Perception

I had quite a fancy for grunge designs since a few years back, similar to the kind of art found in Linkin Park’s albums. Such design did influence me to a certain extent, and was reflected in areas of my life like fashion and clothing. I suppose that liking could have been considered part of the phase that all teenagers go through, where rock and pop music had a great impact on my generation. However, in recent times, I discovered I didn’t really enjoy this flavour anymore. I never really noticed it, but I seem to have lost all inspiration in coming up with designs that could suit a grunge theme.

The grunge formula was a favourite of mine for a while. The dark and dull colours, dirty-looking backgrounds coupled with grunge elements like scratches and splatters easily suited my taste and preference back then. Nowadays, however, I tend to prefer minimalistic designs that are clean, simple and perhaps most importantly, have white or black backgrounds. Some people may consider such design empty or boring, yet the challenge of managing all that white space while mantaining an uncluttered and balanced look really teases the mind.  

I wonder if this is merely a individual change in preference on my part, or whether there’s been an external influence exerted by this Web 2.0 trend that is coming over the Internet. If it’s the former, then I suppose I can simply dismiss it as an enter-into-adulthood phase (which depresses me, of course). If it’s the latter, however, then it’s a bit more interesting. Most startup websites that I’ve browsed over the past few months generally support a minimalistic look, and are generally more function-oriented than design-focused. Yet, such simple design may not only support the function of the website, but enhance it in terms of usability. If the user is able to easily navigate and use the web application, then the user experience derived is probably a lot more pleasurable compared to one with a fanciful but cluttered design.

I guess it’ll be interesting to see if grunge has any significant place in the modern or future web. Indeed, there are excellent websites out there which do the grunge theme so brilliantly, but in a time where less is sometimes more, I think I’ll stick to the minimalistic look. Maybe I am just getting old.