Comment by PTOB

Comment by PTOB 11 days ago

5 replies

Instead of brutalist, I'd call it "NASA Revivalist" as it is very reminiscent of the 1970s NASA graphic design style manual[0].

Having personal experience designing in the context of / restoring brutalist architecture (the kind people live and work* in), I submit with gratitude that this tool misses some key aspects of the style:

1. No concrete used in construction, and therefore no concrete smell, aka "eau de mid-century Americana."**

2. No sense of impending arrest by secret police around every corner.

3. Does not require regular pressure washing to avoid looking like a set-piece from a post-apocalyptic horror movie.

* for certain values of "live" and "work" ** sans cigarettes

0 <https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/nasa_graphic...>

TravisPeacock 11 days ago

1. Interesting fact my datacentre does use concrete. 2. Then your not using the website in America 3. It does use less pressure washing.

I know your comment is being funny, but I will note that brutalist design in websites is a different design theory than in architecture (though, I'm not specifically conforming to any design)

  • safety1st 11 days ago

    If we're being candid I feel like brutalism for websites is more of a meme than a design theory. It's almost an anti-design theory ("hey all our modern design theories have just made websites crap, so why don't we throw those theories out").

    brutalistwebsites.com seems to interpret brutalism as "I use monospace, maybe I'm monochrome and I don't need to put much on this page."

    My own idea for what brutalist web design should be: "I have one good CSS file which I include in my project. It looks fine and now I'm done worrying about the design."

    • egypturnash 10 days ago

      Brutalist architecture is about showing the bare structural elements without any decoration, so I think there's an argument for any CSS being UNBRUTAL. Which covers some recurring themes in brutalistwebsites dot com but sure doesn't cover all the "I liked the way Raygun looked but I didn't like all those itchy decayed fonts, gimme a nice clean Helvetica-wannabe please" screenshots I see in there. Just the people who said "web design went precipitously downhill the moment someone tried using a table full of images to control the page design".

fellowniusmonk 9 days ago

What's interesting is to see the overlap between NASA and MOMA in the simplicity and clarity of design.

I personally refer to my style as "Marketing Brutalism".

Have a goal for the end user (an action or an enlightenment depending on the sites purpose.)

Make it clear and concise.

Good enough is a feast. You just need to appear 51% trustworthy.

If you are IBM in the 80s and you've successfully promulgated the meme "No one ever got fired for choosing IBM" than you are already there.

This is of course assuming a blind exposure, and you've done nothing to get people to tie their identity to your brand, once a persons personality is wrapped in your brand you just have to shovel products in front of their face and their families faces during the holidays.

wnc3141 11 days ago

During a period I flirted with architecture as a career, brutalism can, in very specific applications , work well. But ditto to pressure washing in some applications.