The word "minimalism" and "minimal" get thrown around quite a bit in categorizing styles of web design. Vandelay Design, one of the more well known web design blogs, have an ongoing series of posts in which they categorize examples of "minimalistic" web design. The first post of this series generalizes the aesthetic of these sites as "using very little unnecessary design elements" while still being "beautiful".

Having suffered through tedious conversations about minimalism in music for about a decade now, I'd like to take some of wisdom I've gleaned in those discussions and apply it to web design. I think the red herring in the description I've cited above is the word "beautiful" - toss it out and you've got a pretty good working definition of minimalism.

This post is inspired by a recent chance encounter with the website of 2x4, Inc., a multidisciplinary design studio based in New York City. In my opinion this is most effective, reductionist example of web design I've seen in a long time and, if nothing else, it definitely challenges many of the clichés associated with the presentation of a portfolio on the web.

When you first encounter the 2x4 site all the content and UI elements are compressed into a 500x350 pixel space. The menu lists firm information, new projects and primary links. If you click on any of the new projects...

...the page opens up to reveal a small display space which contains media, related links and a statement summarizing that project. This no-nonsense approach spares users from dealing with an array of thumbnails and it loads fast. The site is dead simple and very effective. I think the primary reason for this is that it is founded on the notion that documenting projects is about providing a concise snapshot of the work. The design of online portfolios does not have to be dictated by large images or a 1:1 translation of presentation or production material to the web - a summary of the development process can work just as well and even be more accessible.

This is a detail of the "Case Studies" portion of the site that illustrates the menu hierarchies. Active elements are blocked out and inverted and the only real "style" evident in the site is the dividers between sections. While these are an embellishment, the utilization of repeating standard characters helps emphasize the modular nature of the design. The use of colour is equally strategic and it is only employed in images and to denote new projects.

I get the impression that the 2x4 web presence was produced in-house, although I can't confirm this from the information on the site. Regardless, the design conveys a very solid understanding of the web and if I were a savvy client looking for interdisciplinary work I would want to hire them.

I think the key point to consider when talking about minimalism on the web is that it is a methodology not a look. A well-known and, in my opinion, extremely successful example of web minimalism is Delicious. I love that the site is entirely designed around the navigation and viewing of information - go figure that a site founded on taxonomy would utterly nail the database aesthetic.

This discussion about the web presence of designers telescopes out of a few previous posts, if this line of thinking is of interest to you please note The Laws of Cool (Design) (based on Alan Liu's research) and Periodic Table of Architecture. Please leave a comment if you have links to some more sleek sites as I'm planning on doing more of these case studies in the future.