The "retro" look is officially out of style for 2005, and it's being replaced by the "
wicked worn" look, or so says Forty Media, an Arizona interactive marketing firm. The company has posted its
forecast of the trends and directions that Web design will take in the coming year. Among them:
- "Minimalism is out; detail is in."
- "The pure 5-piece website (header, menu, sidebar, content, footer) has worn out its welcome; designers are more willing to vary from the standard."
- "Color of the year: Brown."
- "Designers realize that Verdana is ugly; most stop using it."
- "Web-safe palette is at last widely understood to be obsolete; Web-smart palette takes over."
The last one is my favorite, but I sure hope they're wrong about brown.
One of my clients, an interior designer and former president...
