designish

First off, I just want to preface this article by saying that this is in no way an attack on anyone however I have become outraged with the large number of sites on the web that label themselves as “minimal.” In the majority of the cases, these sites are a half ass attempt to disguise under designed and under developed sites with the term. What we see in these designs is clutter, poor execution, and a lack of defined hierarchy. The goals of any minimal design is to distill the message down to only the most essential items, however that is not an excuse to avoid design all together. I think that this is a simple case of an uneducated group of vocal “designers” who refer to these designs as minimal and thus create a grouping of trends that are passed down by example regardless of how successful they are.

When designing anything that will carry the label of minimal, particular attention must be given to detail. This is because every small mistake will be blatantly obvious. Originally I had planned to give examples of websites that ineffectively execute the minimal look. However, I now feel that it would be more appropriate to share those designs which are successful, in order to educate rather than chastise.

A Brief Message
http://www.abriefmessage.com/

 
David Sutoyo
http://david.sutoyo.com/

Maqina
http://www.maqina.ro/

Poccuo
http://www.poccuo.com/

Thinking for a Living
http://www.thinkingforaliving.org/