When Less is More: Minimalism in Web Design
written by Nikola LazarevicMinimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features.
Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe adopted the motto “Less is more” to describe his aesthetic tactic of arranging the numerous necessary components of a building to create an impression of extreme simplicity, by enlisting every element and detail to serve multiple visual and functional purposes.
Minimalistic design is not boring, can be very attractive and achieve beautiful results.
Many designers fail at creating minimalistic design because there are not a lot of choices at a designer’s disposal.
Creating a website that looks good, with very few images and extra items, it’s not that easy and can be a real challenge.
Minimal design is not about producing the same fundamental black and white typography-based layouts over and over.
What makes minimalistic designs successful?
White Space
White space refers to open space in the design, and it doesn’t have to be white, it can be any color. Minimalist design without plenty of white space is not really minimalist at all.
Typography
When creating website with very few extra elements and images, excellent typography can enhance design.
Color
Right color combination is vital. You can use any color in minimalism, not only black/white/gray combination.
Background Textures, Patterns and Images
Subtle texture, patterns and images in background can make minimalist design even more visual attractive.
Effective Use of Images
Carefully position image, can make huge impact on visitors. Whitespace also helps these images to stand out.
Showcase
Below you will see examples of beautiful minimalist web designs.
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Things
The Bold Italics
Toby Powell
Zachary Pulman
Academy
Area17
Aranud Beelen
Zee
Ben Martineau
160over90
THE SQUAD
Bureau for Visual Affairs
FRESH01
Digitalmash
Indextwo
Bedrich Rios
Dion Star
Appear
Effektive
Blake Allen Design
Oliver James Gosling
Snagly
11 Comments
ADD COMMENTFederica Sibella says:
May 20, 2010Hi Nikola, nice post, thank you.
I love minimalism in web design, I think it can be far more difficult to design a good minimalistic website than filling it with stuff and colours. In my opinion, the right balance between empty space and content and the subtle design that divides the two are the “secret” of a nice minimalistic design.
Have a nice day!
Pablo Lara H says:
May 20, 2010Great¡¡¡¡¡¡
Sergei Tatarinov says:
May 20, 2010Nice showcase! Fresh01 is my fav =) And I’ve heard a lot about 160over90 they’re pretty awesome studio!!
Rocky says:
May 21, 2010Awesome and very inspiring showcase..
G13 Media says:
May 21, 2010Nice roundup of websites highlighting people need more white space.
FreshFishDesign says:
May 21, 2010Nice list, thanks for putting it together.
I don’t think you can overemphasise the use of negative space, whether the design is minimalist or not.
Zlatan Halilovic says:
May 21, 2010I’ve read a bunch of articles on minimalism in web design so far, but yours was still a good, valuable read.
Thanks Nikola :)
Michelle says:
May 21, 2010oooooo really nice roundup, thanks :)
Lucas Cobb Design says:
May 22, 2010I second that white space is very important when you are designing in minimalism and no one does it better than apple.com.
aditia says:
May 24, 2010cool list, always try to make my blog in minimalism, but haven’t got the sense yet, inspiring post
BLUEROCK Designs says:
June 7, 2010Nice list! We too are believers in minimalist web designs :)