I really enjoyed your provocative post. I must admit I’m a big fan of minimalist design. However, there were a lot of thought provoking views in your mail that have really got me reflecting. It’s pretty clear that minimalism isn’t an end in itself … but one more tool we have in our design arsenal.

as long as people can understand it, I think it’s not a problem.

i agree 100%, i’m a design student and i’ve seen way to many students declaring their half assed design as minimalism.

I think when done well, minimalism looks good and is easy to comprehend without all the clutter.

I really think it depends on the situation. For some clients a minimalist design might convey the simplicity/elegance of what they offer. Some designers, however, never branch out from this approach and use it for all their creations regardless of whether it works for the client or not. I think it would be fair to label such designers as either lazy, or just ill-prepared for the work they are taking on.

Minimalist design is a good thing but still the content is more important then design

1. Leaving crucial elements out doesn’t make a design minimal, it makes you a bad designer.
2. Bad designers do minimalism. Good designers do Gestalt. Yes, there is a difference.
3. If minimalism was a fad, then why is Joseph Müller-Brockman considered to be one of the greatest graphic designers of all time? The man was a hyper-minimalist.

Never assume minimalism requires less sophistication. To do a really good minimalist design everything has to be perfect because all the details stand out. Anyone can do a design that’s simple, not everyone can do a design that’s minimal.

Great post, and discussion. I think with everything else in design, it’s about intent. Going minimal because you don’t have the knowledge or skills to do something groundbreaking is a smart thing to do. However if you choose to stay there because you don’ t want to learn anything more, you’re being lazy.

Intention is what separates design from everything else, if you’re doing things intentionally, and keeping it clean because it’s your personal taste, or meshes well with your style, or even showcases your work in a way that makes it stand out, that’s good design.

I agree somewhat with minimalism taken too far. However, your examples were weak. Although the business card and logo seem to vaguely prove your point I am sure you could have found worse designs. Personally I think it is easy to see that the minimalist web design example is for graphic design as it states clearly. The Lego poster is quite smart. It may be a minimal design but it is minimal for a reason. It ties to evoke your imagination to create an image of what you would build with legos. I also thought the package design was quite nice and I would hope that everyone with some sort of education is familiar with the periodic table of elements which I learned not only in Chemistry but in Earth Science. If you are trying to get your point across please use examples that make you really understand what you are trying to say.

I do believe that you have a point in across all your post, sometimes simplicity is just misdirect an not completely clear. i think the secret behind it is to go as minimal as possible without dissecting a brand or the readability of a concept.

At the end the goal is to communicate a lot with less

Very nice post! I personally have to stand on the side of minimalism - I think that when there’s no design clutter it makes the content stand out more. See Facebook? And Google? Amazon? We go on these sites because we want information and adding any needless graphic elements would only make browsing and searching harder.
On the other side, sites that promote or present something and are not targeted at displaying lots of informations, could have a reason to be all colorful and kitchy

The root word is “minimum.” To reach a minimum, certain requirements must be met; some of the designs we’re talking about don’t meet the minimum requirements of a useful design. Maybe the definition of the word is what these offending designers need to consider.

I think that poorly executed minimalism is lazy, but it can be harder to reduce something to a minimalist style. Like most things it depends on the situation and the application and if it is poorly delivered, it is sh**. If it is good, it is good.

Own opinion in the article: “Minimalist Designs - is it a trend or are we just lazy?

After reading this article I noticed that the author has a perception of contemporary graphic design that I completely disagree. He claims that in today’s minimalist designs to be applied in the field of graphic designer. When we look at history, this trend is, in my opinion, anything but modern. The idea that graphic design as minimalist as possible and must dispose of unnecessary detail in order to come to the essence, was reflected in the Bauhaus and related tendencies in the first half of the twentieth century. At that time there was already criticism of the simplicity of the designs, which, as in this article, quickly said that this was shortsighted a sign of laziness was. If you some examples of this sophisticated art compares cynical imitation of Nazi posters, you notice rapidly that little remains of the nuance and sophistication of the originals, which you can infer that in good minimalist designs common research involves.

After World War II developed a movement that just went against the taut minimalist designs. Postmodernism was just as much as possible be displayed, where the technical academic from the Bauhaus was rejected. They now sought to ordered chaos. The Modernist and Post Modernist movements alive today still coexist. This piece of history leads me to the point of this discussion is simply wrong. Minimalist designs are not trend, it is a continuation of modernism. There are today at least as many designers previously postmodern vision in their designs stabbing.

Ben Meulemans
Lawrence Casier
3BA GO PHL //// Johannes Késsene

I think every good designer knows that a design doesn’t only have to look good, it also has to be functional. That’s why we call it ‘design’ and not ‘art’. It has to shape things with a certain purpose in mind.
So when we’re talking about minimalism: if you know what you’re doing, the content of your design will still be clear. Minimalist designs will probably even be easier to understand and use. And like you said: ‘designing minimal things is not an easy task and takes a lot more effort than designing normal designs’.
I know there are a lot of people who misuse the minimalist way of shaping things, but I don’t think the technique is to blame, rather than the ability of a designer to convey a certain message.

Minimalistic design is for sure a real part of ‘Design’. There is no doubt that minimalistic design can cost as much effort and money as ‘other’ design. The most complex rendered 3D wireframe, hand painted and knitted by 30 over payed European hand-workers can cost a lot of time and money. But what about that single designer creating just one white dot on a black piece of paper in about 15 minutes? Can this be or mean the same? Is the white dot in any way less ‘valuable’ then the hand-knitted wireframe? For me, there is just one important thing to keep in mind along the line of ‘design’. Cheap or expensive, time-eating or blazing fast, there has to be a ‘concept’, idea, big story or point to be made behind all that. If the design serves the concept and the concept is the design, only then the design is real. Minimalistic or hyper-mega-gigantic, that doesn’t matter in any way.

We think it is an agility to communicate the essence with using as less as possible (without any decoration). So minimalism is not always lazy.
Minimalism can be use to make people curious (example: in the marketing industry) by using a less of information. But usually you have to tell all the information otherwise the message is not clear for everyone and you failed as a (graphic) designer.
The business card is a very good example of not telling everything that is necessary.

Minimalism is an art form and just like any other form of art it has people that love this genre, and others that don’t. As a designer we think a lot about the functionality of a design. Minimalism in web design, for example, is better because there’s not a lot on the screen and there’s no excessive information either. The user can easily navigate throughout the site.
It shouldn’t be too minimalistic either: The user still has to be able to understand it. Like any other art form, minimalism has certain degrees.
Minimalism shouldn’t be labeled as lazy, it’s about making the design as pure as possible and leaving the excessive behind so it’s easier for usability.

Minimalistic design should be seen as a form of reducing. Reducing all the information to the most essential information. And the process of this so called reducing is the job of the designer. He (or she) has to make sure that in the end the message will be well understood by the audience with as less information as possible. It could also be called ‘purifying the content’. But this process isn’t always that easy. People think - in my opinion wrongfully - that it is just a form of laziness. But I think it’s a way to create harmony and peace in a design. It may seem easy, but it (almost) never is.
And the best thing about all this minimalistic designing, is that it can be easily remembered by the audience, just because of its clarity.
Like I would say:
Minimalistic design = creatively reducing to the essence.

Personally, I think that minimal design isn’t a sign of being lazy. This idea is just conceived by viewers when they don’t fully grasp the design.
This could happen when the designers leaves out to much information.
The design, however minimalistic, still has the function to transfer information to the viewers. In theory, if minimal design is done correctly, it could be even easier to understand then a normal design. You just need to find the perfect balance between function and design. I also feel that it isn’t possible to put a certain time on designing: sometimes the ideas
flow and sometimes you’re just stuck.

When we, as students, first came in touch with the environment of minimalism, we thought it would open new doors to the world of design. Some people may think minimalistic design is about being lazy, but as students of the art, we know how hard it is to keep a design as ‘simple’ as possible. But there actually is a dark side when we think of minimalism. After discussing, we figured it wasn’t as handy as it looked in the beginning.

When you are a minimalistic designer, we understand that you want to keep your work as smooth and minimalistic as possible. But as a designer, you owe the world a certain information or statement with your design: people watch it, analyse it. You can make things because they are beautiful, but when it concers business cards or commercials, you should think twice about your design. Some things just are necessary to say, even if it does mean there are more words the designer must use (for example; email at business cards).

When it comes to commercials, some minimalistic commercials are very attractive, but the designer should first think about the audience: will the audience for the product actually understand this minimalistic design? Will they be attracted to it, or will they just ignore it? Because if they will ignore it, it comes to the point that the designer had an amazing minimalistic design, but the product will remain on the shelves in stores: too bad.

Our conclusion on minimalistic design is probably cut down to the fact that you should think before you design. You should take into account that information that is actually necessary should be present for the purpose of the product., towards the audience.

After all, maybe that is the challenge of a true minimalistic designer.

Minimalism is all about using elements minimally in a way they’re not stripped down to soulless items. Design doesn’t always have to be obvious or clear. Minimalistic design encourages people to stop and think about it, It tries to intrigue people at a higher level than merely the visual aspect.There has been put a lot of thought in the way elements should behave towards each other. A whole concept goes behind that. Although there are less elements than in other designs it doesn’t make it easier to create and doesn’t impute laziness. The art is to make something so strong and minimalistic but still very effective, it has got to have a specific meaning or purpose, otherwise it won’t stand up.

Does design have to include lots of work to be good? If you can attract people by just a few elements, the message can be stronger. As a viewer you want to know what the message is. Like the business card, maybe you don’t get all the information by just watching it but you want to find out more about it. That’s the idea of the design, making people warm, inspire them, create interests, make them want to do something. Communicate. 

In this fast moving society people get flooded with information. Minimalism takes this overload of information to a level of necessity. When people get confronted with design that triggers them and get’s them thinking, it gives them a sense of satisfaction when they unravel it. A great example is the minimalistic print ad for LEGO. It gets you thinking, looking and wondering what it is and what it means. It makes you feel like a child again, exploring something new. I do agree that there are a lot of bad designs out there that take minimalism to a certain level of “laziness”. But when the concept and the design fit perfectly and the total work just feels right, there is no laziness, only good design.

We don’t think that minimalism design is being lazy. It is instead difficult to make something good with only the few essentiel elements. And it asks a lot of input to make a coherent unit.
It’s easyer to throw some things together without thinking of the essence. While the point of minimalism is the essence. You also need to count in the focus group where you work for. For example, a card for a flowershop can’t be to minimalistic because its all about ornaments though a business card for a graphic design bureau asks for minimalism. Minimalism is also a way to tease people, for example for your business, because you have to think more about what you see.
So our conclusion is that minimalism is not easy and definitely not being lazy. You need to think good about what you can leave behind when you want to make minimalistic design.

Domas Sakalauskas en Johnny Baeten

It’s not a trend and we’re not being lazy. Minimalism is a style, a way of communicating, a language of design like many others styles and you can’t compare one and another. I can understand that some people find minimalistic designs lazy, but they’re just not aware of the whole thinking process that’s behind the actual design. I also believe that a design can be more powerfull when there are less elements used, you can even leave out elements, it will incite the viewer even more to find what is missing in the picture. When designing, you just need the keep in mind: who/what’s the purpose and what’s the best way/style to make it happen. Sometimes it’s minimalism and sometimes it’s..?

If desigenrs are following trends, then they are not designing. Minimalism is a design style that seems to be hot now, but trends come and go, good design should last for a while. I think if you go with a minimalist solution depends on the client and the target audience, not just because its cool, hip, or because everyone is doing it.

Thank you for this article! I am a big fan of minimalist design, but I have to admit that it can come off as seeming a bit lazy at times. This article is really gonna change the way I interpret minimalist design from now on. I guess the essential part of minimalism is giving people what they need using as little as possible. This is one of my favorite examples of minimalist design:
http://shrt.fm/gpoJhu

I really really love what the architect did here

i guess, at some level, inqusitivity in the design adds to the brand…

I am by no means a minimalist designer, but I do love the way minimalist designs look, if they are well done. Extremely clean and easy on your eyes. I am a very big fan of the look of that business cad, as well as the LEGO advertisment.

I don’t think minimalism is lazy because you don’t really want to fill your home page with too much clutter and confuse the web user. I can also be a style choice if you like to dress in a simple and fashionable way, conservative and relevant or you like to dress wildly, too many colours and too many icons and everything is everywhere.

Simplicity is very easy to understand and is more pleasing on the eye because I have seen websites that fill the home page with too many links and too many paragraphs and the rest of the pages are just repeating the same thing.

Why do you have links for contact us or news if you are just going to put it on the home page and it defeats the point of having other web pages.

I have seen many good examples with animation and a solid colour background for a home page but then when you click on the link, for example, About Us, it gives you a massive paragraph of information about company when it is necessary and when the web user needs it.

Some web sites don’t like to hide features and information behind other web pages because they think web user will not see it or may forget to click on link.

Interesting post, I actually just wrote a post complaining that we need to embrace the new minimal movement but we both touch on the same points. To focus on the goals and design accordingly. My post is called What the Fluff > http://focuslabllc.com/blog/what-the-fluff

I tend to lean towards the “lazy” theory. I feel some designers have forgotten the thrill of creativity, while just grasping at the dollar. What a shame!

Minimalism and Laziness are two different things that can take place at the same time but don’t always. Good minimalism will be anything but lazy and it’s very easy to spot laziness in the form of “minimalism”.

Great tutorial. I loves to read such comparison posts. through that post I get great ideal examples on minimalism and laziness.

Great topic, I’m a fan of minimalistic design when it comes to industrial design, but graphic design is all about communication, and to do minimal well you still need to show all the important details, strip back as much as possible without losing the message or whats recognisable. Its lazy when all the equity is removed without thought.