Perhaps more than any year in recent memory, branding ruled the roost in 2023. Rebrands, logos, and visual identities captured the attention of our readers across the board in our best-performing stories, and it’s easy to see why when you consider the heated debates bubbling away about originality, heritage and maximalism online and off, let alone how some of the biggest global brands handled their redesigns this year.
Case in point: who can forget the summer of Silicon Valley shake-ups? Back in June, Elon Musk binned one of the most iconic logos to be committed to paper, swapping the blue bird for an X, with new brands rolling out for Threads and Facebook too. Across the year, graphic design intersected with big names in sports, with Team GB and Fifa taking stock of their brand assets. And yet, while mammoth commercial stories commanded attention, underneath it all we still felt the power of self-initiated design projects and imperfect, thoughtful craft. Juri Okita still topped the list with her wobbly veg typography, as From Form did with a grainy, fragmented flipbook.
