What if you embraced Minimal Design?
Choice is good, but less is more. Back to the drawing board!
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I have got to confess that I am a bit of an artist – I have been a musician for years, following generations of musicians and painters in my family. For that reason, I believe that I have got (good) tastes, whether we are talking about art in general, playlists, fashion or design. Even up to the point that, generally, I feel confident enough to point my finger at an overrated piece of crap before cracking an arrogant roar of mockery.
With this very intimate fact in mind, you can imagine what happened when I first spotted the new jersey of Paris’ rugby team, Le Stade Francais. Not only did my eyes suddenly hurt, but I also felt dizzy to the point of being sick. In other words, it’s glorious utter rubbish.
It goes against all rules of good taste, logic, and even against nature itself. But more importantly, it goes against a trend I believe in: minimal design.
Minimal design refers to simple but elegant design in which the subject has been stripped down to its most fundamental feature. It has been highly influenced by Japanese traditional design and architecture which favors the simplicity of natural patterns. To describe their work, architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe adopted the motto “less is more” and designer Buckminster Fuller adopted the engineer’s goal of “doing more with less”.
Many aficionados agree that minimal design started somewhere in the 60s and was inspired by Antoine de St Exupery’s famous quote:
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add,
but when there is nothing left to take away.
In web and product design, minimalism is gaining strong momentum. It enables marketers to bring user-friendliness to life and avoid piling up chaotic messages that will confuse consumers. You want to deliver a perfectly clear message to trigger high sell-through. This is the point that Le Stade Francais’ new jersey is missing – not only is it ugly to death, but it also confuses the crowd. If you do not warn fans in advance, they might think that a comedy circus is entering the pitch, not their favourite rugby team. So who is the arty retard who came up with it? Because, rather bizarrely, it does not help the team’s sponsors. In this staining colourful mess of flashing nonsense, you cannot even spot clearly the names of telecom specialist Orange or sport equipment manufacturer Adidas. There is not even a logo or a blazon that fans can proudly refer to – they are just known as the team with the ugly shirt.
But somehow it is not surprising if you consider Orange’s poor track record in the fields of user-friendliness and simplicity. Take their website design as an example, I have counted 160 links that you can click on from a wide bunch of content like tabloid scoops, horoscopes, flat hunting to purchasing a micro-wave or booking a flight. I remember the day I wanted to check their mobile offers for SMEs; it took me a while to spot where to click – only to be redirected to even more confusing web pages with plenty more useless options.
Now, choice is good, but less is more – just find the right balance. It is feasible; just see how Apple embraced minimal design from its brand to its portfolio of products and software – ensuring that user-friendliness was delivered all the way down to the smallest plug. Minimal design did help Apple to build one of the most powerful brands in the world and to become one of best performing companies. It is somehow embedded in UMobile’s new marketing effort – the new Malaysian mobile operator – with a clear and effective website. UMobile is hoping that this marketing investment will take its performance back to the right tracks. Last but not least, one of my favourite example of minimal design which carries a strong brand that people can easily identify themselves to is England’s rugby team’s jersey. Incidentally, England’s sponsor is O2 – Orange’s competitor – also the best performing mobile operator in the UK. There is no coincidence in that. England 5 – France 0.
