The Internet evolves so rapidly and frequently that web designers are left constantly catching up, trying to stay in step and not fall behind. What works for users and clients today, what provides great visuals and strengthens a brand—could be completely replaced by something else within a month. And not just something different, but drastically different. That’s why web designers must keep up with the times, with trends, and especially with typography—because it’s the foundation of every project we work on.
2018 promises to be very interesting, largely because many ideas from the past couple of years are gaining new momentum. These very ideas may be just what’s needed to shake up the seemingly stagnant and uninspired atmosphere within the design world—not just web design. Over time, many things have become taken for granted, and we’ve stopped asking ourselves: “What if we just tweak this a little?”
To understand what’s currently happening and what changes we should prepare for, let’s take a look at the key new ideas in typography this year and try to find sources of inspiration.
Chaos
Cleanliness, calmness, and the simplicity of the internet are fading. In their place come large, bold, chaotic, and broken website layouts—ones where users might initially feel slightly disoriented. On one hand, you might think this trend confuses users and makes a site harder to explore. But in reality, many visitors are willing to dive into light, non-intrusive chaos and immerse themselves in exploration within a creative environment. Take, for example: oneandall, johnjattoh, solo, .tde, lamborghiniporrentruy. All of them use asymmetry in typography or a touch of chaos—not enough to confuse, but enough to engage and keep the information easily digestible.
Serifs
Moving away from rigid, straight-lined minimalism, serif fonts are making a comeback. As a result, web design gains a unique warmth and personality. Just like the growing emphasis on “storytelling,” “connection with users,” and “creating personal contact” in branding and commerce, serif fonts have become a great way to add elegance and sophistication to your web work. Business sites often mix a standard sans-serif with a serif, but if you decide to use two serif fonts together, your visitors are likely to feel a sense of coziness and care coming from you as a designer.
This trend also touches on 1970s-era type styles. Freelancer designer and founder of Typewolf Jeremy Shure said: “One typography trend I can confidently predict for 2018 is a warm, awakening 1970s-style serif. I believe it’s a response to the cold, rigid neo-Gothic fonts like Helvetica, which have dominated web design for too long.”
Take a look at: chobani, schlossfarrach, misterandmissus, ducasse-paris, markmanson, victoryadvisor
Overlays, Masks, Exposures
Big, bold, and bright—that’s how fonts will be remembered in 2018. While overlays weren’t widespread at the start of the year, they’re definitely catching attention now. More often, we’ll see parallax backgrounds, animated effects, and stunning photography with text either layered over or allowing the background to shine through the letters. It looks absolutely striking and unique.
Examples include: latinmedios, .t-pohlmann, papertiger, interword
Simple Underlining
Whether web designers use color to highlight a part of a paragraph, underline a word in a sentence, or use a different font for a key link, highlighting elements in typography is a fact. Today, many websites draw users’ attention to specific areas using “traditional” methods. Usually, that means a color change or increased font size.
But instead of adding extra whitespace around important words or illustrations, in 2018 designers are opting for simple underlines to emphasize what they want users to click. This classic method doesn’t distract yet still draws attention. Think of how teachers would underline key concepts on a chalkboard—once or twice for emphasis. What’s new? It’s the same old trick—and it works.
You can see this trend on wired, biron. It’s not a new concept, but one many designers tried to abandon. For a while, that was trendy—but now font or color changes are becoming secondary again.
Variable Fonts and OpenType
One size fits all works for sweaters or hats—but not fonts. And sometimes even italic and bold aren't enough. Read John Hudson’s article on font variability. In essence, OpenType changes happen along various axes, but thanks to its cubic system, understanding how it works and pairing styles is much easier.
Yes, we’re talking about OpenType fonts (vector-based) and the newer OpenType Font Variable format, or OT1.8. The idea is that a single font file can store multiple font styles within the same family—as long as they share common interpolation. The axes can include proportions, contrast, weight, size, or animation. So instead of using multiple font files, you can use one and store it on your server. That reduces server requests. One file loads—and all variations are accessed from it. For more, check out this piece on Type.today.
Ultimately, the trend is heading toward a gradual shift to font containers.
Handwritten Style
Year after year, this style returns—and 2018 is no exception. We’ll see many sites using handwritten typography, both as fonts and as original hand-drawn titles or logos. Usually, this applies to headings or logos. And in this case, we're not talking about a calligraphy-style font, but actual handwriting that’s been scanned and refined in Photoshop or Illustrator.
Examples include: mitsugutakahashi, thewildhoneypie, europejski, dreamgreens, earthwindandflowers, gedpalmer
Gradients
Gradients are everywhere these days. When Instagram changed its logo background to a gradient, the internet collectively gasped. But now, that’s just something that happened. As users got used to gradients appearing here and there, it became natural that this effect would continue its dominance in 2018. What’s new is that typography, long untouched by the gradient trend, is now getting in on the action. Instead of being limited to backgrounds, gradients are being applied directly to the letters. Depending on their placement, these gradients might look 3D or stay simple and flat.
Of course, background gradients are still evolving and gaining popularity, as we’ve discussed before. But in typography, they’re simply called “color transitions”. Web designers are encouraged to start combining them with text right now—to get ahead of the curve. Just look at: lucasbigot, heatwaves, thorkelsdottir, beargrylls, olivier-guilleux
Maximalism
On the opposite end of the minimalism spectrum lies maximalism. If you haven’t noticed yet, the “maxi” trend makes your typography big, bold, and impossible to ignore. And right now, maximalism is gaining even more traction than ever before. Instead of clean, small menus and headings, we’re seeing increased scale and daring choices. Still, they fulfill their purpose and are effective—especially when whitespace is used wisely. We’d call this “minimalist maximalism”: everything’s smooth and simple—but larger.
Check out: antoni, tde, migrantsmallbusiness, annethai, resn-experiment, michaelcorrey, b4xvi
Broken Kerning
Let’s recall: kerning is the spacing between letter pairs. That’s what we’re talking about here. Look at the texts we read every day. We perceive them as comfortable because the spacing feels even and easy to read. We simply expect every block of text to be symmetrical and balanced. But in 2018, kerning styles are changing. More space between letters gives websites a cleaner, more open feel—visitors won’t feel cramped when reading headlines or copy. Sure, it’s unconventional to space letters out so widely—but when done right, it helps hold attention and improves user experience. Readers feel they’re truly browsing, not just “clicking and bouncing.”
Naturally, this trend isn’t for long-form text—but it works great in titles and captions. In short: don’t cram your type like rush-hour subway riders. Let the letters breathe a little. See it in action on: jlantunes, winterworkweek, pioneeringwomen, seasoncreates, lapeaudelours
Fonts: The Big Picture
Just like in the past two or three years, in 2018 we’ll continue to see a creative mix of typography styles in web design. Geometric sans-serifs like Montserrat and Roboto are returning to popularity, alongside serif fonts such as Rufina and Baskerville, and even typewriter-style monospaced fonts like Arvo.
Large-scale typography is becoming a key element in design, which means font choices will need to be more deliberate than ever—some fonts must highlight a brand, others must be legible and reader-friendly.
What’s Next?
These are just a few of the biggest typography trends we’ll be seeing this year. Some readers might think these trends apply only to personal or artistic projects, not client work—but that’s a misconception. You don’t need to mix all trends at once. Often, just one trend per project is enough. The key is the meaning and experience you’re building for your users—that’s the art (in the literal sense here). What’s truly interesting is to look back at what was trendy a few years ago, observe how it evolved, see what succeeded, what changed, and what faded away unnoticed. And no, don’t just discard the outdated—you might be able to transform something forgotten into something new.
Final Thoughts
Saying the world of fonts and typography is expanding rapidly would be an understatement. Designers and webmasters are pushing those boundaries every day, creating true works of typographic art—reliable design tools that can respond quickly to ever-changing technologies.
This year will bring us fresh ideas and trends—many of which sound beautiful even by name. Picture this: gradient typography, double exposure, maximalist styles, and more. As they say, there’s no such thing as a bad font—just a poorly chosen pairing. Even bad kerning can’t ruin a great font.
The thing about trends is—they often revive what we once thought was dead. But now, it’s reborn with a modern twist.