This has been trendy for a few years now. It’s not quite “brutalist” because the nostalgic aspect references design that certainly was state of the art for its time. But it has brutalist artistic instincts.

I don’t think more modern/clean designs have to be devoid of fun/rebelliousness or lack character (I’m working on a site that IMO intersects both, it’s very much a WIP but feel free to check out [my handle].github.io if you want to see it in its infancy). But it certainly does tend to hew toward the easy.

The only thing I disagree with in your comment is that it necessarily has character. At a certain point the retro design trend will be so commonplace that it’s also hewing easy and a fairly straight shot from “I want brand to be fun”. I hope it doesn’t reach that point though, because I quite like being surprised by the occasional 90s-style graphics.

I really enjoyed the comparison with brutalism here. One of the goals of brutalism was to show off how large public spaces could be constructed for and by the masses out of basic materials. Really fits in with the intent of the lined project!

This was sorta the intent of both the compare and contrast! The big difference with the retro computer graphics revival is that computing in the 90s had a long way to go before being for & by everyone. I don’t think the modern/clean design sensibilities are tied to that though, Myspace was really the inflection point and definitely deserved the brutalist label.

I enjoy how one can read your comment for two completely opposed meanings.

I'm currently building a website with this kind of rectangular design language and I'm really digging it.

My web app was rocking squared off design circa 2014. In 2018 we hired a designer and the first order of business was to round all the things. I hated it! But, our users loved it. Strange world.

Best thing I've read in a while, thank you! :)