A rather mystique phrase is used over the internet world for quite a while now. Web 2.0 - the cure for all diseases?? Could be. Lets have a critical look 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 appearance which moved in the so called Web 2.0 sites.
Look at the Roots in African Masks What do have african masks to do with this question? Lets take a short glimps to some development many years ago in art. We had a similar change in the world of design a bit more than hundred years ago, when “modern art” started to spread. Up to the end of 19th century, traditional art was “old-fashioned” - nice but not appealing to our eyes. A great development took place when a new simplicity of design, developed in view of african masks and african figures, started to become popular in Europe. Actually the old african tribes had carved their african masks in a abstract, simple and valuable style, that even nowadays you can put african masks on front of any website. What is their special juice?? It is the high level of abstraction of the african masks, with items like ears “great” in size, the natural colour worn by long use, and the clean carving really resembling to the drawings of modern internet designers.
So lets focus on the first important conclusion: it is simplicity, which is a key factor. And it might well be, that this is the strongest factor. Puristic construction, simple fonts.If you add some great colours you are nearly done.
But let us look at some typical examples of Web 2.0 design. One nice example is a place about fonts. Yes, one of these graveyards with thousands of fonts - or not? Well, have a deeper look yourself to a font site a great experience. A attractive example for such a modern design site with fonts shows the combination of a simple but unsual design, strong colours, great visuals … and the best fonts you may find.
One more example, how to make a boring thing to a innovative experience may be a simple web directory. Not a web directory with plenty of nerving advertising, no - a simple, colourful web directory immediately becomes a great thing.
Both sites - the site with fonts and the web directory - are rather puristic in style. Indeed you don´t need too many colours. But you can play with them if you have the right site. In contrast to a web directory anime sites are in most cases colourful - too much indeed in most anime sites. Anyhow, noone would like an anime website where only grey shades can be seen. So this unusual anime website draws its attraction from the simplicity. No word, just one picture to start. Only if you use your mouse, you come to the services this anime site offers.
So, whether you take fonts, anime, web directory or african masks - you can come from history and will look into the future.