Following up last week's blog post on What’s Trending in Photography for 2025 to feed into your beloved, up-to-date, (hopefully) pitch-winning treatments, this week we talk about trends on another vital part of a compelling and attractive treatment: the design. And what this year’s trends are, according to what we’ve been seeing across the industry and the Stills report. One theme persists: design in 2025 is pushing back. Not with louder tech—but with a whisper of something more tactile, more expressive, and more human.
Typography and graphic motifs created by hand by us for a treatment for Visa.
In terms of how this impacts treatments, what we’re seeing is that layouts that connect this year won’t be the sleekest or most mathematically precise.
They’ll be the ones that feel like someone touched them. With so much meta, digital, non-physical medium all around us, advertising wants to bring back the fundamentals of being human—why we look the way we do; why we eat the way we eat; why we like the things we like. If there's one thing raw and real in this world, it's humanity, and it seems like brands are approaching their consumers from the same perspective. That resonance shows up in the treatments, from text to image and layout.
Let’s unpack what’s shifting and why it matters for designers working on treatments, pitch decks, and commercial storytelling.
Cut-and-Glue Is Back
The handmade collage aesthetic has returned. Designers are layering textures, taping things in place, scribbling, scanning, and letting rough edges show. Think: scotch tape over a film frame, handwritten typography over a character’s shoulder, ripped-paper edges revealing layered meaning.
This direction brings warmth, tactility, and a lived-in quality to decks. In a treatment, it can make the world feel already inhabited.
Analogue typography experiment we created for a Carnaval-driven treatment.
Especially for directors leaning into analogue processes or stories with emotional grit, this trend makes the deck feel like part of the film’s world—not just a pitch about it.
Looseness Over Logic
This year's layout design is less grid-locked. Layouts are freer, looser, more emotionally driven. Instead of pinning everything to invisible lines, designers are letting images breathe.
Looser image grid we created for a Popeye's treatment for Radical Media.
Letting text wrap in unexpected places. Leading with feeling, not just rules. One of the clearest examples: the return of “low hierarchy” layouts. Instead of one big hero image and five tiny supporting stills, you might get six images of equal size, each telling a different aspect of the mood. Or a layout that leans left-heavy, or has space “missing” on purpose. This year, these aren’t mistakes, but decisions taken intentionally.
Serifs Are Back
In typography, it’s the return of the serif. Across editorial, branding, and pitch layouts, designers are embracing serif fonts not just for aesthetics, but for mood. Robert McCombe calls them “a fusion of pre-tech and modern design,” saying they “leave a more lasting impression.”
An all–sans serif layout we designed for a Marriott treatment.
It makes sense. In a sea of geometric sans-serifs and clean AI-generated decks, serifs stand out for their warmth, legacy, and a quiet sense of confidence. In treatments, they can ground a story in tradition, evoke craft, or simply make a block of text feel more intimate and considered. Think typefaces like Portrait, Tiempos, or even the right Garamond—used not nostalgically, but narratively.
Collage as Character
While cut-and-paste aesthetics are back, another direction is emerging where collage becomes a central character—not just a background texture.
In these treatments, imagery is layered with meaning: archival film stills next to casting photos, product photography beside painted landscapes.
These collages become emotional storyboards in themselves. For directors working with metaphor, juxtaposition, or world-building, this is a powerful trend. It lets you show contrast, connection, tension. It lets you pitch something cinematic without relying on literalism.
Hand and Machine, Together
This year, another trend is the blend of digital and physical. We’re in a moment where
AI can generate anything, and yet the most powerful decks are the ones that feel handcrafted.
Treatment developed in collaboration with ChatGPT, exploring concept and text for what we imagined a treatment for OpenAI might look like.
That paradox is what defines 2025 design. It’s not anti-AI. It’s just not only-AI. Great treatments now sit in a middle space: made with tools, but driven by taste. Technology is just one part of the equation. The emotion, the voice, the hand behind it—that’s the icing on the cake.
JPEG Artifacts and Early-Internet Nostalgia
Another design cue popping up: intentional imperfection through digital “mistakes.” Think JPEG artifacting, compression glitches, blown-out contrast.
It’s the kind of thing we once tried to avoid—now used intentionally to evoke a certain mood.
Stills calls it “early-internet nostalgia,” and it taps into a culture that’s tired of everything looking "too good". In the right treatment, this can be a powerful contrast: glitchy artifacts layered behind refined typography. A page that embraces retro internet energy without becoming kitsch. It's all about moderation and context.
So What Does This Mean for Treatments in 2025?
Designers crafting treatments this year have more freedom to break the mold. You can drop a serif headline into an otherwise modern grid. You can let a scuffed background edge peek into a layout. You can collage imagery with personality instead of sourcing from the same sleek stock references everyone else is using.
The goal isn’t chaos—it’s connection. Treatments are not just bids; they’re visual conversations.
They win when they feel like something worth trusting. And in 2025, trust looks less like tech—and more like touch.
Sources:
Stills 2025 Photography in Design Trend Report
https://www.stills.com/articles/2025-design-trend-report
What Next?
If this resonates with you, we’ll be sharing more deep dives into the craft of treatment writing and design. Let us know if there’s a topic you’d like us to explore next.
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