How to adapt design trends for email creatives.

Designing for multiple platforms (i.e. print, web, mobile, and email) can be a tricky feat. In order to launch successful campaigns, you need to ensure you are staying up to date with all the latest web design trends. Continue reading to learn what design trends are up and coming and how you’ll be able to cohesively format them to fit all platforms.

Trend #1: Large Background Images

More and more websites are using large stock photos as background images on the home page to make an impactful first impression. These images catch the user’s eye right off the bat by illustrating the message the company is trying to convey. These web design trends apply to emails as well. Like the web, the hero image is the first thing the user sees upon opening an email. With the proper image, you’ll be able to win over your user and deliver your company’s to drive successful click-through rates.

Trend #2: Grid-Based Design

Grid-based design, also known as the tiles design approach, has been one of the up-and-coming web design trends. Whether you use the same size tile to highlight products or different size tiles to make something stand out over the other, this design is very attractive to the eye. Not only is it responsive-friendly with the tiles stacking nicely on different screens, but it also looks enjoyable on any screen size.

Trend #3: Split Screens

One of the more interesting web design trends is a split-screen layout, in which a vertical break divides portions of the page into two or more parts. This layout is ideal for companies that have two valuable products, services, or angles they want to promote. A split-screen layout is an enjoyable touch to promote two items within that space.

Trend #4: CSS3 Animation

Once CSS3 was released, designers and developers have been creating more attractive CSS animations within websites. With the increased browser support for keyframes and transitions, it’s only natural to see what designers and developers will be able to accomplish with CSS4. Although CSS animations are not fully supported with email clients, using animated gifs is. Contrary to popular belief, GIFs do not need to appear cheesy or outdated. With the right assets, you can create a stunning animation for email and carry it into your web design.

What’s Next For Email?

• Video: With the advance of HTML5 video within websites and the slow death of Flash, video is the next big thing for email. However, we need to ensure of all the major email clients are able to render videos before we can truly adopt this tool consistently into our emails.
• Dynamic Content: Dynamic content within an email is on the rise. Twitter feed is already a prime example. Litmus explains how within this formatting, “images are linked to a single source file, which gets dynamically overwritten to display a new image for a certain subset of subscribers based on pre-defined personalization parameters.”
• Apple Watch: With the launch of the Apple Watch and other smartwatches, reading email on your wrist is the next mobile trend. Adapting to the smaller screen and staying on top of upcoming technological trends will keep your email campaigns successful.
• Gmail’s Promo Tab: Designing for Gmail’s promo tab within Inbox is similar to the tile-based design. However, coding the html is the tricky part.