MINIMALISM IS DEAD. WELCOME TO THE AFTERPARTY

Summary from the TLDR Design newsletter

Design's decade-long minimalist era is ending, giving way to a new phase that reintroduces depth, texture, and personality. Minimalism served as a necessary discipline that taught designers structure and hierarchy, but by the late 2010s it had curdled into sterile, forgettable sameness exemplified by trends like Corporate Memphis. Emerging styles such as neumorphism, referential skeuomorphism, and brutalist web design now build whimsy and emotional richness on top of that structural foundation rather than rejecting it.