Giant typography, huge cursors, acidic
colors, geometrical shapes - Brutalism has
become increasingly popular in recent
years. Some love it, some hate it, but
there's no denying that sometimes we
just can't pass by some examples of
brutalist design. So, where did it come
from? What does it have in common with
Boston City Hall? And should you turn to
it for your next project? Let's find out!
It was back in 2014, when the very first
examples of brutalist designs started to
flood the web. In response to their
growing popularity, there started
emerging resources like brutalistwebsites.com, brutalist-web.design,
brutalistframework.com and others that
will give you an extensive guideline on
brutalist design, present you
selection of brutalist websites, and even
help you to build one on your own. It's
hard to clearly define the features of
this style, but some recurring
characteristics of Brutalism in web
design are: asymmetry, broken hierarchy,
broken grids and typography, big and bold
fonts, geometrical shapes, overlapping
elements, white solid borders, hard
shadows, solid backgrounds, bright colors. Sometimes they're right in your face,
sometimes - more gentle and subtle, but
let's admit it - not all of these are
always pleasing to the eye. So, why is
Brutalism getting so much attention
right now? Let's look into its origins to
find the answer back to Boston City Hall -
it's one of the most prominent examples
of the buildings that resulted from the
architectural movement which shares the
name with a popular web design trend.
The term Brutalism first appeared as the
name of an architectural style and comes
from the French language. Brutalist buildings are big gray blocks
of concrete following plain and simple
geometrical and modular structure.
This style emerged to oppose the architectural trends of the past with all their
pretentious pillars, ornaments and
fancy design. Those gray blocky giants
were built in huge numbers in the 50s
and the 60s until the popularity of
Brutalism faded away only to come back
years later reflected not only in
architecture but in other art forms and
media. Brutalism on the modern web
embodies a protest against polished
minimalistic and thought through designs.
It creates a cozy atmosphere of chaos
and brings the feeling of nostalgia for
the times when we only started
discovering the Internet. On top of that,
with our attention span progressively
getting shorter
shocking the user with ugly and chaotic
design helps to make them hang around a
little bit longer. Another reason why this trend
attract so many designers is because it
gives you that kind of creative freedom
which you don't normally get. With
Brutalism, you're allowed to do pretty
much anything you want. There are almost no rules to follow and you're free to
experiment with form, content
and presentation in the most unexpected
and bold ways. So, whenshould you go for
Brutalism in your design? Well, there are
many aspects that we take into account
when developing the website's look.
That's why if something like brutalist design will suit the identity and the vibe of
the brand, you should definitely go for
it! But it's better to play it safe when
working on commercial projects because
the purpose of a commercial website is
to be as clear, concise, and accessible
for all the users as possible. So, it's
better to stay away from risky decisions.
But if you're really careful with the
choices you make, it can incorporate
Brutalism in a pretty neat wa,y like
Bloomberg did. And if you want to go
full-blown Brutalism - pick the projects that
are appropriate. Examples - your personal
portfolio, a creative agency or a studio
website, a blog about 80s style video
games or pages for some seasonal or
one-time events that need to go viral
and attract a lot of attention over a
short period of time. So, keep this trend or ditch it? Let us know
in the comments - how long do you think it will last? To see more brutalist websites,
follow the links in the description and
check out templatemonster.com, which is
pretty much a digital supermarket full
of everything a web developer, a web
designer or a graphic designer might
need! We have a bunch of brutalist
websites there too - so go and have a look! Meanwhile, thank you for watching!
Hit a "Like" button and subscribe if you liked the video and let us know what other hot
design trends you'd like to see a video
about! Cheers!
