Recently I had a friend (who is in charge of teaching the high-school youth of America about web design) tell me that his students really liked “grunge” and felt that Web 2.0 was going away (to be replaced by grunge) thanks in part largely to this old article over at Smashing Magazine.
A whole lot has been said about Web 2.0 as a design style, and I won’t go deep into that or try to rehash all that has been said.
The Smashing article in question was written a full year ago, so that is a factor in this conversation.
Web 2.0 is certainly running it’s course, and may be heading out to some degree – but “Web 2.0″ as a style is mostly a misnomer.
Good information design will never go out of style.
Simplicity, clarity, lack of clutter, and accessibility – all hallmarks of the “Web 2.0″ style – are cornerstone factors of good information design. When it comes to web design, students should first learn something about good information design for communication’s sake, THEN learn about design for art’s sake… in that order.
“Web 2.0″ as a style is becoming more and more diluted as us web artists ache to go exploring into rougher, more exciting terrain again.
Real grunge (distressed typewriter text and splatters and other such stuff from the 90′s) was completely played out around 2001. We had a waves of tech and uber-tech-splatter-grunge in there, then grunge resurfaced in the form of “coffee house” type stuff. Hallmarks of the coffee house style are floral shapes, hand-drawn elements, swirlies, and “starburst” radiation backgrounds. This stuff has been popular with CD covers and t-shirts for years now.
About the time Web 2.0 started, this “coffee house” grunge was close to full stride.
I even recall conversations about this very thing with my wife (she’s a designer as well) which we had a two years ago. We talked about how popular the “coffee house” style was getting, and wondered how long it would remain in stride.
I still see this “coffee house” grunge a lot, but not in any amounts I’d call a resurgence. I would even say go as far as to disagree with the article and state that what they’re calling “grunge” was starting to fade even a year ago.
Thoughts? comments? feel free to share :)
March 10th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
I agree about the coffee house and grunge styles being over. Another style I think came and went was the “green” theme.
Right now, it’s the revival of depression era stuff :)
Actually, I heard a great story on NPR tonight about the design agency that created the logo for Recovery.gov. Very interesting stuff.
March 10th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Your friend sounds like he doesn’t know crap. But seriously, folks…
Grunge and 2.0 can peacefully coexist, as can coffeehouse and 2.0. I think what the youth are saying is that they aren’t so much into the super clean, corporate styles I had been showing them- lots of lime greens and glossy star buttons.
I think the article is a little silly (and a year old) but it made for great conversation with all my advisory members. And I learned a lot about how people define 2.0 as a design style.
March 10th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
“students should first learn something about good information design for communication’s sake, THEN learn about design for art’s sake… in that order”
very good point, cannot agree more