Campaign Design · Motion · Landing Page · Localisation
Design & Marketing Trends 2025 — from a community survey to Vista's flagship report.
A trends report is only as good as the designers who answer the survey. Every year Vista asks the 99designs community what's next in design and marketing, then publishes the answers for small businesses. For the 2025 edition I designed both halves: the campaign that brought designers into the survey, and the landing page that turned their answers into the report.
Background
A report written by the design community.
Every year Vista and its design marketplace 99designs publish a Design & Marketing Trends report: what small businesses can expect in graphic design, packaging, logos, business cards, websites, marketing, fonts and colour. It isn't written in-house. It comes from a survey of 99designs designers and Vista's own marketing experts — so every edition starts with a campaign that gets designers to answer.
Challenge
Two audiences, one story, a few weeks.
- Designers come first. The report needs their answers, and professional designers scroll past generic "take our survey" asks. The invitation had to look like something a designer would want to share.
- Many channels, three markets. Feed, stories and TikTok, the 99designs site and email — in English, German and French — from one idea, on a campaign timeline.
- Then small businesses. The same answers had to become a page a business owner reads for ideas, and that leads to Vista's logo maker, business cards and design services without reading like an ad.
Thinking
A character who wears the trends.
The campaign got a face: an illustrated character by majavillosa, with the trends themselves — Cluttercore, Inflatable 3D, Digital destruction, Bold — floating around her as pink pills. I built the campaign around her and paced it in three beats, so the same audience saw a new message each time instead of the same ad again.
| Beat | Hand-written note | Headline |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Launch | "Survey is live" | What's trending in design & marketing? |
| 2 · Reminder | "Only 7 days to go" | What's sparking your imagination? |
| 3 · Final call | "Final call!" | Share your thoughts in our trends survey! |
The reason to answer was part of the message: get your work featured in the report, the blog and Vista's socials, and a draw for one of 20 × $100 American Express gift cards.
Outcome · Phase 1
One key visual, every channel.
A 24-second animated spot carries the whole story: the question, the trends as pills, "You're the expert", the prize, the call to action. The same film was cut for the square feed and for full-screen stories.
Three beats
Each beat changes the headline, the hand-written note and the layout, but keeps the palette, the grain and the character. Recognisable from the first frame, different every time.
On site and in the inbox
The key visual stretched into a wide header for the survey page, a thin promo bar across 99designs and an email hero. Every crop keeps her face and at least one trend pill in view.
Three languages
The survey ran in English, German and French. Every email, header and button was set in each language, so the longer German and French lines still break cleanly.
Outcome · Phase 2
The answers, turned into a report people scroll.
The survey answers became one long editorial page. Eight trend categories, each a chapter in its own colour, with three examples from 99designs designers, a short explanation and a link to the full article. Quotes from Vista's leaders break up the scroll.
- HeroThe question as a headline, trend tags floating like the survey's pills
- 8 chaptersGraphic design · packaging · logo · business cards · website · marketing · font · colour
- Expert voiceQuotes from Vista's VP of Digital & Design Services and Global Executive Creative Director
- CreditsEvery example signed with its 99designs designer
- Pull-throughVista products at the end, for readers ready to make something
A chapter per trend
Each category is a curve of colour with a serif headline, three tilted cards and one button. The structure repeats, so eight chapters read as one report, not eight ads.
From reading to making
The page ends with "Check out VistaPrint" and five doors: logo maker, business cards, marketing materials, design services and merch. A reader who got an idea has somewhere to act on it.
What shipped
Results
The format keeps coming back.
No campaign analytics were shared with me, so there are no numbers here. What's public says enough: Vista runs the survey-then-report format every year — the 2026 edition, by another designer, followed the same two phases.
Run every year
Survey first, report second — the same two-phase campaign ran again for 2026.
Why it matters→Why it mattersA campaign is repeated when it pays back- Survey for the 2025 report: Aug 2024
- Survey for the 2026 report: closed Aug 14, 2025
- Same promise to designers: get featured in the report and on socials
In the trade press
The 2025 trends were picked up by packaging-industry media — reach Vista didn't pay for.
Where→Where- Packaging Digest — Packaging design trends for 2025
- Packaging World — 99designs: four trends in beer & wine packaging for 2025
Community in the loop
Designers weren't just asked — their work is the report, signed with their names.
How→How- Chance to be featured in the report, blog and socials
- 20 × $100 American Express gift cards in the draw
- Every example on the landing credited to its designer
One system, many formats
One key visual adapted to feed, stories, TikTok, site, email and the landing — in three languages.
What it covers→What it covers- Animated spot, 1:1 and 9:16
- 3 beats × feed and stories, TikTok backgrounds
- Survey page header in EN · DE · FR
- Promo bar and email in EN · DE · FR
- Report landing, 8 chapters
What I'd measure next time
- Survey completions by channel and beat. Which of launch, reminder and final call actually brings designers in.
- Report to product. Clicks from each chapter and from the closing block to the logo maker, cards and design services.
- Organic reach. Search traffic and backlinks to the landing in the months after launch.
Illustration by majavillosa. Trend examples on the landing are by 99designs designers. No campaign data was shared, so no performance figures are shown.
Selected visuals
The campaign, frame by frame.
