Something New

An important thing that I have learnt during the course of my live project is the notion of flat design. My ideas are generally untraditional however they can become complicated. I was struggling to simplify a design without loosing the message and aim.

Whilst undertaking user interface and app design research I discover that there is a current trend towards minimalism and flat design. However it’s a trend crossing all platforms of design such logo design, animation, furniture even fashion to name a few. I started to look deeper into how I can apply this into to my work, looking at colour, typography and space.

Colour

I understood and analysed that generally flat design avoids using gradients and textures to create something two dimensional, rather three dimensional. Through research I discovered that monotone, bright and retro colours are the top 3 colours schemes used in flat design. Selecting a colour scheme helps create a colour palette contributing to consistency.

Monotone 

The monotone colour scheme "use a base colour and two or three tints of effect" (Cousins 2015) the most commonly used colour being blue. Sometimes designe
rs tend to use tints to vary the colour for instance if blue is the base colour, they add a tint of purple to create a blue-purple colour.

Bright 

Is self explanatory, however the main concept is that the palette does not just consist of primary colours however colours mixed together.

Retro

Retro colours are generally toned down with the use of white and reduce saturation. The main colours used are orange and yellow.

Here you can see how I applied my knowledge of the monotone colour scheme, seeing as I used only 2 colours, the background is a solid colour rather than a gradient. Doing this also makes the text easier to read. This was also picked up by my client when I presented here with two initial ideas one with a very subtle gradient and the other a solid colours, to which she pointed out that the solid background makes the text more legible especially for the visually impaired.

Before                                      After

Final outcome

Typography & Space

Flat design can also be typographic, using legible fonts that can be scalable. This is very important in interface design seeing as it will be displayed on various devices with different screen sizes. San serif fonts with a thin and long body are the most desirable and commonly used, for example the Dense Thin font. Having large amounts of empty space makes a simple design look aesthetically pleasing. This I believe gives the user opportunity to focus on the design at hand hence understanding the true message, instead of their eyes wondering trying to make sense of the different concepts. "If aspect serves no functional purpose, it's a distraction from user experience." (McNeil, 2014) that is the purpose of minimalism in flat design.

Reflection (the next step)

To build further knowledge in this area, I want to know how this concept has been used in existing designs and analyse how recognisable brands such as Coca Cola have simplified aspects such as their logo due to this current trend. I want to evaluate the decisions made to to flatten the design so that I will be aware and apply this to key work when I need to do the same.

On the other hand flat design can come across generic sometimes, to avoid this I will take "flat design and put a small touch of non-flat into it" and add my "personal style to give it unique flavour" (McNeil, 2013). Also to not to "be afraid to pair fonts with extreme differences in size and weight to create visual order" (Taylor 2013). 

Further more I would like to immerse my self in the design world more. Through a self evaluation I feel that I need to enhance my knowledge on what is going on in the design world. I want to read more blogs and books that look at how design has evolved, where design is heading too, bad trends and so on.