There really seems a return to the minimal in design lately, something I’m more than happy to see after the gradient madness of the last year or so. I’m seeing more and more new designs coming out where less is really more. Galleries seem to be once again brimming full of powerful minimal design, it’s a refreshing change. In part minimal design never went away it seems now the focus is coming back to it though as it rightly deserves as one of the most effective and often hardest to achieve design styles. So, what does make a minimal design?

One of the most noticeable things about a lot of sites done in the after glow of the brand name web 2.0 is the virus of the tabs. If it’s navigation it seems nowadays if it’s not ‘tabbed’ it’s just not hip with the kids. However, just with any samey trend the reverse effect is reached of mind numbing clones. Somewhere along the hype and band wagon jumping tabs came to mean the same rounded gloss or not gloss (you get a choice in gloss at least) boredom.

As part of Fadtastic’s trend interview I was asked a series of questions. Some of my answers were featured, but I thought it would be nice to post all of my answers as it gives a good indictation of my view on design trends. The interview was a great thing to do and made me think a lot about trends and certain aspects of design.

The final part of the Fadtastic Trends Interview has gone up and it’s worth checking out for various opinions including my own. I am going to over the weekend post all my answers for you to see what I thought.

Humans put labels on everything. There seems a deep psychological need to wrap things up in a box and put a big bow and card saying ‘thing’ on it. We file things in our mind under categories and make sense of the world through nouns. Mr Caveman probably came across a rock and stared at it in great puzzlement until he uttered ‘ugh rock’ then the world made more sense and he stopped hitting Mrs Caveman over the head which made her feel much better, a feeling she labeled ‘happy’. We label our lives, our roles, our pets, our emotions, if it moves put a label on it and if it doesn’t whack one on to be safe.

Fadtastic have put up the second part of their interview which includes my own contributions. It was interesting to read part one and part two is just as good. Last time with part one the debate in the comments was a great addition to the post so I’d invite everyone to check it out and join in the conversation.