4 ms·
The article describes the new look as "modern". I hear that all the time. What the hell does it actually mean?
by dmm 15y ago
The article describes the new look as "modern". I hear that all the time. What the hell does it actually mean?
- Lammy 15y agoFashion changed since the introduction of gmail, and the new look is more like something I'd expect to see in 2011.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- mbrubeck 15y agoIts use here may connect to the Modern movement in design and architecture, strongest in the mid-twentieth century, which emphasized simple shapes, lack of ornamentation, and clean lines: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_architecture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_architecture (Aside: Why does the Gmail preview use almost the same header style as the new Google Calendar/Search/Maps/etc. theme, but with the colors and sizes slightly altered? It's a minor difference, but distracting when switching tabs between Gmail and any other Google site.)
- cdcarter 15y agoI find it hard to believe they are saying it is a more modernist design. Modernism was a very specific aesthetic, I believe they mean contemporary.
- mbrubeck 15y agoI agree -- the designer here is maybe not consciously referring to Modernists like Frank Lloyd Wright. He might just means that it "look more contemporary." But twentieth-century modernism had a huge influence on why our culture thinks some designs look more "modern" than others, and also helped make "modern" one of the values on which we judge aesthetics in the first place.
- srdjanjovcic 15y agoLooks that Google is picking up a lot of design clues from Microsoft -- this is reminiscent of Metro UI of WP7 and Windows 8...