YoY (comparing 2021 to
2022). We expect complex vector art and edit requests to continue
to keep most of their momentum into 2024.

#1 WHY? Vector Art is the most scalable design format. Instead of

being rendered as pixels, these designs are essentially mathemati-

CONCEPT ART
cal equations of shapes that won’t pixelate when you change the
size. Complex Vector Art are impressive works that not only adhere
to the principles of infinite scalability we just explained, but can also
be detailed, highly unique, and customized.
#1 FASTEST-GROWING WHEN TO USE? Logos, fonts, icons, and other items that require
ASSET TYPE precision design, as well as large formats that need to stay precise

UP 473% YOY as they scale.

#3
We’re nerding out over the ridiculously talented illustrators MERCHANDISE &
we’re so lucky to have in the Jar! Our illustration crew grew
significantly this year to support your requests, and we love
SWAG DESIGN UP 303% YOY
seeing this particular illustration category grow. Your
characters, settings, and other concepts inspired us! This category demonstrates that spreading brand awareness with
branded merchandise and swag is still a pillar of many marketing

WHY?
Concept art sets the vibe and tone of a story, campaign,
process, brand, etc. This request is the catalyst for the
entire project and gives life to an idea.
strategies. And now, as we watch it sky-rocket in demand, we’re
also noticing a sub-trend in this category that is actually plummeting
at an alarming rate. And that sub-category is… mugs, at -22% and
falling. (We all have enough, anyway, right?)

Page 5 | State of Design 2024

 TOP 5 MOST-REQUESTED
MOTION GRAPHICS ASSETS

#3
Product Animations | Up 190% YoY

#1
Motion Graphics Templates | Up 219% YoY

#4
Animated Explainer | Up 123% YoY

#2
UI/UX Animations | Up 200% YoY #5
Advanced Titling | Up 58% YoY

Page 6 | State of Design 2024

 DESIGN TYPES THAT

DWINDLED
IN 2023
WHOOOA THERE, DROP IT LIKE IT’S HOT LIST FROM 2023:
CREATIVES! #1 FASTEST-DYING
HOLD YOUR CREATIVE HORSES CONTENT TYPE
ON THESE DWINDLING 39%
YoY

REQUEST TYPES
Dropping off at the end of 2023, we have several categories that
don’t typically trend down in Q4 and have been trending down
all of 2023, only to accelerate their own demise at the end of
December. We’re not saying you shouldn’t be different and keep
leveraging these styles and designs, but let’s just say: if brands
are moving away from it, chances are consumers and
engagement are trending that way, too (and in some cases, they
created the shift in the first place).
Pinterest | down 39% YoY
Pinterest’s user base peaked in 2021 at 487M active users, and hasn’t
yet surpassed that benchmark since. In 2023, they reported 482M at
the close of Q3. (Source) While most SEO experts and marketers will
tell you there’s still a great deal of value in visually-engaging Pinterest
pins when optimized correctly, most industries don’t benefit greatly
from this platform. If your brand is in the fashion or food spaces, it
might be for you! Otherwise, consider investing creative resources on
other platforms.

Page 7 | State of Design 2024

 #2 FASTEST-DYING TWITTER USERS WORLDWIDE 2019-2024
CONTENT TYPE 37%
450

NUMBER OF TWITTER USERS IN MILLION

400
YoY
350

300
X (Formerly Twitter) | down 37% YoY 250

The 2022 and 2023 Tsunami of divestments from Twi.. oops, X have 200
been significant, and so far we haven’t seen any signs of recovery in 150
early 2024. As consumers and brands find more effective ways to
100
visually showcase their products and services that are in less
50
controversial and more stable hands, the bird will continue to fall
behind. 0
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

#3 FASTEST-DYING
LIVE NOW

57% BREAKDOWN OF AVERAGE TWITCH

YoY
CONCURRENT VIEWERS FROM 2018 TO 2023
CONTENT TYPE LIVE CHAT

YOURNAME 2023 2.45 MILLION

2.83 MILLION
SUBSCRIBERS FOLLOWERS DONATIONS

2022
Twitch | down 57% YoY
2021 2.78 MILLION
YEAR

Twitch is slowly growing in active concurrent users, but the total user
base is still relatively small compared to other platforms. With only 2020 2.12 MILLION
31M active daily viewers compared to over 3B+ active daily users for 2019 1.26 MILLION
Facebook or 2B+ active daily Instagram, Twitch doesn’t quite have
the return on investment most brands are looking for. Those that win 2018 1.07 MILLION
on Twitch typically do so with the 18-24 crowd! AVERAGE CONCURRENT VIEWERS

Source for above charts

Page 8 | State of Design 2024

 19%
22% YoY
YoY

#4 FASTEST-
DYING TYPE
Mugs | down 22% YoY
According to global research, mug sales are still going up and
projected to continue to increase through 2030, but mugs are also
slow sellers. When we took a deeper dive at 2023 mug design #5 FASTEST-
requests, it appears branded giveaway mugs, like convention swag,
are still going strong, but mug sellers (like those on Amazon, Etsy and
other ecommerce platforms) seem to be slowing down. To mug or not
DYING DESIGN
to mug in 2024, that is the question.

Simple Icons | down 19% YoY

Simple icons, as opposed to complex vector icons or animated icons,
wrap up our last spot in the fastest-dying design types of 2023. After
several polls and some deeper research, we’re finding that
iconography is less trendy for brands, which we’re hypothesizing is
because icons don’t feel as personalized nor as intentional as
photography or illustration, and often leave a lot of room for
interpretation. Does your brand kit contain iconic icons?

Page 9 | State of Design 2024

 Tip 1: Shift your creative output to ensure you’re
using your design resources to primarily develop
creative with high return.
These are motion and video assets, digital assets, paid media,
social media, web, and whatever works to deliver ROI for your
brand.

Tip 2: Re-evaluate where your brand’s strongest

READY, SET, DESIGN audiences really live on social.

DIFFERENTLY
Are they on Pinterest or X or TikTok, or are they mostly on
LinkedIn and Instagram? What about the audience groups
you’re targeting in 2024? Focus your creative resources there.

IN 2024
Even if you still want to design mugs or other asset types
Tip 3: Shake up your brand kit to make sure
the staples you’ve always used are still working
as intended.
that we’ve just declared are dwindling (we all love a If your designs don’t convey the value you want and need
‘challenge accepted’ coworker), you’ll still want to invest in them to, rethink your visual identity in 2024; you only get a
some of the key asset types that are trending positively few seconds to make a first impression these days.
due to high return (like motion graphics, social media, web,
and more). Overall request volume increased across all
plan types and for almost all brands, so it’s not surprising
that we’re seeing brands focus their design resources in
places that will result in the best payout!

Page 10 | State of Design 2024

 HOW HAS AI BIG BRANDS IN THE CREATIVE SPACE
AND THEIR AI GAINS IN 2023:
CHANGED THE GAME
FOR CREATIVE WORKFLOWS / TEAMS IN 2O23?
ADOBE
Adobe integrated generative AI Variations

into almost all of their apps as its

users’ creative co-pilot to speed
We have been pioneering the first set of generative AI tools to
up ideation, exploration, and
hit a CaaS provider, launching our own Gen AI experiences in production. Plus, they made it
Layers

Gen 1

2023. We’ve got some exciting preliminary data that is helping safe for commercial use!
Background Image

us understand where AI helps us and where AI just gets in our

way. Design Pickle designers have
been testing this new technology Colorful toucans facing each other Generate

The goal of integrating AI into our creative workflows at Design with creative challenges lead by
our Production Leadership team.
Pickle is to empower brands who need their creative workflows
This helps them get to know how
to be more efficient and effective. So, we focused on to best leverage the new AI tools.
expediting the creative brief writing and revision feedback
using in-app AI tools.

CANVA
WE KNOW IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO BE SUCCESSFUL With Canva’s generative AI,
Share

having the image that doesn’t

Magic Media

WITHOUT THE HUMAN ELEMENT WHEN IT

Design

FEEL
Images Videos

exist yet is now easier to get

Brand

THE
Designer 1

simply by typing a text prompt.

Elements

RUSH
COMES TO EFFECTIVE CREATIVE PROCESSES.
Text

EXPERIENCE
Uploads ADVANCED

With Canva’s Magic Switch, an

SURFING!

Apps Designer 2

Just like you can’t remove humans from a lot of Magic Media Black and white image of a person
surfing BOOK NOW
asset can be transformed into
workflows (yet). We believe AI is meant to a new design or size in
123 M ain Stree t, N ew Yor k Cit y, NY 10015 w w w.ve lit.com

Generate Again

facilitate and help us evolve, which is why we’re seconds, aiming to simplify the
so focused on understanding where it’s already re-size nightmare that plagues
helping us see gains, and where it doesn’t. design teams.

Page 11 | State of Design 2024

 WAYS BRANDS ARE

LEVERAGING AI

WHICH DESIGN SERVICES RECEIVED THE MOST PUTTING THE “BRIEF”

BRIEFS WHERE USERS LEVERAGED GEN AI TOOLS? BACK IN CREATIVE BRIEFS
Leverage AI to reduce time to v-final
6.17 % 2.91 % Yes, we said it, creative briefs shouldn’t be so time-consuming!
Presentation Motion We didn’t say we don’t want all the details, but we definitely
Design Graphics
don’t want you to spend your precious time agonizing about
brief writing and trying to figure out exactly how to word your

6.743 % requests and which supporting materials to provide.

Custom

84.17 %
Illustration All along, our prediction has been that Gen AI tooling isn’t
advanced enough (at least not yet) to create the nuanced type
Graphic of “final” design that businesses need. However, Gen AI does
Design
excel at helping us communicate visually! We’ve managed to
harness this new technology’s strength in its infancy to help
users accelerate a prototype of their creative vision and serve
it up to their designer. This enables speed to market for
creative innovation like never before.

Page 12 | State of Design 2024

 Leverage AI to help pen your brief
We have been pioneering the first set of generative AI tools to hit
a CaaS provider, launching our own Gen AI experiences in 2023.
We’ve got some exciting preliminary data that is helping us
understand where AI helps us and where AI just gets in our way.
Users started with a quick description of what they’re trying to
create, and Request Assist then generated a few lines of
directions they could add to their brief (and continue generating
directions until they’re satisfied). We also watched the ways that
users leveraged the ability to create images using text prompts,
and which types of requests were most likely to see users leverage
this tool.
Later in the year, we introduced the ability to use the same Gen AI
tools they use in the request experience to help provide revision
feedback.
The results are in, and as expected, there is a set of requested assets
who enjoy a healthy improvement in the average number of revisions.

IN 2023, OUR CLIENTS USED GEN AI THE MOST WITH:

AI USE BY 1 2

DESIGN
Print Presentation
Collateral Designs

TYPE
We wanted to know overall
3
Facebook
Posts
4 Flyers
5
Instagram
Posts
which types of requests most
often saw the brief being built
6 Digital Media Ads 11 Business Cards 16 Light Web Design
in part by leveraging Request
Assist (our Gen AI text-to-text 7 Brochures 12 Sales Sheets 17 Corporate Identity Branding
prompt tool in-app). 8 Greeting Cards 13 Logos 18 Shirt Graphics
9 Icons 14 Blog Graphics 19 Infographics
10 LinkedIn Posts 15 Posters 20 Web Design

Page 13 | State of Design 2024

 TO REDUCE REVISION ROUNDS
Does using Gen AI result in a shorter time to v-final? The short
answer is, yes, for certain asset and design types, but not for
others. It seems the human element is still integral to the creative
brief process for some tedious, specific projects, whereas others
really benefit from the help of the quick ability to attach Gen AI
results as inspiration or augment existing written results in an
effort to expedite communicating your vision with your designer.

TOP 3 REQUEST TYPES

THAT EXPERIENCE FEWER PRESENTATION
ROUNDS OF REVISIONS WHEN ELEMENTS
THEY USE AI VS WITHOUT 18.97% reduction in revision rounds
#2
when using Gen AI in requests and revisions

PACKAGING PRINT COLLATERAL

DESIGN DESIGN
#1 #3
29.46% reduction in revision rounds 12.07% reduction in revision rounds
when using Gen AI in requests and revisions when using Gen AI in requests and revisions

Page 14 | State of Design 2024

 TOP 3 REQUEST TYPES #2
THAT ARE FASTER WITHOUT AI MERCHANDISE
MERCHANDISE
These
Thesedesign
rounds,
designrequest
rounds,butbutthat
requesttypes
thatdoesn’t
typesdidn’t
doesn’tmean
didn’tbenefit
meanthey
benefitfrom
theydidn’t
fromreduced
didn’tbenefit
reducedrevision
benefitfrom
revision
fromusing
using
DESIGN
DESIGN
Gen
GenAI.
AI.These
Theseareare still
still completed
completed designs,
designs, with
with an
an average
average
rating
rating of
of 4.82
4.82 stars
stars (out
(out ofof 5)
5) upon
upon completion,
completion, soso no
no bad
bad design
design
here,
here,just
justmore
morerevisions,
revisions,likely
likelydue
duetotovarying
varyingrequest
request 64.83% increase in rounds of revisions
complexity.
complexity.
when using Gen AI in requests
request and
andrevision
revisions

Unlike
Unlikethe
revision
theprevious
previousset
revisionrounds
roundswhen
setof
whenGen
ofassets
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assetswho
AIwas
whodid
wasused,
didbenefit
benefitfrom
used,we’re
fromreduced
we’recurrently
reduced
currently
WHY?
WHY? Merchandise needs to be “designed to specifications”
which means too many abstractions and approximations
are just out of the question for mock-ups, and therefore
recommending
recommendingto tocommunicate
communicatedirectly
directlywith
withyour
yourdesigner
designerfor
for better left to the human design mind (for now…)
the
thefollowing
followingtypes
typesofofrequests
requestsininorder
ordertotobest
bestconvey
conveythethe
nuances
nuancesand anddetails
detailsof
ofyour
yourdesign
designneeds:
needs:

#1 #3
WEB &
PHOTOSHOP
PHOTOSHOPEDITS
EDITS DIGITAL DESIGN
145% increase in rounds of revisions 5.72% increase in rounds of revisions
when using Gen
gen-ai
AIto
toattempt
attemptbasic
basicphotoshop
Photoshopedits
edits when using Gen AI in requests
request and
andrevision
revisions

WHY?
WHY? AI can make some basic Photoshop
majority of Gen
gen AI
AI tooling
photoshop edits, but the
tooling cannot
cannot make
make simple
simple edits
without changing other aspects of the photo, and
edits WHY?
WHY? We know Gen
gen AI
AI still
still doesn’t
doesn’t mock
mock up
up text
text very
very well,
web and digital are sometimes very text-heavy formats
well, and
and

for design. That, coupled with the added benefit that

definitely are unable to do so without merging layers, designers who design for digital and web understand
which is sometimes a critical design feature of an final layout, composition and the complexitiies
platforms for which
of the they’re
asset, especially for a request of this nature (for now…) designing.for which they designing.
platforms

Page 15
10 | State of Design 2024