Today, our desire for authentic and genuine connections is stronger than ever. We seek it in our relationships, in our work and at play, and most certainly in the brands we are impacted by each day. As designers, we hold a great responsibility in creating meaningful experiences out of the everyday, by recognizing our ever-evolving world, what we continue to overcome and what is most important to us all.
Trends come and go like the wind, but by having the curiosity and care to reach beneath the surface, we build stronger and more memorable experiences for all. We are delighted to share our 2023 Design Trends with you. We hope you’ll feel empowered by more than the color and font inspiration and join us in our excitement about the power of design and its beautiful role in transforming our world as we know it.
Download the 2023 Design Trends report here to see what’s inspiring us now. We hope you’ll feel empowered to embody these trends and create new and meaningful connections.
April 5, 2023 | Creative
In April, our teams participated in a day of discipline-specific training that allowed each group to focus on themes most relevant to their everyday work. Our creative team chose accessibility both as a general refresher and as a deep dive into making our work more inclusive. The day started with a presentation from Lynn Wehrman, president/founder of and director of public relations at WeCo Accessibility Services.
WeCo is a company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that unites organizations with expert professionals living with disabilities. Their mission is to foster accessibility, awareness and independence for all people, regardless of their disabilities.
We approached WeCo and Lynn to help our team understand the evolving world of accessible design in both digital and physical spaces. Before we met, our team asked, “What would our accessibility checklist look like if it was created by a group of people currently living with disabilities?” Lynn came prepared with an ultimate wish list of action items for our team to focus on. Presenting the wish list and the perspectives from her team members who live with various disabilities provided our team with tangible input from people who are impacted by design decisions every day.
After our morning with Lynn, our team participated in conversations about how we can implement all facets of accessibility more concretely into our design process at Fusion Hill. There were many useful takeaways from our training day; here are a few:
- Strive for organizational awareness AND technical know-how. All team members should understand not only why this work is important but also how to technically implement accessibility standards across all types of materials.
- Consider mental health when thinking about accessibility. Cognitive disabilities cover a range of conditions, including dyslexia, depression, ADHD, epilepsy and brain injuries, as well as intellectual or memory impairment.
- Factor in more disabilities than just blindness when working on visual assets. Data from 2012 reveals the disabilities most impacted by computer use by people in the U.S.:
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- Mobility: 19.9 million
- Cognition: 15.2 million
- Blindness: 8.1 million
- Hearing 7.6 million
- Avoid making assumptions about users with disabilities. This includes viewing projects through a purely “visual” lens and making assumptions that certain disability types don’t require accessibility considerations.
We are eager to continue refining our commitment to incorporating accessibility into our design process over the next few months and beyond. One specific project we are excited to implement our learnings in is our refresh of the Fusion Hill website. Stay tuned for more updates on that later this year!
June 13, 2022 | Creative
Goodbye, subtle and clean. Hello, big and bold. In our annual review of design trends, we’re seeing some exciting changes, and they’re sparking a lot of interesting conversations here at Fusion Hill. Join us for a quick look into what’s hot this year. We hope you enjoy the report and find elements of inspiration that can be applied to the more structured world of corporate design.
March 23, 2022 | Creative
We’re so excited to announce the rebrand of Joyya! After partnering with what was then Freeset Global in 2017 to create our client holiday gifts, we were inspired to forge a deeper partnership with this great organization. In early 2019, we donated our research, strategy and creative capabilities to help them rebrand as they merged two organizations, Freeset and Common Good, into one. Learn more about our work with them.
Our cross-discipline efforts captured the inspiring work that was accomplished by Freeset, from producing ethically sourced goods to providing meaningful employment for women in West Bengal, India. We are inspired by Joyya’s life-changing work and can’t wait to see what they’ll achieve next.
Cheers to you, Joyya, on your successful rebrand!
March 11, 2022 | Creative, Research
Most of us have good intentions with our finances. But figuring out how to donate to causes we care about and save toward our goals can sometimes feel overwhelming. Spave makes it part of everyday life with an app that lets users automatically set saving and giving amounts for every purchase they make.
We connected with Spave as they were getting ready to launch their big idea, and we delivered consumer and partner insights, strategic guidance, and brand development. It all began with two waves of research. And during those 48 video interviews, we learned a lot about what nonprofit partners and consumers want – and just how Spave stands out as the first all-in-one financial app.
Fueled by these insights, our creative team was excited to put words and visuals to work, exploring a variety of style options for the new brand. Now, with a marketing toolkit, email templates, event material swag and more completed, we’re excited to help Spave’s big idea come to life.
Want to see how you can start spaving? Visit Spave now! And be sure to download the full case study here.
January 18, 2022 | Creative, Research
