Key Features of Minimalism in the Contemporary Graphic Design: Concept and Visual Characteristics

Abstract

Many authors consider minimalism one of the most influential trends in the history of graphic design, a style that is also experiencing an important boom today. However, there is some confusion about the specific meaning of the term (from its original link with art and its relationship with simplicity) and, at the same time, the work of various contemporary graphic designers shows unusual features. In order to make a rigorous semantic approach to this concept and discover these graphic singularities, the study uses two methodological techniques (a documentary research and an exploratory analysis) and develops a historical review that specially evaluates the Bauhaus and the International Style as the two modernist movements that influenced more decisively the promotion and consolidation of this style. The article concludes that there is an important vagueness in the use of the term —although, in general, it usually identifies the visual solutions based on maximum simplicity— and reveals new style properties that lead to a kind of Neo-minimalism: in this new paradigm , the traditional economy of elements is combined with ingredients  such as the rejection of the grid, a more spontaneous composition, greater freedom in typography and colour resources and a vernacular tone that identifies it as a type of postmodern non-design.