I agree that ads can be garish. I just see this as a separate problem from design itself. Recently XKCD made me think about how minimalism fits into design. Fo

I agree that ads can be garish. I just see this as a separate problem from design itself. Recently XKCD made me think about how minimalism fits into design. For example, entirely text-driven: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/the_pace_of_modern_life.png http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/the_pace_of_modern_life.png ... and more visually oriented: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/balloon_internet.png http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/balloon_internet.png Obviously there are many ways to communicate ideas, and each in various contexts can be quite effective.