Flat design is clinical depression in graphical form, a reflection of the contemporary existential/mental health crisis. It’s a societal cry for help, basically.
I’m ready for post-flat design.
I’d be so happy for a desktop window manager that didn’t make all of the window borders grey-on-grey, and distinguish the active window by making the title text slightly-darker grey.
Or smartphones and high pixel density displays became the norm, and raster graphics don’t look good or scale well on them. Simple vector graphics are crisper on your screen, can be rendered via things like CSS, and can more easily scale to different resolutions and dimensions.
Apple’s skeuomorphic phase overlapped the Retina display era, though, so I don’t buy that explanation. Also, it’s nothing to do with raster vs. vector. The photos that we take with phone cameras are raster graphics, for example. They look great, and it’s because they’re high-resolution. High-res raster UI elements would look great, except then the versatile manipulation by CSS would not be possible. Vector graphics are very good at that.
But here’s the thing: Complex vector graphics exist, too. There were some pretty fancy PostScript graphics even back in the early 1990’s. With all the pixels that we have now, we could have good design instead of flat, if the developers bothered. But it seems we’ve internalized the feeling that we’re not worth the effort, aesthetics and color aren’t interesting, and life is a joyless slog. Which sounds and awful lot like clinical depression…
(Incidentally, odd that emoji aren’t flat design.)
(Incidentally, odd that emoji aren’t flat design.)
That actually depends on browser, app or OS that’s doing the render. Apple and Whatsapp use the same design, Android uses a slightly different one, Discord and Microsoft both use flat designs, but for Win11 it’s a different set
Interesting! I see what you mean, but while looking up Win11 emoji, I found this article from Microsoft about adding 3D design elements based on customer feedback. And, indeed, on my work computer (23H2), they’re not-quite-flat anymore.
Seems more a rejects of the flamboyance of the prior two generation which will certainly give it a different feel. It absolutely felt fresh at the time of inception.
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Maybe that’s the point of the post. OP wants to know the average age of Lemmits
I’m a big fan of flat design, too. To be fair, I basically loved every style in its time. Regardless, I like flat.
Yeah, the 90s are in style right now. A few years ago, we were all cringing st the styles we wore/had in the 90s. Now it’s hip. In a few years, the early 2000s will be back in style, and everyone will think the 90s is tacky again.
Aero looks futuristic and sleek.
Memphis design. 30-od years later those cup designs are still lit
It was discontinued only a couple of years ago, so you can still buy that design on Amazon, by the way. It’s the SOLO brand Jazz design.
Nowadays you’ll see some kids wearing sweat suits with that pattern.
Tbh I kinda want a hoodie with it.
“Kids…”
Shit, I’d wear the fuck out of that
I loved XP. Hope to see more linux layouts like that.
I’d say that it was the 80s, because most types of art peaked in 1984 (in term of cultural significance).
I agree, and also the 1984 David Lynch Dune movie was the pinnacle of film making.
Flat design is just soulless crap
Frutiger with the first 3Ds wins everything for me
Frutiger is the perfect mix of streamlined and personality, with a softness to make you feel like you aren’t dying.
I’d say PS2 belongs in flat design, even if it falls outside the dates they think: its design language was ahead of its time
And the PS5 isn’t really flat design, especially compared to the current Xbox.
Frutiger and Y2K for sure
I liked the 2010-ish design best even though I was at least 20 at the time. I just found Memphis and y2k a little goofy. Win XP or this fish glass Mac are the worst for me.
Maybe someone who is too young to have lived in the 90s finds this novel, I don’t know.
I started taking graphic design classes in the mid 2ks and the amount of my brain that has been squandered making everything look like shiny candy floating in a polished plastic void is disgusting.
Then I learned how to make everything look like it was badly spray stenciled and drug through a post industrial alley so I could really stick it to the man.
Woo, grunge!
Not so much the 90s “because we had no phones” - then turn your phone off. >
Whish it was that easy…
Flat design definitely looks the cleanest, most simple and pleasing to the eye.
All eras have some grace? But the best was art deco.
Y2K is my number one. Memphis on the second place, frutiger aero on third. Flat design is on the last place because it sucks.
I like the 2015-2024 design
