Shutterstock’s 2020 Creative Trends Foresee You’ll Be Spellbound This Year

By Mikelle Leow, 16 Jan 2020

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

It’s the start of a new decade, and if you’re planning on experimenting beyond minimal design, Shutterstock has a few ideas that could leave you starry-eyed.

The stock image provider has just unleashed its ninth annual Creative Trends Report, and based on data from billions of searches over the past 12 months, it expects that three major themes will dominate the coming year.

The first is the ‘Roaring 2020s’, which celebrates the bold 1920s a century on. According to Shutterstock, searches for “gold pattern” spiked 4,223 percent in the past year, with a 189-percent surge in “20s retro.”

In 2020, ‘Occulture’ is expected to be in the charts thanks to Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha’s growing enchantment with alternative faiths and long-standing rituals. The keyword “magic” has enjoyed an incredible 525-percent jump, while searches for “spiritual” are up 289 percent.

Florals are returning “in full bloom,” Shutterstock describes—but they won’t be the dainty sort. “The floral visuals of tomorrow are big, bright and in full bloom,” the platform explains. In the past year, searches for “flowerscape” went up 141 percent, whereas “bloom” blossomed by 136 percent.

“This year’s data points toward the pursuit of meaning, happiness, and opportunity in new creative projects—traits that may be reflective of the uncertainty in our climate and the year ahead,” explains Lou Weiss, CMO at Shutterstock, in a press statement.

Aside from these three leading trends, Shutterstock analyzed the searches of 25 countries around the world and spotted five more themes anticipated to go big in 2020. These include mainstays like “minimalistic black” and classic arts like “Chinese ink painting,” as well as contemporary topics like “wild life” and sports photography.

The full creative trends report can be viewed here.

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