The democratisation of design software with new free tools, the proliferation of video tutorials as a way of having a private tutor at home, and generative artificial intelligence (which converts our requests into designs) have marked the last year in the field of graphic design applied to communication.
Until recently, a significant part of a designer’s job was knowing how to use photo editing, vector illustration, and editorial design software. I spent so many hours in Photoshop courses, where seeing my classmates achieve the same result through different paths amazed me as much as it scared me that time would erase that knowledge. How many notes and screenshots have I accumulated to remember how to use the grids system or adjust the text to the base grid in InDesign?
The arrival of YouTube tutorials on how to use these tools meant we no longer had to memorise the processes, menus and submenus of these design software tools. From then on, it was enough to remember what the tools could do, NOT how to do it. If you needed to perform a specific action, you no longer had to go to forums to ask questions or consult the user manual. All you had to do was find a tutorial that explained it visually in a minute.
This has allowed more users to lose their fear to complex software. And the proliferation of Instagram reels that attractively explain how to create a photographic effect, a specific vector illustration style, or an editorial design based on the golden ratio.
The power of the free tools
The design tools available from a simple web browser are becoming increasingly powerful. They do not require us to download anything (with the risk of it containing a virus) and are accessible from any device.
Ilovepdf provides us with options that previously required paid software.
Background remover surprised us at its moment with a feature that you could only get by paying a fee.
What can we say about Photopea? A suite of free photo editing tools, fully functional that offers an interface similar to Photoshop (in exchange for showing us advertisements in the right-hand panel).
The use of Turboscribe for audio transcription is essential. Its option to add time stamps (indicating the minute and second when each sentence is spoken) has been extremely useful for synchronising subtitles. This feature has recently been incorporated into free video editing programmes.
TikTok knows that we all prefer well-edited videos with beautiful transitions, sound effects, and eye-catching subtitles. That’s why it created CapCut, with powerful desktop versions, but also for mobile. It’s free software with paid options and a huge community behind it. I can’t fail to mention Trevor Jones, a video editing expert who has gone from working in Hollywood to focusing on a YouTube channel with thousands of subscribers, where he unravels all the secrets of CapCut’s timeline, keyframes, filters, effects, and settings in a fun and light-hearted style.
The war for the design pie
A war has broken out in all sectors to attract users, and in the field of design, Canva has led the revolution against Adobe’s monopoly. Initially criticised by some graphic designers who were “delighted to meet themselves”, Canva made its definitive mark with Affinity suite, a free software package (available for Mac, Windows and soon iPad) that combines photo editing, vector illustration editing and editorial design software in a single space. Three areas of graphic design for which Adobe’s Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, with their £80 monthly subscription, had been the industry standard until now.
Thousands of users have made the leap. Affinity Suite allows you to export to a .psd file or a vector PDF file with bleed and crop marks. This means there is no problem whatsoever in sending it to the printer or sending a project with layers to a colleague who works with another system.
This leap involves learning to use a new tool, after years of being accustomed to the menus and submenus of Adobe programmes. Had this steep learning curve occurred at another time, it would have put many people off. But nowadays, all you have to do is ask Gemini or ChatGPT how to select multiple layers at once, how to convert an image to a vector, or how to make a clipping mask, and you’ll get the answer instantly.
Canva has seen Affinity Studio as an opportunity to expand its user network and bases its business model on paid artificial intelligence features. However, the price of its PRO subscription is much lower than Adobe’s.
Apple also wants its slice of this pie and has just launched a subscription to Apple Creator Studio for 13 euros per month.
The ubiquitous artificial intelligence
Our capacity for amazement knows no bounds when it comes to generative AI. Gone are those hallucinations and that ‘dreamlike’ texture of images. A few months ago, there was no way to get the character created for one image to be used in the next, maintaining its appearance but in a different position. A few months of Google Nano Banana and ChatGPT competing for the throne have been enough for us not only to be able to do this, but now all we need is a photo of a character to ask the AI to show it to us in any setting, in any pose and from any angle. We no longer need a long photo shoot with lots of photos of a client to ensure that the creative content we produce for their social media is not monotonous.
Zara itself has confirmed that, although it continues to use real photographers and models, continues to use photographers and models in real life, it uses generative AI to generate to get the multitude of versions it needs.
Now more than ever the highest value of the graphic designer is his judgement. “Common sense,” as Jorge Álvarez Naveiro says in the first episode of the eighth season of our podcast.
All creative people have suffered from imposter syndrome at some point. This psychological pattern occurs when professionals, despite having obvious achievements, doubt their abilities and feel that they do not deserve their success, fearing that they will be exposed as ‘frauds’. Everyone knows how to write. Does that make us all potential journalists or novelists? If anyone could cut their own hair or design their own clothes at the touch of a button, would the world be full of stylish hairstyles and fashionable neighbours? Or would it be a cacophony of absurdities?
Now the time has come when everyone has the tools to design simply by typing what they want (prompt) into a text input field on a website. But if you leave the design of your company in the hands of non-professionals, will we see a balanced, elegant and eye-catching style throughout? Or will it be a nightmare of Comic Sans Serif, garish colours and gigantic logos?
At present, in a field that affects us on a daily basis, AI specialising in presentation design continues to rely on proposals with short texts and striking images. This is not the case for most of our clients, who require extensive explanations on financial matters and do not have a tangible physical product such as a fizzy drink or dazzling jewellery.
What is undeniable is the invaluable assistance provided by tools such as the following in graphic design processes:
Brainstorming and idea generation: ChatGPT, ideogram
Product mock-ups: Pacdora y Kittl,
Hyperrealistic images:: Stable diffusion, Midjourney, Firefly y Nano banana
Choosing a colour palette: Coolors y Khroma
Upscaling images: Remini y Topaz Gigapixel AI
Visual graphics trends for 2026
With this brief overview of the advances we have tested, I look ahead to the new year and, without a doubt, my favourite trend for 2026 is liquid crystal. Apple initially implemented skeuomorphism in its mobile operating system (iOS), a visual system in which digital elements such as buttons and icons imitated their physical counterparts, using textures, shadows and details to make them look real. Over time, in order to optimise resources and bandwidth, it moved to flat design, led by Android (Google’s mobile operating system), a user interface marked by minimalism with simple, schematic icons. Now that mobile phones with high-performance processors are very popular and download speeds are fast, we are returning to a realistic style with Apple’s liquid glass (whose successful creator has joined Meta’s design team) and the resurgence of glassmorphism. Styles and fashions are not for everyone, and Apple had to backtrack and offer an iOS update with the option to switch from liquid glass to frosted glass, sacrificing visual spectacle for the sake of readability.
Other styles we have followed closely, but which we are unlikely to apply to more traditional clients who prefer a more timeless line, are: Digital Pastel (soft colours such as lavender and mint, mixed with blurred gradients that look like clouds or crystals), Retro-Medieval (ancient icons and Gothic letters mixed with metallic effects and futuristic neon lights) and Kinetic Typography (letters that stretch and deform as if they were liquid and occupy the entire composition).
But all this is in January 2026. With the relentless evolution of artificial intelligence and the brutal battle for our attention from social media, everything could change next week. What wonders does the future hold? We will continue to watch eagerly.
