It is difficult to survive in today’s online world without good design! Websites, beer bottles, logos, or book covers; you name it, if the graphics aren’t convincing, the product or service’s popularity will inevitably suffer. It has the power to make or break so many things. 2020 would certainly have a significant effect on 2021, since it was a year that changed the standard in a variety of ways.
In 2021, this will most likely be expressed in graphic design. Following those who excel at what they do and watching how they adjust or adapt to changing situations is a great way to remain on top of the design game and find inspiration. As a result, the value of learning design from the best cannot be overstated. As a result, this article features some of the best graphic design artists from 2021.
Jessica Walsh
Jessica Walsh (born October 30, 1986) is an artist, art director, illustrator, and educator from the United States. She was a partner in the design firm Sagmeister & Walsh from 2010 to 2019, and the founder of the creative agency &Walsh from 2019 to the present. She has worked as a teacher at the School of Visual Arts (SVA).
Jessica is a designer who sees A-List clients including Jay-Z and Levis competing for her design talents on a regular basis as one half of New York City’s renowned Sagmeister and Walsh. Her designs are retro and colorful, with strong 1950s influences. Consider Mad Men with a splash of color.
Jason Santa Maria
Jason Santa Maria is a graphic designer who adores letters. He is the founder of the Brooklyn-based design company Mighty, as well as a faculty member at SVA’s MFA Interaction Design program, a cofounder of A Book Apart, and the creator of Typedia, a collaborative online encyclopedia of typefaces.
It will take us all day to list all of the titles that this influential designer possesses. His intense appreciation of typography and conventional print elements is evident in his social media posts. While he is not on Instagram, Jason’s Twitter account provides a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a genius graphic designer.
Steven Harrington
Harrington grew up drawing and painting and wanted to pursue a career in art during high school. His high school teacher, who told him about the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, had a big impact on him. Harrington enrolled in college-level Art Center courses while still in high school and later attended the Art Center for his undergraduate studies. After graduating from college, he founded National Forest, a design company and creative agency based in Glendale, California. National Forest’s most recent projects include a Nike Sportswear line, a seasonal campaign for Burton Snowboards, an outdoor campaign for Target, and an in-store campaign for Aldo.
Take one look at Steven’s outlandish Instagram feed and you’ll understand why he’s been dubbed “the king of a modern Californian psychedelic-pop aesthetic.” His design style engages and distorts the viewer’s viewpoint, resulting in incredible talking points, whether on the side of a shoe or a conventional canvas.
David Schwen
David’s eye-catching designs often combine mold-like designs and eye-catching animation with everyday photography. His razor-sharp wit and years of design experience combine to create an Instagram account that is sure to provide a nice pick-me-up, if not big design inspiration. If you want to learn from a famous graphic designer who isn’t afraid to use bright colors, David is your guy.
After a decade in the advertising industry, David Schwen felt it was time to strike out on his own. As the founder and artistic director of Dschwen for the past five years, he has gained new business by actively designing and sharing passion projects. David’s broad social media audience allows him to gain direct input on his work while also showcasing skills to prospective clients.
Lauren Hom
Lauren’s whimsical and entertaining typography fills (or rather ticks) all of her Instagram account’s boxes. She was named one of “Today’s Most Influential Graphic Designers” by Creative Bloom. With only one look at her feed, you’ll understand why clients like Starbucks, Google, and Time Magazine are scrambling to incorporate her complex typography into their campaigns.
Lauren Hom is a letterer, artist, and educator. She describes herself as a “artist with a business brain,” and began hand lettering as a hobby while studying advertising at the School of Visual Arts. She leveraged a few clever passion projects into a flourishing freelance lettering-focused company over the next few years (thanks to the power of the internet).
David Milan
David Milan is a 3D artist and designer who works in a variety of mediums, including typography and illustration. He sees letters in a different light and prefers to avoid the concept of “perfection that surrounds lettering and typography nowadays.” He enjoys working with and playing with different colors, textures, shapes, and forms.
All the international acronyms are flocking to the door of this influential designer, art director, and lettering artist. MTV, HBO, CNN…you name it, he’s worked on it. David’s raw typography style draws on traditional and digital methods to produce eye-catching designs for clients, which he treats his followers to through social media postings.
Chuck Anderson
Chuck has had clients such as ESPN, Vans, and Nike vying for his design skills since launching his own studio (No Studio) at the age of 18. His colorful designs are an excellent example of how to be a graphic designer in today’s world. Each style is inspired by real-life, in-the-moment photography that captures the hustle and bustle of daily life.
Chuck Anderson is a Chicago-based graphic designer, photographer, and creative director. He founded NoPattern at the age of 18 without any formal education or training. He is the proud father of a daughter named Sylvie and serves as the Creative Director at MKTG Chicago in addition to operating NoPattern Studio.
Lotta Nieminen
Lotta Nieminen Studio is a graphic design, art direction, and illustration studio that creates multidisciplinary visual solutions for clients. The studio works as a creative partner in all areas of branding, bringing visual identities to life through thoughtfully designed print and digital implementations, and is passionate about discovering the right tools to execute content-driven visuals.
Lotta Nieminen, who is originally from Finland, studied graphic design and illustration at the University of Art and Design Helsinki and the Rhode Island School of Design before establishing her New York-based studio in 2012. She has been nominated for many awards, including Forbes magazine’s annual 30 Under 30 list, the Art Directors Club Young Guns award, and Print magazine’s New Visual Artist.
June Digan
June, a graphic artist, illustrator, and letter writer from Manila, Philippines, uses watercolor and pencil sketches to create a color-gradient posting method on Instagram. If you’re looking for graphic design courses on the art of watercolor, all you have to do is watch her time-lapse videos to learn from a pro!
June Digan is a painter and illustrator who works in both traditional and interactive media. She enjoys telling stories with delicate characters, whimsical backgrounds, and lettering.
Leta Sobierajski
Leta Sobierajski is a New York-based independent artist and art director who combines conventional graphic design elements with photography, art, and styling to produce truly original visuals. Her work is extremely varied, ranging from traditional identities to beautifully bizarre compositions.
Leta is a graphic designer who embraces quirks to produce innovative concepts for her clients. She is eclectic, powerful, and never one to stick to the status quo. Leta’s Instagram feed is a great representation of her out-of-this-world personality and artistic mentality, with outrageous shapes and color combos the rule.
Luke Choice
Luke is a well-known Australian graphic designer who left his home country to accept the design influences of the United States. His workshop, Velvet Spectrum, is now based in Portland, Oregon, and focuses on the art of visual storytelling. When it comes to visual storytelling, Luke’s designs are unapologetically vivid and amazingly on-brand.
Luke works across various fields, including 3D Design, Animation, Typography, and Illustration, with clients such as Adobe, Nickelodeon, Adidas, Google, and Nike. Luke is actively developing unique projects in the print, digital, and virtual worlds, with a portfolio focusing on visual storytelling through the use of expressive color and composition.
Dana Tanamachi
Dana Tanamachi is a Brooklyn, New York-based designer. Until recently, she worked at Louise Fili Ltd, a fantastic agency specializing in restaurant and food design and packaging. Dana made some printers out of chalk on slates as a hobby. Her job, however, is so well-known that she now devotes her time to it full-time.
What began as a chalk illustration at a housewarming party has transformed Dana into a globally recognized and prominent graphic design artist who has piqued the interest of Google, among many others. Her distinct lettering and typography style is full of carry and floral elements that have even made it to the cover of O Magazine.
Joshua Davis
Joshua Davis is a digital media designer, technologist, poet, and artist from the United States. He is best known as the founder of praystation.com, which won the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica in 2001 for “Net Vision / Net Excellence.”
If you’ve ever been to a Deadmau5 concert, Joshua’s Instagram feed may look familiar to you. Joshua does not confine his art to the page and often prefers to highlight his work on the concert stages of world-famous musicians. His designs make use of “hardware and software to create algorithmic image making,” resulting in a futuristic, almost extra-terrestrial design style.
Anthony Burrill
Will is best known for his text-based designs, and some of his work can be seen on permanent display at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. Anthony’s designs are a welcome addition to anyone’s Instagram feed, whether you want to advance your graphic design career or just enjoy a good piece of art.
Anthony Burrill is a distinctive voice of modern graphic design, best known for his thought-provoking posters printed in letterpress. He’s never worked for any design agency, and his first studio was set up at home — at his kitchen table.
Mike Perry
Anyone who has seen Comedy Central’s Broad City can recognize Mike’s distinct design style from their ‘Mushrooms’ episode and psychedelic logo. This not only landed him on the Emmy Awards stage as the recipient of the ‘Motion Design Jury Award,’ but it also ensures that his memorable creations are recognised the world over for their quirky drawings and colors.
Mike Perry is an Emmy Award-winning artist who creates paintings, animation, sculptures, books, public art installations, monographs, exhibits, sketches, silkscreens, and other works. His artistic goal is to evoke the sense of soul-soaring wonder that you get when you look into distant galaxies on a dark night, when you go on long journeys into your mind, when you wonder what this life is all about.
Tad Carpenter
As the son of two photographers, Tad was destined for a career in graphic design from the moment he picked up his first pencil. He now runs Carpenter Creative, a studio he co-founded with his wife, and has produced stunning illustrations for more than 20 children’s books and concert posters.
Tad Carpenter is an illustrator and artist who has collaborated with Target, Atlantic Records, Hallmark Cards, and Kidrobot, as well as published several children’s books. He lives in Kansas City, Missouri, and teaches at the University of Kansas.
Will Bryant
Will Bryant is an Austin-based artist, designer, and illustrator. He’d like to think that his work is lighthearted, exuberant, and sometimes funny. He continues to create a body of work in the forms of painting, drawing, printmaking, and sculpture, in addition to working with brands.
This “trained goofball” has worked with not only Nickelodeon and Converse, but also The White House. His designs may conjure up images of Saved by the Bell’s iconic opening credits, but rest assured that Will’s designs are works of exceptional originality that you won’t want to miss.
Rob Lowe
Rob, who goes by the moniker Supermundane, is a well-known graphic designer who is fully interested in all things design, even going so far as to reside in an exclusive artist’s community on Havelock Walk. Rob’s design style is unique and distinct, and he has been commissioned to illustrate for publications such as Anorak and Fire & Knives.
Rob Lowe is Supermundane, a London-based graphic artist known for his signature geometric illustrations that play with line, color, and optical effects.
Alex Trochut
Alex is another popular graphic designer who is always pushing the limits when it comes to making projects of outrageous shapes and colors, from the center of creative art in Barcelona to the mean streets of New York City. Rob’s artwork is a personal favorite of Katy Perry, and he created the cover for her chart-topping hit, Roar, in 2013.
Alex has collaborated across disciplines to create design strategies that are customized to each client’s specific needs. Alex collaborates with a diverse range of clients in music, design, editorial, and other fields.
Jennet Liaw
Jennet’s raw design style shines through in every post on her Instagram account. Don’t just take our word for it: her use of texture and imperfect brush marks results in beautifully eye-catching designs. Her designs have also been approved by HarperCollins. Jennet’s creations are exquisitely handcrafted and a welcome addition to any feed.
Her down-to-earth demeanor, combined with the dreamy visual landscapes she makes, has given her a sizable fan base. We had the privilege of chatting with Ms. Liaw about her experiences as a Nike designer, her childhood in the Bay Area, and other topics. The full interview can be found below.
Debbie Millman
Debbie is a well-known graphic designer who lives, breathes, and eats branding. So much so that she co-founded The School of Visual Arts in New York City’s first-ever graduate program in branding! Anyone interested in advancing their graphic design career should follow her on Twitter, where she shares updates on her podcast, Design Matters.
One of the world’s first podcasts was Design Matters. The film, which has been broadcasting independently for 15 years, is about how extremely imaginative people plan the arc of their lives.
Kelli Anderson
Kelli thrives on collaborating with and producing “easy things that don’t behave as intended.” Staying inside the lines and using standard design frameworks is not Kelli’s design M.O., and one look at her Instagram feed will reveal just how good the results can be when you push the norms of graphic design.
Kelli Anderson re-designs everyday items to go beyond their ordinary roles and construct unexpected interactions, from wedding invites to Utopian newspapers.