We all have seen those sites that we can’t figure out why they are using such bold, vibrant colors combined with oversized and clumsy typography. Clearly, there had to be some explanation on why this brutalism in web design.
The question that is more important than “why such brutalism” is “where the style did came from”. To be honest, there is no particular place or aspect from where this inspiration came from. The trend became a thing in the web design industry from many aspects and architecture is one of the most significant sources where designers draw their inspiration from.
The architectural trend was very prominent during the mid-20th century. Most of the harsh and brutal web designs today came from that era’s architecture.
Today, I’m going to dive into brutalism in architecture and how that has lead designers to influence their web appearance.
Colors
If you ever wonder why the dark grey harsh background of a web page seems familiar, you are not alone. The tone is so familiar that we often forget how often we used to see it in construction. Although the concrete and its dark gray pallet are decreasing in newer and flashier building, in the 1950s-1970s it was popular. Almost every building was structured with concrete that had a vivid color palette of grey and tan, which we see very often in websites and their backgrounds.
Shapes
3D and deep structures in webpages are not so uncommon. Ever wonder why the designers needed to spend time in crafting the depth of those 3D structures in the webpages? But doesn’t it fascinate you how well-crafted the structures are?
We can’t feel the 3D impression on the web pages then why even bother with the bold edges and depth of the structure around the web page?
This is actually another inspiration drawn from the boldness of architecture. The clean edges of the concrete building and the shadowy depth under the walls or balcony inspired web designers to add more details on the structures to give it a natural, bold, and real feel.
Scale and Proportion
The brutalist architecture also affected the proportion and scales of the web structures. These brutal architectural structures are usually large and have a blunt or bold look contrary to traditional buildings, which have curves and designs on them instead of solid concrete impressions. The epic scale and proportion of the buildings has made designers adapt this to their designed webpages.
Imposition
Modern-day structures tend to blend into the surrounding whereas, in the 1950s, architectural beauties usually stood out from the landscape to impose themselves. This was very common in the government buildings at that time when buildings were just made of concrete.
Like those imposing buildings, websites now a days offer a different visual layout to stand out from the usual crowd.
Now, it’s clear that the bold, bulky and epic infrastructures from the 1950s were the real inspiration for the harsh and brutal web design that you see very often today. So next time anyone wonders about the origin of those imposing structures and layouts, you will know what to say.
