Less is more may sound like a cliché, but with the minimalist design trend, that’s the essence of this school of design. As a design movement, minimalism is still relatively new, having only come into its own in the late 1960s and early 1970s, particularly with American visual art.
In its most stripped-down definition, minimalism is about designers expressing only the most essential and necessary elements of a product or subject by getting rid of any excessive and, therefore, unnecessary components and features. As with many other movements, the minimalist design trend is a reaction to and rejection of an earlier design philosophy that fell out of favor.
Minimalism is all around us. You can see it anywhere from the user interface of your favorite website or app to the package design of your latest gift and the design on the cup of your favorite cup of coffee.
Here’s a look at minimalism, its history, and some stunning examples of this design movement.
Where Did the Minimalist Design Trend Come From?
Minimalism was a rejection of the extremely subjective designs and works of abstract expressionism. By distilling a product, painting or subject down to its bare essentials, minimalists wanted to showcase its true form. Abstract expressionism is an approach to design that combines self-denial and emotional intensity, which produces designs that some see as chaotic, rebellious, and even nihilistic. Unsurprisingly, spontaneity (or at least the impression thereof) is the main feature of abstract expressionism.
Minimalism, in stark contrast, takes form, color, and space and reduces them to such simplicity to attain their essential nature. At this point, the philosophy goes, one can’t remove anything else from the design to improve it further in any way, shape or form. That’s when you know that true minimalism has been reached. Call it a form of design nirvana, where bliss in design is attained by removing all of the excesses!
A group of artists in New York in the 1960s began to put this school of design on the map when they experimented with what’s known as geometric abstraction. Their minimalist art focused on geometric shapes and forms—and you can see why this naturally gave way to minimalism. Geometric shapes and forms are as basic to human comprehension as it gets.
Interestingly, this geometric abstraction was already present in the heyday of Islamic art, many centuries before geometric abstraction and the ensuing minimalist design trend ever hit European or American shores. Since the depiction of religious figures was not allowed in Islamic art, Muslim painters had to rely on geometric shapes as a method to associate religion with both art and science—which was a big theme in Islamic art.
When New York artists began dabbling in geometric abstraction, they unknowingly laid the groundwork for minimalism. Some prominent American artists of this time include:
- Donald Judd
- Dan Flavin
- Carl Andre
- Frank Stella
- Al Held
- Robert Ryman
- Kenneth Noland
Judd’s and Flavin’s contributions to minimalism can be seen in their works from this early era, especially Judd’s showings at the Green Gallery in New York, where three of his sculptures were on display, and Flavin’s green fluorescent light, which is a stark embodiment of minimalism, almost aggressively pushing out at the viewers.
Less Is More 