When it comes to modern day design it’s clear to see that minimalism is taking over almost every industry. Offices with large amounts of whitespace, logos with soft monochrome colours, homes with a gentle calm simplicity. It could be easy to see all these industries as becoming bland and interchangeable. But that’s why I think the world needs more. Way more. So much more it verges on maximalism. Bright bold colours, pages filled with images and text, and clashing patterns. Why should we let the world go soft, plain and easy when the real world could not be more different?
By filling our pages to the brim and beyond I feel like we can truly show off our personalities. By adding ourselves into our work, it lets people who view our work get a better sense of who we are. Who we, as individuals, really are. I believe this to be authentic design, and I always try to use it instead of hiding behind the blankness of white, or the vagueness of a single object. For example, below is my own work from my college final project in 2020:
With this piece I went for a worn-down aesthetic. A vandalised look. Using authentic design and a maximalism approach was the only way to achieve this. No single piece of minimalism could ever pull off this same effect. I feel as though with minimalism we are much more restricted in what we can do and what can be achieved, as opposed to the unlimited potential of what we can get across with a much more over the top approach to design.
In conclusion, why don’t we ditch the Less = More approach to design? More = Less in our modern world. It reflects our surroundings in a much more natural way. Our world is not this soft, gentle, monochrome place where everything is simple, perfect, and a single thing. The world is full of interconnected madnesses and imperfections all over. So why shouldn’t our design reflect this real world around us? Afterall, every industry is made up of people. We should stop holding onto this belief that the only way to show elegance and gentleness is via minimalism. If done right, even maximalism can come across as elegant and gentle. You should express yourself however you feel fit, whether that is through minimalism or maximalism, or somewhere in between the two. But just know that the world needs a lot less minimalism and a whole lot more personality.
Georgia raises an interesting point around design that we, as Alchemist, recently went through ourselves when coming up with our new brand. We knew that because what we offer is unique, we had to be unique as well. We looked at our competition, current trends, and had many discussions about minimalism and maximalism in terms of design. We imagine that Georgia is happy with what we came up with. Lots of bright colours, high energy visuals, and bold presentation. Yes, there’s still some white there, but we let the people and learners we work with fill that in themselves.
