Flat design in the past and present life

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[Abstract] "flat design" is a design-style term that discards any feature that makes the work highlight the 3D effect.

Tencent technology Ice Dust March 23 compiled

Today, when it comes to web design, it is inevitable to encounter the term "flat design" (flat). In recent years the flat design trend is very good, but also by many big companies of all ages.

But what is the source of the flat design? Why is it popular with web design? In design, we only know the source of a style and technology and the history behind it, we can use this aesthetic style more handy. Let us get to the bottom of the roots, to understand the flat design of the past life.

What exactly is flat design

For those who have not contacted, "flat design" is a design-style term that discards any feature that makes a work that highlights the 3D effect. Popularly speaking, the design does not use perspective, texture, shadow and other effects.

Designers now seem to be tilting toward a flattened style, which is clean, modern, and allows designers to focus on the most important elements of content and information. This design is not easy to outdated, and looks simple and efficient.

When it comes to flat design, we have to mention its antithesis: Composite design (Rich designs). This design method uses as many effect elements as possible, such as reflection, projection, and texture changes, and so on. It gives users a sense of touch and is useful when using applications or browsing the Web.

It is noteworthy that composite design is not a materialized design (skeuomorphism). The physical design is to make the work closer to the actual object, deliberately make them look familiar feeling.

Where the flat design originated

Most of the design elements we see in the Web or digital world originate from print publications and aesthetic pioneers. It is difficult to pinpoint the origin time and place of the flattened design, but there are several art design periods that are the source of a flattened design inspiration.

Swiss style (Swiss style)

In the development process of flat design, the Swiss style (also called the Internationalism Graphic design style) is worth mentioning. Swiss style originated in Switzerland and was developed in the mainstream in the the forties or fifties of the 20th century.

The Swiss style emphasizes the use of grid and sans serif fonts. In those days, the Swiss style was usually a large picture with a simple, minimalist typeface.

Since the printed font style is an important element of the Swiss style, the popular Helvetica fonts came into being in 1957 and are widely used.

Just as the flattened style had been quiet for some time before the epidemic, the Swiss style was designed to date back to Germany in the the 1920s. But the Swiss have really made it flourish.

Minimalist Design (minimalist)

Another far-reaching impact on flat design is minimalist design. The word "minimalist" is now often bundled with flat design, but the history of minimalism is much longer and involves many areas of architecture and visual art, much earlier than before the advent of the web.

Although the history of minimalist design is very long, covering a lot of media, but it really produces the artistic charm of the place or the field of visual art expression. The so-called minimalism is the removal of many elements of things, leaving only the necessary ingredients. Geometry, a few elements, bright colors and clean lines dominate most minimalist style designs.

It can be said that the Swiss style and minimalist design together to achieve a flat design.

The rise of flat design in the digital world

History repeats itself, and this applies to the current flat design trend. Visible from the above, the flat design can be traced back to the the 1920s, and has been affecting the present. Although many designers in the design of Web sites and other works of art favored flat design, but the real mainstream of it is Microsoft and Apple and other technology giants.

Microsoft and its Metro design

At the end of 2006, Microsoft launched a Zune music player to compete with Apple's ipod player. Since then, Microsoft has also proposed a design style called Metro. This style highlights the character size of the picture and the lowercase letter menu. Zune's desktop software also uses the same design as Zune to create a complete user experience.

The design style of the Zune system is very different from that of Microsoft's traditional Windows style. When the Windows Phone 7 system was launched in 2010, Microsoft used the experience gained from Zune design to improve the design of Windows Phone 7 of the new operating system, with large, bright, grid-shaped, compact self and flat icons dominating all styles, This metro style spreads. It's so popular that Microsoft has applied it to Windows 8, not to mention other software, current Web sites and other products (such as Xbox360) and so on.

Apple and its physical and chemical design

When Microsoft studied its flat-style design, Apple was not outdone. It continues to imply that it will abandon the use of physical materialization. After the release of IOS7 in 2013, Apple completely abandoned the proposed physical and chemical design.

Because of the number of Apple users, the release of iOS7 made flat design overnight burst red. It must be admitted that Apple's design aesthetics is the design vane of most websites and applications. Many designers think that Apple's design is more modern and appealing. Therefore, when the Apple chooses the flat style, the materialization design is almost instantaneous obsolete. Web sites and developers who use this style of design quickly find they need to redesign.

This can be seen from the newer applications of iOS7, they have followed the flat style, and gradually become familiar with the user and accepted.

Responsive Design (responsive)

In recent years, flat design is so popular, and the development of responsive design is inseparable. As more and more devices are connected to the Web site, combined with a variety of device screen sizes and browser restrictions, designers have found that when their design style relies too much on textures and projections, the effect is not ideal if the picture shrinks to a smaller size.

Flat design makes web design more efficient. Because there are not too many design elements, the site load faster, more flexible contraction.

In addition, the resolution of the device screen is more and more high, so you need to show a more concise and crisp pattern. displaying simple graphics and fonts is a lot easier than designing a different screen design.

The future of flat design

We do not have a crystal ball, can not accurately predict the flat design of what the final trajectory, and will be replaced by what kind of design.

But flat design does have several obvious drawbacks in the digital world (such as going beyond the necessary cues, you can't tell if a button is clicked). As designers continue to experiment, test and learn, flat design will eventually evolve into a new style.

One of the clues we can find now is the design of the current Google (Weibo). Although Google's design also has a flat design traces, but it does not remove the projection and other elements, and it still in a clever way to apply the texture. The company seems to balance the advantages of flat and composite design.

In general, flat design is developing rapidly. It is just a reproduction of the printing and publishing aesthetics in today's digital world.