The split personality of brutalist web development

Image from www.smashingmagazine.com on 2020-12-28 at 9.51.45 AM.png

When brutalist web design isn’t going all in on rationalism and functionality, it’s laughing in the face of rationalism and functionality. All clear?

The term has grown to encompass approaches that are in many senses at odds with each other. Indeed, Pascal Deville, who founded the Brutalist Websites directory after coining the term in 2014, thinks the style has splintered into three micro-stylistics:

  1. Purists,
  2. UX minimalists,
  3. Anti-ists (or artists).
  1. ​Web Brutalism, seamfulness, and notion​
  2. ​Guidelines for Brutalist Web Design​

"L'internet brut" vs. "l'internet fou".