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Index
A Retrospective and Futurespective
Look at Colors on the Web

Stealing From Fashion and Interior Design

Flat Color Palettes

10

Monotone Color Schemes

11

High Contrast Color

13

Common Color Associations

15

Thinking Beyond the Present

16

5 Free Resources and Tools

18

Complementary Color Design Techniques

19

Color Blocking and Hover

20

Pairing Color and Texture

22

How to Use Vibrant Color

24

Thinking Beyond the Present

28

5 Free Resources and Tools

30

Exploring the Evolution of the Flat Design Revolution

32

The Appeal of Flat Design

33

The Evolution of Flat Design 

35

Material Design: The Ultimate Form of Flat Design 2.0? 

38

Conclusion40
10 Free Resources and Tools

41

Deconstructing Modern Flat Design

43

Whats Inside the Flat Design Toolbox

44

Thinking Beyond the Present 

48

Conclusion52

Jerry Cao is a content strategist at UXPin where he gets to put

his overly active imagination to paper every day. In a past life, he
developed content strategies for clients at Brafton and worked in
traditional advertising at DDB San Francisco. In his spare time he
enjoys playing electric guitar, watching foreign horror films, and
expanding his knowledge of random facts.
Follow me on Twitter

Co-founder and head of product, Kamil previously worked as a

UX/UI Designer at Grupa Nokaut. He studied software engineering in university, but design and psychology have always been
his greatest passions. Follow me on Twitter @ziebak

Krzysztof is a graphic designer at UXPin. He is also a typography

enthusiast and a founder of the global Typeseeing Project. Since
2014, he has been an instructor at the Academy of Fine Arts in
Gdansk, where he teaches his students about design theory and
design software. In his free time, he enjoys playing and inventing
board games. Follow me on Behance

With a passion for writing and an interest in everything anything

related to design or technology, Matt Ellis found freelance writing
best suited his skills and allowed him to be paid for his curiosity.
Having worked with various design and tech companies in the past,
he feels quite at home at UXPin as the go-to writer, researcher,
and editor. When hes not writing, Matt loves to travel, another
byproduct of curiosity.

A Retrospective and
Futurespective Look
at Colors on the Web

Color is common to every website. While the way designers use color changes dramatically based on trends and time periods, we are
definitely designing in the decade of vibrant color.
Red, orange, pink and bright green, blue and purple have become
the focal point of web design projects across a variety of industries.
Designers are pairing bright color choices in a way that was almost
taboo a few years ago and even straying from the website color
choices dictated by company branding.

Photo credits: QED Group

A Retrospective and Futurespective Look at Colors on the Web

The result is a beautiful rainbow of bright, energetic and fun color

that, when used well, provides emotional direction for the design and
visually emphasizes on-screen text and graphics. This fearless color
scheme isnt for everyone, but the trend is versatile enough where
almost any designer can take advantage of using vibrant color from
a full page design with a magenta background to kelly green lettering
in a black and white design framework.

Stealing From Fashion and Interior Design

The color of the world around us is one of the strongest influences
on our choices in web design. In fact, cues from fashion and interior design seem to have an even stronger influence on color trends
across all aspects of design.

Photo credit: http://www.katespade.com/

A Retrospective and Futurespective Look at Colors on the Web

Photo credit: http://www.overstock.com/

If you look to the runway and through pages of fashion magazines,

color is everywhere. Neons, bold prints and black and white with
color accents are the height of fashion. From skirts to bags to polos
and even hair extensions, color blocking (with a pair of bright hues)
is near universal. When it comes to your home, color is also a bold
choice from wall colors to the cushions on patio furniture.
How color is used in the physical world translates to the digital
world as well. As described in Web Design for the Human Eye, the
goal of all design is to connect with the user the more relatable the
presentation, the likelier (and stronger) the emotional connection.
Color trends in the real world and in digital projects are inexplicably
linked for this reason as long as color is a popular trend overall, it
will live on for website designers as well.

A Retrospective and Futurespective Look at Colors on the Web

10

Flat Color Palettes

Two major developments ushered in the emergence of vibrant color
in web UI design high definition displays and the popularity of flat
design. While flat design likely played the stronger role in expanding
the use of color, the technology behind it made the rich hues feasible.

Photo credit: http://cyclemon.com/

With more pixels per inch on screens, the digital rainbow has greatly
expanded to suit our maturing taste in design aesthetics. Monitors of
every size, from desktop displays to the iPhone can actually render
all the color options designers use today.
Designers used to worry about web safe colors (there were just 216
of them) so that all users could see exactly what the designer intended. That concept is dead and buried W3Schools surveyed users in
2014 and found that more than 98% of users had devices capable of
displaying millions of colors, removing technology as a barrier to
the creativity of color trends.

A Retrospective and Futurespective Look at Colors on the Web

11

Around the same time Retina and other high definition displays
gained popularity, flat design (a trend that is still going strong and
evolving) roared onto the scene. One of the key components of the
trend was the abundance of bright color. And while flat outlines were
not for everyone, many of the color choices and emotions users felt
when interacting with these hues were highly desirable
Flat colors have evolved and toned down as they adapted to a variety
of other projects. These bright, deeply saturated hues are often seen
in color palettes that include one to three colors (rather than the
expansive palettes associated with flat design) or to create a strong
accent, contrasting element or focal point.

Monotone Color Schemes

One of the most popular ways to use vibrant color, monotone color
palettes use a single color with a mixture of tints and tones to create
a unified yet nuanced visual design.
Vibrant color lends itself to monotone palettes because it allows the
designer to use a bold, maybe even unconventional color without
trying to match it to other colors. As we all know from the complementary, analogous, and triadic color schemes discussed in Web Design for the Human Eye, choosing multiple colors is one of the most
surprisingly complex yet impactful decisions for the web.

A Retrospective and Futurespective Look at Colors on the Web

12

Photo credit: http://www.linequality.com/

Look at Line Quality, above, as an example.

Lime green is not the easier color to pair tastefully with others, but
here the dominance of the color in combination with an image of a
Muppet icon in the same hue creates a highly dramatic visual effect.
Because the background and foreground image are all one color, the
remaining elements such as the crisp white lettering, the company
logo, minimalist navigation and the call-to-action ghost button are
still easy to find on the screen even though they are visually muted
in comparison.
Monotone color schemes are one of the easiest and most effective
ways to use a lot of color without falling into the design trap or creating a site that feels chaotic (a common issue with vibrantly colored
web interfaces). This type of color scheme also allows a company to
use colors in ways that might live outside of their traditional branding
without worry of matching or issues with readability.

A Retrospective and Futurespective Look at Colors on the Web

13

High Contrast Color

Vibrant color is core to the minimalist design trend as well. Pops of
color provide emphasis and points of entry in stripped-down designs
that might otherwise be lacking.
High contrast refers to any color that is very different from the background. In a minimalist context, youre likely to see any form of color
with high saturation against a black, white or gray canvas. Points of
great contrast become the visual center of the design, telling users
where to look at what to do in a framework that may otherwise be
too simple.

Photo credit: http://hega.tv/#/home

Hega uses color only for a button in a minimalist design framework,

which immediately draws the users attention where the designer
wants. Because the touch of color contrasts with the white background
and black image, the Case Studies button clearly communicates a
call to action without explicitly urge the user to click.

A Retrospective and Futurespective Look at Colors on the Web

14

Photo credit: http://www.studiostylistik.ca/

Studio Stylistik uses that same concept with strategic teal lettering,
buttons and even the jacket on the model for emphasis against a dark
background. By using the same color applied in different points that
form a zig-zag formation, the site retains a unified look while leading
our eyes to each point of interest highlighted in teal.
As you can see, vibrant color isnt useful just for calling out a single
element on the page you can also create a natural vertical rhythm
by repeating in moderation according to the human scanning patterns we described in Web Design for the Human Eye.

Photo credit: http://www.moresleep.net/

A Retrospective and Futurespective Look at Colors on the Web

15

Bold color works so well because it is, by comparison, a complete

opposite of the starkness of minimalist design. More Sleep, above,
uses color brilliantly against a dark background. The coral red is easy
to read and draws attention to the words on the screen first and the
image behind it afterward.
The thick red line beneath the headline creates visual balance, which
is extremely important considering that red communicates passion
and even violence. Again, this is why color can be so tricky: apply
too much too strongly, and your design immediately crosses the
emotional spectrum and becomes loud and overbearing.

Common Color Associations

When it comes to bold color, it is important to consider a little more
than just aesthetics.
Designers need to think about meanings and cultural associations
that are connected to certain hues. While these common feelings
are not always set in stone, they should be part of the conversation
when talking about color for a design project.
Lets examine some common color associations:
Pink: Romance, youth, confidence, sensitivity
Red: Love, passion, danger, urgency
Yellow: Fun, optimism, happiness, caution

A Retrospective and Futurespective Look at Colors on the Web

16

Orange: Warmth, ambition, enthusiasm, creativity

Green: Nature, luck, growth, safety
Blue: Harmony, tranquility, trust, honor
Purple: Wealth, power, spirituality, calmness

Thinking Beyond the Present

As the overall design trends start to swing back into outlines that are
less flat, color will do the same. Bright, bold color will stick around
and work more as an element on its own, rather than as a supporting
piece of another trend.
Designers will return to using some techniques that have fallen out
of fashion (such as gradients) and make them captivating again with
bright color.

Photo credit: http://www.impossible-bureau.com/

The Impossible Bureau (above) does a beautiful job of this. The site
pairs a dark, minimal framework with a hover state featuring a

A Retrospective and Futurespective Look at Colors on the Web

17

bright purple to pink to orange gradient. Expect to see more designers

experiment in this way and use bright gradients for user interface
elements or as background patterns.
Zample+me (below) uses that same concept with a full-screen bright
colored background gradient.

Photo credit: http://zample.me/do-you-floss-every-day

Photo credit: http://www.piccsy.com/everything-design/

Bold color is already beginning to emerge as the dominant visual for

website design. When combined with bold typography, bright color
creates a stunning visual for websites that do not feature many images or illustrations. Two simple elements work together to create
an even more powerful aesthetic.

A Retrospective and Futurespective Look at Colors on the Web

18

Bold color is a technique with lasting power for a variety of design

styles. Vibrant hues are attention-grabbing and can add a touch of
modern flair to almost any design style.

5 Free Resources and Tools

1. Color Wheel Primer: The color wheel is the starting point for all
color theory. This primer, designed for interior design, explains
how to expertly think about color.
2. ColourLovers: Create color palettes or glean inspiration from
other designers.
3. Create a Monochromatic Color Scheme: Adobe Color is one of
the most impressive tools out there, including the monochromatic
color option. Pick a single color and the tool will help you create
a great monochrome palette.
4. An Introduction to Color Theory for Web Designers by Tuts+:
Color theory is more than just creating a great palette. It about
pairing hues and readability and understanding and connecting
with users. This primer is a great starting point for those looking
to expanding their knowledge of color.
5. Pantone Color of the Year: The design worlds color authority
picks a trendy new color each year and has a ton of other color
tools.

Complementary Color
Design Techniques

While many trends and techniques in web design come and go, one
that remains constant is color. It is one of the basic principles of all
design theory and a tool that contributes to an overall aesthetic and
provides user interaction cues.

Photo credit: Species in Pieces

Color trends change, but vibrant color choices are a design element
that stand the test of time. Bright color choices contribute to and
work with the design itself to help provide valuable user experiences.

Complementary Color Design Techniques

20

Color Blocking and Hover

Two vibrant color patterns that emerged thanks to other trends (particularly flat design and card-style interfaces) are color blocking and
colored hover states.
As the names suggest, color blocks refers to dividing content into a
grid and applying different colors to create a card-like mosaic. Colored hover states are also quite straightforward as you mouse over
each block of content, the color changes to provide visual feedback
to users.
While you can apply the techniques independently (shown below in
the great color blocking in the sites for Wrist and Play Dot To), youll
actually see the techniques used together quite often.

Photo credit: http://www.wrist.im/

Complementary Color Design Techniques

21

Photo credit: http://play-dot-to.com/

Column Five Media and PFD (below) are excellent examples of how
bold color pairs well with user interface tools, such as hover states,
linking and animated effects. Each site features a somewhat cardstyle design with hover effects as the user moves from block to block.
While Column Five uses color primarily for hover, PFD also uses color
blocking to highlight individual blocks within the design that also
include hover animation.

Photo credit: http://www.columnfivemedia.com/

Complementary Color Design Techniques

22

Photo credit: http://madebypfd.com/

As you can probably tell, user interaction is the primary motivation

behind combining color blocks with colored hover states.
Color doesnt just help users visually distinguish different types of
content. When used as a tool for interaction design, animated color is
one of the fastest ways to give users a simultaneous feeling of control
and delight when engaging with content. Considering Maslows hierarchy of design needs, any visual treatment that instantly improves
usability and adds personality is a powerful tool in your arsenal.

Pairing Color and Texture

Textures were once reserved for more neutral backgrounds, but
designers are pairing bold hues with subtle effects for stunning
experiences. As other trends begin to circle back to the use of more
subtle effects like what is happening with Flat Design 2.0 color
will also evolve.

Complementary Color Design Techniques

23

There are two ways to think about vibrant color and texture:
1. As part of an overall background or image
2. As a subtle accent to a background or image

Photo credit: http://ryankeiser.net/

Ryan Keisers website uses texture and vibrant color together as a

dominant background effect.
The grid pattern in the yellow-green canvas offsets what could have
ended up as a chaotic color choice. The texture adds more interest
and a certain softness to the color that makes it easier read. Bright
blue and pink accents (including hover states for links) strengthens
the overall message this designer will bring your vision to life with
boldness and color.

Photo credit: http://joyridetacohouse.com/

Complementary Color Design Techniques

24

Joyride Taco House combines bold and engaging color with subtle
textures.
Between the main header and the contact information, a shadow
creates a bit of depth and separation but what really stands out is
the blue-green line art texture in the lettering. The logo texture is
engaging, light and fun. The combination of colors (orange and the
blue-green) are certainly unexpected, but they perfectly reflect the
hip yet casual vibe of the restaurant.

How to Use Vibrant Color

Vibrant color is a design technique that complements many different
design styles. If nothing else, this trend has certainly expanded the
creative ex businesses and website owners who may have previously
preferred the safe templated look of most plug-and-play site themes.

Photo credit: http://www.masterdynamic.com/

Complementary Color Design Techniques

25

The trend started with websites for more creative fields and groups
designers, agencies, music and art but is gaining popularity for
news, weather and health sites as well. Bright color is also finding
a place in e-commerce, where black and white was the standard for
a long time.
Whats different about the vibrant color trend of 2015 is in its ability
to balance fun and professionalism.
Brands now use colors in a strategic way that is lighthearted yet still
reliable and trustworthy. Brands are not forgoing their identities to
just create a trendy website because designers are using dramatic
color in concert with existing elements.
Here are three ways to make it work:

1. Backgrounds and text

Vibrant color is a great tool for helping important or key words
stand out from the background.

Photo credit: https://fortheloveof.org.au/#/

Complementary Color Design Techniques

26

Bright colors, especially against dark backgrounds, provide just

the right amount of contrast to draw in the eye. For the Love of
the Reef, below, uses color only for LOVE and the call to action
button, which creates a clever yet subtle association between the
two (no doubt intended to improve conversions).

2. Buttons and UI elements

Bright color is a fun way to bring attention to buttons and calls
to action.
Consider a color that contrasts dramatically with everything else
on your site for the most impact. Mijlo, below, does a great job by
pairing buttons in bright orange against the product being sold, a
cream-colored bag. Everything on the site is muted in color except
action elements, making it easy for users to know what they are
supposed to do on the site.

Photo credit: http://essentials.mijlo.com/

Complementary Color Design Techniques

27

3. Navigation and menus

Color is a great tool when it comes to helping users navigate information-heavy websites. Colored Lines, below, uses rainbow-like
colors to highlight navigation through a site which contains a large
number of content sections.

Photo credit: http://colouredlines.com.au/

Bright color cues are also popular in parallax-scrolling effects to

create clearly defined sections of content in an otherwise uninterrupted top-down linear flow.
With each color scheme representing a different section, these
color guides allow designers to adapt pure-storytelling parallax
sites to support more structured content (which is helpful in
presenting different calls-to-action without distracting from the
narrative power).

Complementary Color Design Techniques

28

Thinking Beyond the Present

Color can be used in a number of ways, from thinking about colors in
images, in buttons of user interface tools or as a background. Whats
nice about bold color is that it adds an extra dimension to almost any
project. The use of bold and vibrant color will continue to evolve as
more designers play with it.

Photo credit: http://focuslabllc.com/

Bright color layered over images or video backgrounds is a bold way

to have the best of both worlds. Bright color is interesting and creates an emotional connection, while an image or video helps further
engage the user.
More sites are using this technique, such as Focus Lab, above, and
this will only rise in popularity as hi resolution images and vibrant
color continue to dominate the web design landscape.

Complementary Color Design Techniques

29

Photo credit: http://weareadaptable.com/

Interesting colors will continue to find their way into website projects. Designers will branch out from more traditional and primary
hues to colors with deeper, bolder and even brighter designs. Digital
Agency Birmingham is doing this with the deep bluish purple color
overlay on the home page. As you scroll through the color is used
for other accents as well, and the color is so distinct that it serves as
a focal point on its own.

Photo credit: http://www.loungelizard.com/

Complementary Color Design Techniques

30

Instead of only focusing on single hues, more projects will take on a

styled color palette that mirrors popular culture. Examples include
color styles that look like popular filters from the social media sharing site Instagram or colors that when combined have a vintage or
period look and feel. Lounge Lizard does this with the green tones
in the main image as well as an orangish accent. The site uses bold
color choices will creating an old school feel.
Using vibrant color is a great way to add visual emphasis and user
interaction cues in website design projects. Color ties together the
design story and usability, giving a project complete user appeal.

5 Free Resources and Tools

1. How to Use CSS Hover Effect in Color: Create your own nifty
hover state with a color change option with a simple tutorial.
2. Tint UI: This color picker provides color codes for a variety of
hues based on trends, including flat, material and by brand such
as Twitter or Microsoft.
3. Text on Background: Compare background and text color combinations before you plan your website color palette.
4. How to Add a Hue Filter in Photoshop: This tutorial helps you
create a great color overlay that you can use on images, like some
of the ones seen in the examples above.

Complementary Color Design Techniques

31

5. Color Website Design Gallery from Awwwards: Using a lot of

color can be intimidating. Find some inspiration from this gallery
of websites doing it well.

Exploring the Evolution of the

Flat Design Revolution

One of the biggest trends of the 2010s is still evolving today. Flat design, which started to gain momentum in 2013, is still currently one
of the most used and talked about techniques in web design.

Photo credit: Squarespace

But how has it sustained itself for so long? What is it about flat design that attracts
designers and developers? And how has it dominated the industry in so short a
time?

Exploring the Evolution of the Flat Design Revolution

33

The Appeal of Flat Design

The benefits of flat design are written right on the surface. Take a
good, long, look at a flat UI and youll really start to appreciate how
what you see is what you get.

Photo credit: Helbak

For example, as shown by the Danish home goods retailer Helbak

(above), flat design gives users exactly what they want and need: the
content. In this case, theres only enough navigation for someone to
browse products, while the rest of the interface dedicates itself to
high-resolution product images. Set against a grid of muted colors,
the interface is meticulously organized yet visually interesting.

In fact, the three main reasons flat design is thriving today are:

1. Its simple and intuitive As modern technology (both software

and hardware) strives for simpler learning curves, simple interfaces feel like a very natural means to that end. Like we described

Exploring the Evolution of the Flat Design Revolution

34

in Web Design for the Human Eye, removing unnecessary clutter

and sticking with the basics allows users to focus on their tasks
and experiences, which themselves are becoming more involved.
2. Its perfect for responsive and adaptive design Because flat
design is naturally minimalist and grid-dependent, the content
easily shifts whether youre working with an adaptive framework
(one design per device) or a responsive framework (one design
that shifts based on device). Less items on screen also means less
data to process on the back-end, which speeds up load times for
all devices.
3. Self-perpetuating popularity No one admits to following the
crowd, but when all the big players in web design are doing
something similar, the smaller players are going to take notice
and do the same. While this wave will crest at some point, flat
design is built upon enough solid usability principles that it will
certainly reincarnate (to a certain degree) in whatever new design philosophy strikes next.
So that explains the why of flat designs success, but how can we
account for the how?

Exploring the Evolution of the Flat Design Revolution

35

The Evolution of Flat Design

While flat design seemed to almost take the design community overnight, its certainly taken some time to evolve. Early showcases of
flat design were incredibly flat with a desire to lose all of the skin of
the previous skeumorphic era, but todays flat design is starting to
include more touches of flair and ornamentation (and not just for
the sake of aesthetics).
Enter Almost Flat or Flat 2.0, as coined by designer Ryan Allen.
Flat 2.0 is an evolution, not a revolution, Allen wrote. Where flat
design was a radical departure from the rampant skeuomorphism of
days gone by, Flat 2.0 is a playful branch off the flat tree. Flat design
is the Christmas tree, Flat 2.0 is the ornaments and candy canes. And
presents. No tinsel though, that stuff is a mess to clean up.

Photo credits: Left image- iPhone iOS 6. Manesh Mohan. Creative Commons. Rotated and
cropped from original.
Photo credits: Right image- iPhone 6 Apps. Microservios Geek Crew. Creative Commons. Rotated
and cropped from original.

Exploring the Evolution of the Flat Design Revolution

36

You can see the evolution in a number of other places as well.

When Apple adopted flat design for its interfaces starting with iOS 7,
the look was not quite as flat as one might have expected. Before
the release, as flat design and minimalism were seeing a resurgence,
many speculated about the flatness the interface would include.
While it was nothing like the previous hardcore skeuomorphic iOS
look, there were hints of shadows and other elements that were not
considered completely flat, as you can see from the comparison above.
Thats where the almost flat idea originated.

Photo credits: http://hlkagency.com/

Most of the flat design being created right now is more in that style.
There are hints of shadows, colors that did not fit the rules of flat and
typography choices that break the ideals of an entirely flat design.
This evolution is why flat design continues to stick with the web
design community: it evolves well and into a number of different
design patterns.

Exploring the Evolution of the Flat Design Revolution

37

You can almost see the evolution in the three examples below like
watching a monkey learn to walk upright and lose its hair.

Photo credits: http://agencysurvivalkit.com/

Photo credits: http://www.forestapp.cc/

The first (HLK Agency) is distinctly modular and clean. The second
(Agency Survival Kit) includes small hints of shading, shadows, and

Exploring the Evolution of the Flat Design Revolution

38

even texture with its envelope image. The third (Forest App site) incorporates completely flat elements with fearless touches of realism
(the background photo in particular).
Compared to the skeuomorphic craze of 2010-2011, flat design 2.0 is
a much more restrained yet confident design aesthetic. The design
philosophy incorporates just enough minimalism for clear visual hierarchy, but isnt afraid to layer on some realistic effects to improve
the affordances of the interface.
Of course, the issue with skeuomorphism wasnt in its design philosophy (in fact, we think slight touches of real-world familiarity improve usability) but in the execution. Most sites of the early 2010s era
tried too hard, reflecting the real world as much as possible simply
because it was the hip thing to do. Flat design was certainly just as
guilty of its own indulgence (remember how heavily-gridded sites
were all the rage around 2012?), but now its at least developing into
a far more mature look and feel.

Material Design: The Ultimate Form of Flat Design 2.0?

Material design is perhaps the most interesting embodiment of flat
design 2.0.
All you need to do, actually, is just take a look at the meticulously
documented design principles.

Exploring the Evolution of the Flat Design Revolution

39

Googles Material Design is rooted in three design virtues:

1. Visual cues should be grounded in reality
2. Basic design theory prevails in visuals
3. All motion should have meaning
These ideas are quite similar to the ideas behind flat design with two
major differences: greater focus on motion/animation and layering of
design elements. This makes material design sound a lot like Flat 2.0.

Photo credit: Google Material Design Principles

Its easy to argue that flat and material design are incredibly similar
or vastly different (some of the roots lie in the Apple versus Android
debate.)
What we do know is both concepts share similar visual traits color, shapes and overall structure. Some of the difference (especially
Material Designs paper-like layering) lies in the root of the concepts.

Exploring the Evolution of the Flat Design Revolution

40

Material design is documented and focused, while flat design has

evolved almost onto itself. Theres no doubt, however, that flat design
certainly influences Material Design when you consider the bold images, crisp edges, and vibrant look and feel common to both methods.
Material design, if anything, takes a more practical stance than traditional flat design. By allowing for element layering along the Z-axis,
it retains the visual maturity of flat design while being just skeuomorphic enough to communicate affordances to the user.
Flat design arose as the antithetical reaction against skeuomorphism.
Material design, on the other hand, arose as an ecosystem made up
of the best parts of flat design with an added dimension of physics.

Conclusion
When you consider the spirit behind flat design (visual simplicity)
and skeuomorphism (visual familiarity), you find that both concepts
can certainly co-exist. The tricky part, as recent years and the future
will certainly prove, is finding the perfect balance between the two.
Material design is undoubtedly an evolution of flat design, but the
design philosophy is still mostly reflected through Googles web
properties and Android apps. If flat design inspired material design,
then it will be especially interesting to see how material design will
influence the design languages to come.

Exploring the Evolution of the Flat Design Revolution

41

10 Free Resources and Tools

1. Flat UI Colors: All the hues and color codes you need to create
a flat-style color palette.
2. The Ultimate Guide to Flat Design from Webdesigner Depot:
This collection of UI kits, icons, tools, fonts, WordPress themes
and more will help you create a web design with flat concepts
in a snap.
3. Flat Design 2.0: See if you can spot the subtle differences between a design that is purely flat and one of the more evolved
flat patterns. Then think about each style and which one you use
more often.
4. Flat Design Website Inspiration from Awwwards: New sites are
being added daily using flat design concepts; the gallery shows
the emergence of almost flat as well.
5. Flat UI Typography: A fun combination of typefaces and usage
to help you see how a font will look before using it in a flat design
scheme. (Phrases in the examples are cards from the UX Drinking
Game.)
6. Google Material Design Guide: Get the ins and outs of the concept
and design language that the web giant is implementing across
its brands in Googles living document.
7. The History of Flat Design: How Efficiency and Minimalism
Turned the Digital World Flat by The Next Web: Concepts of

Exploring the Evolution of the Flat Design Revolution

42

the design aesthetic have fairly deep roots that go beyond website design.
8. Create a Long Shadow Tutorial: Theres no need to buy an icon
pack; most designers can build a long shadow icon in just a few
minutes using these tips.
9. 50 Flat Icon Sets: Whether you download the sets for use or just
inspiration, Digital Synopsis created a roundup of 50 sets that are
free to use or peruse.
10. 25 Flat Device Mockups: Flat can be fun to use in other ways to,
these mockups are a nice way to showcase an app or site design
with an unexpected design flair.

Deconstructing
Modern Flat Design

Despite its sudden popularity, flat design is not just some fly-by-night
trend. Its a substantial approach to web design thats rooted in practicality, and necessity. The balance between aesthetics and usability
reflected in flat design 2.0 demonstrates that the principles behind
the philosophy have true staying power.

Photo credit: Reebok

But how does it work? What gives it its magic? In this piece, were
going to crack the face of flat design and see what makes it tick. Well
analyze the core techniques and explore which techniques will carry
over into the future.

Deconstructing Modern Flat Design

44

Whats Inside the Flat Design Toolbox

The roots of flat design can be traced to a number of different influences. From Swiss or international design to minimalism, flat design
borrows old techniques from a number of different styles while simultaneously creating new ones.
Weve isolated five tools or techniques that have been closely connected to flat design principles individual trends birthed from the
greater trend.

1. Long Shadows
Most commonly used on smaller UI elements such as buttons,
long shadows are created with a color tone that extends beyond
a graphic illustration inside of a box.

Photo credits: http://www.razvangarofeanu.com/#the-g

The shadow is often wide and positioned at a 45-degree angle with

hard edges that are easy to identify. Applied in moderation, long
shadows add depth and emphasis to otherwise flat elements.

Deconstructing Modern Flat Design

45

However, this long shadow trend is lately starting to fade away in

favor of subtler shadows. Keep an eye out for shorter shadows in
the future.

2. Bright Color Palettes

One of the more fun things that has come from flat design is a
re-emergence of color, specifically bright and bold color. Designers
are using fun, vibrant hues in more ways than ever before.

Photo credits: http://www.bounceblock.com/

In fact, some designers have even created a set of websites of their

own devoted to these visual patterns.

3. Simple Typography
Flat typography is not just the use of Helvetica.
Rather, it is the idea of a typeface that is simple and easy to read,
which means commonly sans serif and contains a uniform stroke
width. Whats great about flat typography is that it really brought
the focus on lettering back into the reading experience.

Deconstructing Modern Flat Design

46

Photo credits: http://icon-works.com/

While type is an artform in itself, the purpose for most designers is to create something that users can read. Flat typography encourages designers to think more
carefully about any and all type selections. Even serif typefaces have evolved
with simpler letterforms becoming the norm.

4. Ghost Buttons
Designed as a transparent, yet clickable, element, ghost buttons
provide a visual interaction cue without obstructing the UI design.

Photo credits: http://www.iuvo.si/

Deconstructing Modern Flat Design

47

Because a ghost button is essentially an outline and does not look like an obvious
button, it allows the background to share the focus. The ghost button first emerged
against design patterns with high-color backgrounds, and has since evolved to
work with images and a number of other elements. These simple buttons often
include crisp typography that fits the flat aesthetic, which works particularly well
when paired with minimalism.

5. Minimalism
Flat design is innately minimal. After all, when the design isnt
meant to resemble a real-life counterpart (e.g., a notebook app
looking like a notebook), you strip away a lot of extraneous texture.
All thats left is the content framed by colors, gradients, shadows,
shapes, and other visual subtleties. Flat design, in essence, forces
designers to be more creative by saying less designing from the
content outward, instead of fitting the content inside of a photorealistic framework.

Photo credits: http://www.the-neighbourhood.com/

Deconstructing Modern Flat Design

48

The concept of minimalism isnt new, but its become popular recently for its clean aesthetic and site performance benefits (such
as reduction in page load times). This rebirth started with flat
design and the use of a bright-colored background with a simple
design and evolved into a more simple design surrounded by
plenty of white space.

Thinking Beyond the Present

The earliest flat design concepts fit into a very distinct box that was
clearly identifiable and lacked many characteristics of other trends
or design concepts. But thats changing rapidly as designers are mixing flat concepts with other trendy interfaces and design languages.

Photo credits: http://www.makershape.com/en/

While flat design seemed to almost take the design community overnight, its certainly taken some time to evolve. Early showcases of
flat design were incredibly flat with a desire to lose all of the skin of

Deconstructing Modern Flat Design

49

the previous skeumorphic era, but todays flat design is starting to

include more touches of flair and ornamentation (and not just for
the sake of aesthetics).
Enter Almost Flat or Flat 2.0, (also known as almost-flat) as coined
by designer Ryan Allen.

Photo credits: http://onedesigncompany.com/

Some of the most beautiful examples of almost-flat design work

within the scope of websites that use parallax scrolling to help users
navigate from idea to idea one screen at a time.
Canal TP does a great job of mixing concepts in an almost-flat aesthetic that uses simple features such as type and color with animation and parallax scrolling. This mix of design tactics helps remove
some of the over-simplicity of flat design to make it more practical
and usable for sites with more complex content.

Deconstructing Modern Flat Design

50

Photo credits: http://www.canaltp.fr/

In the future, flat design wont die, it will just become more advanced
as new animations and interactions help it adapt to content-heavy
sites. We know that content-first design is gaining traction (as it rightfully should), and flat design is the perfect canvas for its expression.

Photo credits: http://www.papertelevision.com/

Deconstructing Modern Flat Design

51

Web design is following a reliable track of usability; every button,

click or tap needs a purpose and a clear visual cue so that users will
act (and interact) with a website. More importantly, UI tools and elements need an almost universal visual, so that a user knows what to
do regardless of device or page. These minute design elements will
become even more streamlined in look and feel as designers refine
flat designs icon aesthetic.
Just look at the emergence of the hamburger icon for collapsible
navigation whether you agree with its use or not, theres no doubt
that the simple set of lines now lives as a familiar symbol for acrossthe-board submenu interaction.

http://www.emilianobarri.com/

Flat will also continue to evolve to incorporate more images.

Many of the flat or almost flat sites hitting the web today include
photos, something very few early flat sites had. Flat-style colors and
typography paired with great images reflect hints of a flat aesthetic

Deconstructing Modern Flat Design

52

that is comfortable with itself it doesnt need to replace photos with

clever icons purely for the sake of looking creatively modern.
For example, the almost-flat style for Emiliano Barri, above, uses
depth and images for the main visual in concert with flat elements,
navigation and typography. The result is a visual hybrid that is simple,
modern, and very usable.
As designer Wells Riley suggests, remember to always look at your
design through the lens of usefulness and usability. Aesthetics are just
another tool in design, whose real purpose is solving user problems.

Conclusion
Flat design is not an all-or-nothing practice. Its individual components can be used as well on their own as they can part of the greater
system. Flat design lends itself to merging and complementing other
methods, so flat hybrids are not only feasible, theyre sometimes
recommended (for example, a site with too much content to fit in a
traditional flat design scheme).

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