complexity vs. simplicity

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Communication design can be traced back to cave paintings 30,000 years ago, but it appeared as a term much later in 'New Kind of Printing Calls for New Design' (Dwiggins, 1922). Since, it became a kind of contest area to ​​many opposite concepts, one of which is simplicity vs. complexity.

To look at an influential example, Modernism embraced simplicity as Industrial Revolution required (1760). Commercialism and capitalism were the drivers of design evaluation back then. Therefore, Modernism prioritized function over form to create a utopian vision of society.

A good piece of commercial art had to be both beautiful and aesthetic. (Rand, 1947)

Although its primary examples are seen in the 1940s, postmodernism occurred as a rebellion against modernism. It shattered the utopian ideals and focused on skepticism, refusing to recognize authority. Simplicity and functionality have been replaced by complexity and contradiction, and many styles emerged from postmodernism between the 1970s and 1990s: Dystopia, Punk, New Wave, Psychedelia, Grunge…

April Greiman was a bridge between the modern and postmodern, the analog and the digital. (Steven Heller)

New Wave was developed by Weingart and it was a reaction to the organization of Swiss Style. He argued that the greater increase in expression, the greater improvement in communication. April Greiman, a student of Weingart’s, coined the phrase "visual communication design”. Greiman was a pioneer who realized the potential of computer technology as a design tool. By combining Swiss design with West Coast postmodernism, she showed that simplicity and complexity can co-exist in design.


Complexity vs. Web Design

The 1990s were the age of digitalism and web design. Adobe launched Flash in 1996 to provide a playground to support interactivity on the web and outstanding websites emerged. Many companies like Apple, Mozilla, Windows, Google, Facebook defended that Flash was not that useful regarding its being an additional plugin, having security flaws, and not being compatible with SEO. Eventually, HTML5 has become a much better alternative and Adobe announced that Flash will no longer be available from January 2021. Since then, the design has consisted of simple sites designed through templates.

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