The most-read stories of 2025
10. Bulletproof on “simplifying and amplifying” Liverpool FC’s brand
When we wrote about Bulletproof’s new look for Liverpool back in April, the club had just clinched a glorious Premier League title. It’s fair to say the team’s fortunes have dipped since then, but the design work still looks terrific.
A lot of the work was about simplification – creating coherence from 30 different shades of red, 50 fonts, and 20 art direction styles. But there were innovative touches too, such as the animated “wing expression” which mimicked the roar of the Anfield crowd.
“Our creative challenges as an agency are about solving business challenges, and it’s no different when you look at a football club.” – David Beare, executive creative director Europe at Bulletproof.
9. Koto’s Amazon rebrand
A huge undertaking for one of the world’s biggest and most-complex companies, Koto New York brought craft and cohesion to Amazon’s new look.
Yawningly predictable comments about the restraint of the work missed the point. Amazon made profits of $9.5 billion in Q3 this year – it didn’t exactly need a root-and-branch visual revolution. Koto delivered in style.
It’s also interesting because it came together so quickly – a cheering exception in a year when many studios have complained about client delays and indecision.
“The rebrand gave Amazon back its centre. What was once fragmented is now unified, so teams move faster, and customers feel the same confidence.” – Koto New York.
8. Uncommon’s London Museum identity
A pooping pigeon logo, a hand-drawn typeface and an off-white chosen to reflect the city’s overcast hues – there was a lot going on in Uncommon’s new look for London’s flagship museum.
Interest in the project soared and many people welcomed a design version of London that avoided the twee cliches which so often take centre stage.
“This is really correct for the city. So whether people love it or hate it, I think anybody who really knows London will look at this and think, ‘Yeah, that’s about right’.” – Nils Leonard, co-founder Uncommon Creative Studio.
7. Unilever opens AI-powered graphic design studios
The first of several AI-related stories that appear in this year’s top 10, to nobody’s great surprise. Here we reported how Unilever was rolling out AI-powered graphic design studios, with 21 planned to be up and running by next year. The studios will work on Home Care brands like Comfort, Cif and Domestos, “to create compelling, culturally relevant content at speed.”
“Sketch Pro empowers external agencies to work on strategic briefs. It’s not about reducing the number of briefs going externally, it’s changing how we work, and giving external agencies better briefs. I envisage design agencies defining the brand world and Sketch Pro executing that.” – Mario Dughi, Unilever.
6. “WTF is happening?” – how AI is reshaping design
In the first febrile months of 2025, when AI panic seemed at its peak (for reasons we’ll get to at the top of this list), designers Rob Boyett, Shay Moradi and Ian Campbell Cole ran a small survey to understand how their fellow practitioners felt about AI.
Despite the limited sample size, the insights were both compelling and prescient, setting up many of the long-running themes around design and AI, such as the ongoing expectation for designers to upskill themselves.
“Senior designers report feeling enhanced by AI tools, while juniors feel diminished. Experienced designers view AI as their creative assistant; junior designers see it as their creative competitor. This isn’t about tool proficiency – it’s about creative authority and professional judgment.” – Rob Boyett.
5. “Fun fatigue – is formality returning in branding?”
There are trend pieces, and then there are trend pieces. Mother Design’s Alec Mezzetti seemingly put his finger on something powerful when he outlined a return to a more sophisticated, less tech-matey world of brand design. Helped by a referral from the good people over at Brand New, it was far and away the most-read op-ed of 2025.
“Could formality – tradition, cultural specificity and maturity make a comeback in design? The early signs of this counter-revolution can be seen across the world of branding and advertising, where friendly colours, hyper-legible text and digital optimisation are starting to make way for richer tones, serifs and a de-prioritisation of digital scalability.” – Alec Mezzetti.
4. Canva makes pro design tool Affinity “free, forever”
The year was starting to wind down at the tail-end of October when Canva came out with one of the biggest swings of 2025. The company announced that not only was it relaunching Affinity, its tool for professional designers, but it was making it free.
The story lit up the design world, and it will be interesting to see how things shake down next year. The rebrand was beautifully executed too.
“There’s no catch, no stripped-back version and no gotchas. The same precise, high-performance tools that professionals rely on every day are now open to all, because creative freedom shouldn’t come with a cost.” – Affinity CEO Ash Hewson.
3. “We needed a complete reset” – Jaguar MD defends controversial rebrand
For design media, Jaguar truly is the gift that keeps on giving. After the enormous attention its rebrand and concept car attracted at the end of 2024, people are still hooked on the story, perhaps because the new Jaguars haven’t yet rolled off the production line.
Jaguar MD Rawdon Glover went on Jon Evans’ Uncensored CMO podcast, and gave the sort of honest and detailed explanation which had been missing for months.
“A new Jaguar shouldn’t land and everybody goes, yeah that’s nice,” he said. “We are fine with polarising. What we shouldn’t do is try and be loved by everybody… you’ll end up with vanilla – six, seven out of ten.” – Rawdon Glover.
2. Tributes paid to the James Bond 007 logo designer Joe Caroff
We said goodbye to some wonderful designers this year, including Andy Altmann, Peter Schmidt and Lionel Hatch.
And in August, we lost Joe Caroff, the US designer who created the 007 logo for James Bond, as well as iconic book covers, film posters and identities. A humble man who didn’t sign, nor keep, any of his work, he remained unbelievably under the radar for a designer of such pedigree.
“Joe Caroff’s 007 logo is a masterclass in logo design, in a single gesture it captures Bond’s elegance, wit and lethal intent. That the mark has endured across six decades, seven actors and countless cultural shifts is testament to the brilliance of his design.” – Angus Hyland.
1. Graphic design among most at-risk jobs from AI – report
And so it all comes down to this. In January, the World Economic Forum published its Future of Jobs report.
Out of nowhere, graphic design had suddenly leapt up the list of jobs deemed to be most threatened by the rise of AI. It was a pretty shocking revelation, even if the report included more promising news – that creative skills are increasingly in-demand, for example.
“Transformational breakthroughs, particularly in generative artificial intelligence, are reshaping industries and tasks across all sectors. These technological advances, however, are converging with a broader array of challenges, including economic volatility, geoeconomic realignments, environmental challenges and evolving societal expectations.” – World Economic Forum managing director, Saadia Zahidi.