Brutalism

Welcome back to Web Write-up. In my last post I took a brief look at three trends in web design: minimalism, the use of video, and custom illustrations. This week I'll start diving deeper with a more controversial trend in web design: brutalism.

Brutalism is an architectural style that became popular in the 1950s and 60s and is characterized by harsh, raw, and unembellished design, often modular and usually made of concrete.

In web design, brutalism is a style that is typified by bold, clashing colours, clumsy typography and a raw feel reminiscent of websites from the 1990s.

nelsonheinemann.com

About the style, Brutalistwebsites.com says:

In its ruggedness and lack of concern to look comfortable or easy, Brutalism can be seen as a reaction by a younger generation to the lightness, optimism, and frivolity of today’s web design.

Brutalist-web.design lists some guidelines for effective brutalist design:

• Content is readable on all reasonable screens and devices
• Only hyperlinks and buttons respond to clicks
• Hyperlinks are underlined and buttons look like buttons
• The back button works as expected
• View content by scrolling
• Decoration when needed and no unrelated content
• Performance is a feature

These criteria speak to a brutalist designer’s wish for their website to be clear, understandable and honest. It is perhaps even a form of idealism in which elements act the way a newcomer to the internet might expect. Pictures do not act like buttons, for instance.

travisscott.com

The visual style of brutalist websites can be polarizing, after all it can be seen as a counter-movement to traditional web design. It is, however, difficult to deny that this type of design does grab the user’s attention. And among a sea of websites adhering to similar design trends, and in turn all blending in, brutalism does anything but blend in.