The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Brutalism Is The New Minimalism
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 webdesign. – brutalistwebsites.com
The concepts of brutalism and minimalism focus on simplicity and the bare minimum. While minimalism has been the preferred method of web design for years, favored by many web designers and developers, and adapted even by larger corporations, realizing their websites were far too complicated to navigated or overwhelming, they adapted to a more simple approach. A new trend is beginning to occur that may soon take over and that is brutalism or a brutalist website.
Brutalism was a trend in architecture that flourished in the 1950s until the 1970s, and was a popular building style among governments across many countries. According to Wikipedia, “Brutalism was posited not as a style but as the expression of an atmosphere among architects of moral seriousness. Many architects chose the Brutalist style even when they had large budgets, as they appreciated the ‘honesty’, the sculptural qualities, and perhaps, the uncompromising, anti-bourgeois, nature of the style.”
In architecture, Brutalism lost some popularity because of the term “brutal” being associated negatively with violence, though it also means “direct and lacking any attempt to disguise unpleasantness.” This definition can be applied to architecture or web design and simply means “straightforward”. While the trend for architecture is picking up again in recent times, it is being adapted into websites.
Just like architecture, Brutalist websites seem much more honest, no attempts to hide anything or make anything fancy, quicker to build, quicker to load, and focus less on aesthetics, comfortability, and style. The term “brutally honest” is basically the defining points of brutalism in web design. What you see is what you get and is right in front of you. Websites that are brutalist tend not to focus on pleasing the eye, aligning objects to the center of the page, but may place objects on the left or right, simply to fit it on the page. Delivering the content to the visitor is the ultimate goal.
Throughout all of their years of existence, two websites remain unchanged and as popular as they were when they were first created. Craigslist is the perfect example of a site that is Brutalist, focusing on delivering content that can be easily found and read. Reddit is also a website this not shy to aesthetically pleasing its visitors. Both websites are more focused on bringing a community together, and the reliance on this method has proved to work very effectively for both companies.
Two non-traditional websites that are perfect examples of Brutalist websites are: motherfuckingwebsite.com and bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com. The former website uses no CSS at all, while the latter uses just a few lines of inline-CSS, and the rest is just HTML code. HTML by itself is often rendered as responsive. It combines both minimalism and brutalism into one, making perfect use of white space, and keeping it as simple as possible, delivering content without worrying about aesthetics or even being polite. These two websites are how websites used to look when they first began, with nothing to complicate the process of web design and are certainly great for a beginner to learn from.
Brutalism reduces the usage of CSS and focuses more on HTML. Content is literally thrown right in front of the visitor without any regard for the usual “eye points” that our eyes tend to be drawn to and are encouraged for better “web design practices.” Brutalism is not always easy to spot, but it tends to combine a 90s-style approach of web design with modern information, while not being as annoying as a 90s website (animated gifs and auto-playing music were actually a thing).
Brutalist websites are more focused on delivering their content to the user than setting it up in such a way that the user feels comfortable. It takes to the idea that if you want to be on the website, you will remain to read its content. Whereas minimalism worries about the visitors’ time spent on the website, the amount of whitespace for eye settlement, and tries to appeal to the visitor, Brutalist websites focus mostly on delivering to you only the content.
While Brutalism may not be seen as a style that is professional, there is still a beauty in the web design practice, which is aesthetically pleasing in its own right, bringing back the realization that despite how much time is spent on making a website look good, minimalistic or not, that content still remains the most important aspect of a website.
The future of Brutalism is likely to become popular among a group of web designers, but it will likely never be adopted into mainstream websites and businesses, as it would be hard to convince visitors that the website is professional and running a business. There, however, may be an adoption by some startups to come up with unique designs of brutalism mixed with minimalism to create a professional look. If Craigslist and Reddit have remained popular and trustworthy websites after all these years, there certainly is hope for many websites to switch over to the Brutalist movement and still be taken seriously as a professional business.
