{"id":16601,"date":"2020-02-10T10:44:01","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T10:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/?p=16601"},"modified":"2024-02-16T09:51:18","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T09:51:18","slug":"minimal-web-design-elements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/minimal-web-design-elements\/","title":{"rendered":"The Universal Elements Of Minimal Web Design: A Tell-All Piece For Graphic Designers!"},"content":{"rendered":"

As simple as minimal design is, it isn\u2019t as easy to explain it. When it started, it started as an art movement, in the 60s. Pretty soon, it was everywhere; morphing into a philosophy that penetrated multiple levels of culture and society.<\/p>\n

Today, the application of minimal design is present in every facet of life: art, music, architecture, design, even lifestyle itself.<\/p>\n

Free Logo Design <\/a><\/div>\n

In a nutshell, minimal design is an objective, utilitarian, and a highly aware approach to design \u2013 and art, on the whole. Working with minimal design principles, you discard everything that isn\u2019t needed to make the design work\/utilized, reduce it to its bare-minimum essentials, and present the concept in as simple a form as possible.<\/p>\n

Minimal design doesn\u2019t use any unnecessary frills, embellishments, and trappings of other design approaches \u2013 realism and abstract expressionism, for example \u2013 and forces you to create art and design<\/a> that can stand on its own, with no swooshes and swirls and 50 different textures.<\/p>\n

As perhaps you can appreciate now, creating a minimal design<\/a> isn\u2019t easy. It forces you to be original, neutral, and creative. With nothing else to rely on, it\u2019s your creativity as a designer that\u2019ll carry the design forward.<\/p>\n

But wait \u2013 aren\u2019t you curious how minimal design evolved? Let\u2019s face it: in the 50s, abstracts were raging everywhere. Cut to a decade later, and it was sparse furnishings, cleaner spaces, angular architecture, and objective art representation in galleries. How did that happen?<\/p>\n

Origin And Brief History<\/h2>\n

It may look like, especially to the Millennials and Gen X and Z people that minimal design just always was. It isn\u2019t so. The 50s, as I said above, were all about abstract expressionism. Art was considered an extension of the artist. It said things about him, represented bits, pieces, and parts of him, and you could only interpret the art piece through the lens of its creator.<\/p>\n

Then came artists such as Donald Judd<\/a>, Anne Truitt<\/a>, Agnes Martin<\/a>, Dan Flavin<\/a>, Robert Morris<\/a>, and Frank Stella<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The wanted to explore art as an entity separate from the artist. So gravitation towards geometric abstraction emerged. Geometric abstraction was the use of mostly geometric forms in non-representational structures. Interestingly, geometric abstraction itself emerged from the Islamic artistic tradition<\/a> of not depicting religious figures in illustrations, and some<\/em> form of artistic representation of faith and spirituality was needed.<\/p>\n

Related: The Geometry Of Logo Design \u2013 Once Upon A Shape<\/a><\/h3>\n

Since geometric abstraction was already using non-representational objectivity, it became the tool of choice for pioneering minimalist artists. The movement was further influenced by European, Russian, Romanian, and other global art figures.<\/p>\n

The more it started gaining momentum as a movement, the more it began to seep into the cultural fabric of the society. It influenced music, architecture, sculpture, interior design, fashion, literature, and the subject of our discussion today, graphic design.<\/p>\n

Minimalism In Digital And Graphic Design:<\/h2>\n

The aim of graphic design is to communicate a specific visual message to a wide range of audiences with impeccable effectiveness. Due to the forever shortening attention spans of the human species<\/a>, and becoming ever more selective, the graphic artist doesn\u2019t have much time to gain and hold the attention of the passerby. Therefore, the message being communicated must be instantly engaging, attention-grabbing, concise, clear, and memorable.<\/p>\n

With such a tall order of expectations to fulfill, there is only one design approach that seems equipped to handle such a feat: minimal design.<\/p>\n

Minimal design is concise and clear. It throws away all the distractions, focusing only on the essence of the message, and presents it in the most confidently attention-grabbing way (bold colors, gutsy typography, and stark backgrounds).<\/p>\n

And this is why the minimal design works across websites, professional logo designs<\/a>, user interfaces and more. Because it is so simple, clear, and striking, it requires so little of your cognitive resources. All it needs is your fleeting attention \u2013 even the tenth of a second \u2013 and it will convey its message to you.<\/p>\n

Due to these enduring characteristics of minimal design, it has become a staple of not only modern graphic design but has found its applications in all forms of UI design too: gaming, apps, websites, you name it.<\/p>\n

It is due to the minimal design that we now encounter websites that are cleaner, engaging, quick, and to-the-point on their vital messages. You can get help from various web design tools to create a minimal website. Even when we look at them just as fans of visual arts, and not particularly studying them, they are a delight to look at. Even if you overdid it with your customizations, it’s always an option to reset WordPress and give yourself a clean, fresh start.<\/p>\n

Come. Let\u2019s see what features are essential to creating a website<\/a> on minimal design principles.<\/p>\n

Essential Features Of A Minimal Web Design:<\/h2>\n

\"Werkstatt\"
\nImage Source: Werkstatt<\/a><\/p>\n

Minimalist design is a utilitarian design in its approach. Anything it doesn\u2019t need, it forsakes. When we apply the principles of minimal design in graphics and web design, some common defining characteristics pop up. Such as:<\/p>\n

Flat Design<\/h3>\n

\"CrypticCup\"
\nImage Source: CrypticCup<\/a><\/p>\n

Flat design is a style of design employed to create graphical user interfaces. The icons, buttons, images, flat logo designs<\/a>, and other elements that you see on the website \u2013 features that you use to interact with a site or an app \u2013 make up elements of a UI. When we use flat design in a UI, you\u2019ll notice that icons or images or buttons will not have any texture, shadows, gradients or other (unnecessary) elements that users don\u2019t really need to use the website\/app.<\/p>\n

Flat design UIs are far cleaner, streamlined, and less distracting than their Skeumorphic cousins. Every minimalist design website that you\u2019ll see will have used a flat design UI.<\/p>\n

Related: Material Design \u2013 Going where Flat Design Hasn\u2019t Gone Before!<\/a><\/h3>\n

Plenty Negative Space<\/h3>\n

\"CatsAndDogs\"
\nImage Source: CatsAndDogs<\/a><\/p>\n

If we could consider one key feature as the<\/em> defining feature of minimalist design, it would be the generous and maximum use of negative (or white) space. Minimal design works with using fewer and fewer elements in the design \u2013 making sure only those are kept that serve the end user tasks. Resultantly, we are left with a lot of extra space.<\/p>\n

Instead of using this space, minimal design lets it be. And the abundance of it actually becomes a prominent element itself.<\/p>\n

Related: 20 Best Websites Making Use Of Negative Space In A Positive Way<\/a><\/h3>\n

If you are new to web design or graphic design and have trouble spotting minimal web pieces, look for pages sporting lots of white space or negative space in graphic design<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Limited Color Palette<\/h3>\n

\"Helmetex\"
\nImage Source: Helmetex<\/a><\/p>\n

When we are stripping down a design of its elements that it doesn\u2019t need, it then makes sense to also apply the utilitarian principles in color schemes too. Therefore, you\u2019ll be hard pressed to find a modern website design, most particularly a minimalist one that features more than 3 colors in the entirety of the design.<\/p>\n

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Most minimalist website UIs however, create stunning work with only two colors from the palette: a primary color and an accent color, often contrasting shades. Monochromes are also a popular minimalist design choice, especially the pastel and earthy shades, to be consistent with the cleaner and streamlined visual of the website.<\/p>\n

Using the colors strategically, end user tasks are streamlined, design is better organized, and information is stacked with more hierarchy.<\/p>\n

Related: Color Philosophy and System In Web Design \u2013 A Brief Account<\/a><\/h3>\n

\"Olympp\"
\nImage Source: Olympp<\/a><\/p>\n

Bold typography is a necessary staple of all modern designs \u2013 including minimal. Since we limit the use of artistic elements available to us, we naturally make more, bolder uses of features that we do decide to use.<\/p>\n

Hence, bold, dynamic, dramatic, and interesting typography<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Urban<\/p>\n

Furthermore, logos that use letters can be animated to have a 3-dimensional shape. For instance the logo for Urban Splatter is a U-shape teal and green box like graphic. This architectural logo was designed by the young architect and blogger Justin Ankus.<\/p>\n

Like color, this intentional use of bolder typography conveys meaning to the user, adds visual appeal, and make the design more impactful. This feat is achieved by modifying the size, style, alignment, shape, and weight of the letters and words. In cases where the minimalist design guidelines permit, colors and type are combined to create a stronger impact.<\/p>\n