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Serious question, did anyone else think the whole 'brutalism in web design' thing was just a bad joke? | Graphic Design Inspo - Librear

caseyblack•6mo ago

Serious question, did anyone else think the whole 'brutalism in web design' thing was just a bad joke?

I mean, I saw it popping up everywhere in design roundups maybe a year ago and I just rolled my eyes. It looked like someone forgot to finish the site, all raw concrete textures and blocky, unstyled text. I was working on a clean, modern site for a local bakery in Portland and the thought of using that style was laughable. But then I had to design a portfolio site for a friend who's a sculptor, and he specifically wanted something that felt 'unpolished and structural'. I mocked up a brutalist layout as a joke, and he loved it. The heavy typography and stark contrast actually made his work stand out in a way a slick template never could. It completely changed how I think about matching a visual style to the content's personality. Has anyone else had a project where a trend you hated actually ended up being the perfect fit?

3 comments

3 Comments

christopher676mo ago

Ever try a brutalist layout for a tech blog? I thought it was a mess at first, but the raw look actually made the code snippets and terminal commands feel more authentic. Sometimes the ugliest style is the right tool.

garcia.logan6mo ago

That's a really interesting point about the look matching the content. So when you say it felt more authentic, do you mean it just looked less like a sales page and more like a raw technical document? I'm trying to picture how that changes the feel of reading a tutorial.

wells.amy5mo ago

Oh totally, I had a client ask for something that screamed "we're not like those other sites" and a brutalist layout actually made their no-frills approach feel genuine instead of amateur. Sometimes the most stripped down, almost ugly design honestly sells the product better than something polished ever could.