by Erik Ford with 2 comments.
In essence, minimalism in design is the stripping away of all non-essential elements. On its face, some people may find the minimalist designs to lack depth and complexity. But, truth be told, it quite difficult to achieve as it forces the designer to place the emphasis on the content and not what is framing the content.
Cubedroute, a web design agency in Dublin, is a great example of minimalism in web design. And, though everything on the surface seems academic, the site as a whole is an exercise in doing more with less.
3 colors can make an impact.
Your use of color or, rather, your non-use of color is a defining factor in minimalism. I love the fact that the designer chose to only use three colors, not including white. And from those three colors, the designer was able to produce a rich palette that is not overwhelming. On the contrary, the colors are nice flourishes that breaks up the content in a subtle fashion.
Limited amount of typefaces shouldn’t limit you.
As web designers, we are constantly faced with the limited amount of typographical choices available to us. You want your work to stand out in the crowd, but that proves to be difficult when you only have a handful of options. But, in the right hands, those limited choices can be transformed into works of art within themselves. Cubedroute is a perfect example of this. The designer seamlessly blends a nice combination of serif and sans-serif typefaces which, in turn, adds to the clean design and enhances the readability of the content.
But, don’t overlook the subtle variations in these typefaces from color choices, to leading to font sizes. When you are creating a minimal design, these become important factors.
Don’t forget to respect the grid and white space.
I must admit, early in my career, this is something that I struggled with but eventually learned to respect. Notice how the grid for Cubedroute becomes as much a part of the artwork as anything else on the site. If you respect the grid, the grid will become a visual asset. Allow your elements to “breathe” with ample white space to divide the content.
Make sure you drop by Cubedroute and see for yourself. You just might be inspired to get minimal with your next project.
@Johnny, you have hit the mark dead center with your new site design and definitely should be an inspiration for others looking to achieve minimalism in their work.
Hi Erik
Johnny here from Cubedroute. Just wanted to say thanks for the write up and kind words. It really nice to see how other designers interpret your work. As you know yourself, it’s always a difficult task when your designing for yourself. The possibilities are endless, so we focused our efforts on solving real business problems through the redesign. There’s a blog on way
Love the detail and effort you’ve put into your own site.
Johnny
Cubedroute.