Minimalism Is Honesty
More in the past couple years, I’ve started working in more of a team settings with other designers and developers. It’s made me think about my own design choices and preferences a lot more. I’m now daily faced with my own choices and have to ask if I’m choosing something because it’s best or because it’s comfortable.
And while this is hard, it’s also good. Because, while I’m still learning and being shaped so much I realized recently why minimal design and development principles, flat colors and plain aesthetics mean so much to me.
Because minimalism is honest.
Sure, I’m a developer. And sometimes a designer. And a project manager. But I’m also a little bit of a salesman.
Every design is a pitch… “Hey, focus on this!” Every development choice is an attempt to sell someone on the idea that one thing is more important than the other. Every idea for a new app that makes doing something easier and dinner is followed up with a silent sales slogan, or sometimes not so silent, about how this app will fix the problem you face.
Some of it is good. Some of it is honest storytelling and honest attempts at saying “here’s an idea we had”.
But a lot of it is salesmanship and bullshit (that’s probably redundant).
Minimalism is the anti-bullshit choice as a designer. It’s not a lazy or un-passionate attempt to sell someone. When it’s at its best, it’s not trying to sell. It’s just existing alongside you.
Minimalism is honesty. Therefore, I strive to clear my design and development as clutter as a spiritual exercise at de-bullshitting my life and not treating other people as a marketing target, which is to treat them as less than human.
The medium is the message. If the design and development is plain and straightforward, perhaps the thing and the people behind it can be too.
