Minimalism
Stripping a design to what earns its place: few elements, lots of empty space, a tiny palette, and type doing most of the work.
See it
What it is
Minimalism removes anything that isn't doing a job and gives what survives room to breathe. The moves are concrete: two or three colors, one type family at a couple of sizes, a strict grid, wide margins, and hierarchy carried by size and spacing instead of borders and boxes. Its ancestors are Dieter Rams at Braun, the International Typographic Style, and the Japanese idea of 'ma', the meaningful empty interval.
Reach for it when the content is the product: documentation, portfolios, luxury goods, writing. It's also the friendliest style for a small budget, since a precise minimal layout needs no illustration, no photography, and no motion work to look intentional.
Gotcha: minimal is not the same as empty. Stripping decoration raises the bar on everything left, so loose spacing, a weak typeface, or one misaligned edge becomes the entire design. The classic failure is a page so bare nobody can find the button. Whitespace is not a substitute for signposting.
Ask AI for it
Design this page in a strict minimalist style. Near-white background (#FAFAFA), one near-black text color, and a single accent color used at most twice per screen. One sans-serif family, two sizes plus a bold weight, and that is the whole hierarchy. No cards, no borders, no drop shadows, no decorative icons, no gradients. Separate sections with large whitespace (96px or more of vertical rhythm), align everything to a 12 column grid with wide outer margins, and left-align all text. The palette, type scale, and spacing scale should each be short enough to write on one line.