Have you noticed how social media & content design have been shifting from Notes app screenshots to journalling collages?
Pinterest’s 2026 Trend Report called it first with PoetCore & Penpals, but after seeing everyone go from using iMessage bubbles in their carousels to using paper texture backgrounds, I wanted to understand how design trends are influenced (or influence) the larger cultural movement.
This episode isn’t about telling you which trend to follow or to ditch them all together.
It’s more of a reflection on how there will always be a dominant aesthetic & its rebellious little sibling.
And how as online business owners building our own personal brands, and claiming aesthetics as “on-brand”, understanding how culture culture shifts (and it will), means we can adapt with intention.
Drawing from Apple's visual language wasn't random.
Apple spent decades building its entire identity around sleek interfaces, minimalist lines, soft gradients, and intentional simplicity.
The mile-long queues every time a new iPhone drops represent a cultural phenomenon, where having the latest iPhone means something about who you are, who you identify with, and how you want to be perceived.
So if we're going to romanticize an interface of all things, we might as well pick the one that already positioned itself as aspirational from day one. And thus the trend makes perfect sense!
A few things made this aesthetic hit the way it did.
There's the nostalgia of it: millennials watched the entire arc of technology evolve from chunky desktops and Windows XP to having ChatGPT in our pockets. Referencing the inside of a device we use every single day feels weirdly comforting (and maybe a little dystopian).
Then there's the familiarity: everyone knows what an iPhone looks like. It's instantly recognizable, relatable, shareable. And crucially, it's re-creatable. You could easily make your own version with a few screenshots and some layered UI elements. It felt like attainable virality.
But there’s a catch: the aesthetic only works if you use the native icons, system fonts, and recognizable UI structure.
And the more accurate you are, the more identical to everyone else's it becomes! Because you're borrowing from an operating system, something designed to standardize and homogenize experience. You could layer it onto anything, and it still looked curated, but not owned.
Crucially (and unfortunately), it makes everything feel like an extension of Apple instead of an extension of YOU.
This aesthetic feeds perfectly into the clean, minimal, curated-digital-life era, but the inside of an iPhone is also literally the very thing we're trying to escape.
We're tired of our phones being our most-used accessory. Tired of obscene screen times and dropping everything at the sound of a *ping*.
And this is where culture does what culture always does: it reacts. After the extreme structure and rationality of Modernism came Dadaism, the anti-art movement that rejected all logic and rules… only to become an art movement itself. Culture never stays still.
Right now, we're watching the reaction to digital saturation play out in real time.
The rise of the Brick (a device literally designed to make your smartphone dumb again), apps that block you from other apps, offline challenges, adult coloring books, ceramics, knitting, film cameras, scrapbooking, journaling. Everyone's resolution this year seems to be: log off, touch grass, stop documenting life, and start living it.
Even in our online business world (where our phones are very much our offices) there's a collective exhaustion. As Sara from Between the Lines Copy puts it, we just want to put our phones in a ditch.
Design follows culture. So if culture is craving realness, it makes sense that we're now seeing brands lean into digitized paper textures, handwritten fonts, journaling elements like tape and doodles, scrapbook collages, ink stains, paper folds, and halftone effects.
We want our pixels to feel tangible.
We used to fake screens. Now we're faking paper.
Because unless you're actually using a printer, scissors, and paint, most of these "handmade" details aren't really handmade at all. They're preloaded texture packs, digitized brushes, Canva asset libraries, downloaded halftone overlays, and pre-made scrapbook kits.
There was an artist who created those templates originally, sure... But then we all reuse the same digitized version of them.
I get why we do it:
But what happens next? Because by the looks of it, it's going to follow the exact same pattern iOS-Core did. It starts fresh, it feels appealing, everyone can participate... Then everything starts looking identical because everyone downloaded the same paper texture pack. The anti-art movement becomes the art movement. And if we're just faking the analogue digitally, it'll eventually become another aesthetic cycle too.
Unless something deeper shifts, we're just replacing one costume with another.
I don't have a definitive answer here. This episode is me basically thinking out loud: watching culture move, design respond, and sharing what I'm seeing so that you can make more informed decisions about how to move forward.
But from where I stand, it feels increasingly obvious how important it is to create and own your visual language.
Trends will keep cycling. There'll always be a dominant look and its counter-movement, an aesthetic that's popping off and one that's quietly leaving the chat. That's just how it works.
So instead of building your brand around a trend, you can tie your visuals to decisions that actually mean something — so your brand reflects a belief, not just a moment. Then you can adapt as you see fit, because you're not tethered to anything external.
Here's a reflection prompt to sit with: if we stripped away every trend tomorrow, would your brand still make sense? What does designing like yourself actually look like? And when do you find yourself jumping on trends (and why)?
I'd genuinely love to hear what's percolating for you. Email me or DM me at @flyingcolourscreative: I really want to have this conversation!
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✦ Read Pinterest Predicts™ 2026 & explore all 21 trends!
✦ The original Reel that sparked this episode!
✦ THE COLOUR CIRCLE: Bring the Canva design you’ve been (over)fiddling with for hours
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Over the last 5 years as a Brand & Marketing Designer, I’ve helped freaks like us design their unconventional brands so they can step onto the main stage & own their weird. Because if you wanted to be, look or sound like everyone else, you wouldn’t be where you are today. Now it’s your turn.
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