The 2017 year, the year of new iPhone X, flexible displays, and modern technologies. But why we still continue facing with old, long-worn out designs?
Bloomberg, Hacker news, ThePirateBay are just a few examples of this unique web design trend. They are united by following rules:
1. Unusual and old design from the 90's.
2. Acid colors.
3. Small fonts.
4. Attention! Brutal code or ASCII code.
Brutalism is significantly different from flat or material design but more often represented in websites not mobile apps. It should be used very carefully. But at the same time, brutalism will give your site an identity.
Unusual and old design from the 90's in brutalism web design
First and foremost that catches your eyes it's design. Those websites completely deny the usability of interfaces and design trends. You will rarely find attractive gradients in web design, only acid and "worn out" colors, which the Internet has dazzled in 90's.
There were good reasons for this at that time. Browsers and monitors supported only a small number of colors, many graphics editors, including Photoshop, had the possibility to select web-compatible colors, so the web designer was 100% sure that the site looks the same across any user browser either computer. But what is the reason now? One of the versions is the emphasis on content.
Acid colors in brutalism web design
Brutalism in web design created truly drew users’ attention, exactly like the same people. Why? Because acid colors are unusual, bright and provoking. Sometimes it's good but often bad. Bright acid colors use on call-to-action elements in web design. Like buy, order buttons, etc.
Small fonts in brutalism web design
Surely everyone who is somehow related to development or programming, testing or even design is familiar with Hacker news. Quite popular across the US, but too hard to find something similar across CIS.
I'll choose one of the old releases of social networking Faceboook or VK for its analogy. Small fonts such as Tahoma are one of the most popular.
Brutal code or ASCII code in web design
Website design can look brutal but is inside it too? People are often deceptive the same happens with website design. To explain to you what is a real brutal code is - just remember the ASCII table. Do you believe that the source code of a website can look like this? Over-comments are written in the same style. For example, the social network ELLO used a brutal style in the design.
Is it worth using brutalism in web design and development?
Very provocative question. Substantially, brutalism in web design was developed long ago and hasn't been updated for a long time (Hacker News). Media like Bloomberg are not afraid to take risks and to make a redesign. However, if you are thinking about redesigning website design in a brutalism design style, I'll ask you - do you know your audience?
Brutalism web design is very special users seldom like it. Old-school, mostly men only. Take the risk if your audience is people who still trust monochrome cellphones (you can easily recognize them by Google analytics).
Brutalism web design attracts attention to the company. Brand awareness is growing tremendously fast.
