A quite mystique phrase is used over the internet world for quite a while now. Web 2.0 - the holy grail?? Could be. Lets have a critical check on it before following the mass… and this is meant in the true sense.. In my believe it is more the design, the fonts, the visual which changed in the so called Web 2.0 website.
Roots in African Masks How african masks are related with this question? Lets take a short look back to history of art. We had a comparable change in the world of design slightly more than hundred years ago, when “modern art” started to boom. Up to the end of 19th century, the known art was “boring” - nice but not attractive in our view. A big development took place when a new simplicity of design, created based on african masks and african figures, became famous in Europe. Indeed the old african artists had carved their african masks in a abstract, simple and valuable style, that even nowadays you can put african masks on top of any book. What is their secret?? It is the abstract form of the african masks, with details like eyes “great” in size, the natural colour worn by many years of use, and the careful carving really resembling to the pictures of todays internet designers.
So lets draw the first majour conclusion: it is simplicity, which is a key factor. And it might well be, that this is the most important factor. Simple layout, simple fonts.If you add some great colours you are nearly done.
But let us check at some examples of Web 2.0 design. One of the most prominent example is a place about fonts. Yes, one of these boring places with piles of fonts - or not? Well, have a look yourself how one can make a font site a great experience. A nice example for such a uptodate design place with fonts depicts the combination of a simple but unsual design, strong colours, great visuals … and the best fonts you may find.
Another fine example is a health site about hair loss. Health sites tend to be clean white, boring one could say. This site about hair loss is different. Why not? Web 2.0 gives you the possibilities to take the way you like - whether its about fonts or hair loss. Certainly one can not use only pictures for such a serious item, but even a hair loss site can beginn with something astounding.
Both websites - the website with fonts and the web directory - are quite puristic in concept. Actually it is not a question of having thousands of clours. But you can play with them if you like. In contrast to a web directory anime sites are usually colourful - dedicated to younger people loving anime storeis. But an anime site just black-and-white would not be attractive. So this nice example of an anime website draws its attraction from the simplicity. No word, just one picture to see. Only if you go accross the picture with your mouse, you come to the menu this anime site offers.
In this way african masks showed a great influence on modern things like web directory, anime or font site - funny, isn’t it?.