The history of this art movement dates to the 1950s, when a new style of architecture called Brutalism emerged and grew out of the early-20th century modernist movement. The term brutalist meant literally “raw concrete” and the buildings were characterised by their massive scale and rigid, blocky appearance. Its warehouse aesthetic held a purpose once it had become popularised due to the urgent need for large-scale, affordable places for people to live. During the mid-70s the Brutalist movement began to die out as high-rise buildings became associated with crime and many of the buildings were criticised before many of them were demolished.
Throughout the years this art movements translated over into graphic design. The design principles and underlying traits were very similar in that it shuns decoration in favour of exposing the raw materials beneath it that was used to create it. Brutalism, in some ways, is like minimalism, however minimalism reduces the design to its essential elements but will still retain a basic hierarchy, whereas brutalism can appear to throw out considerations such as colour scheme and typography all out together. Brutalist design appears to be a lot rawer and is often said to be a revival of youthful rebellion against the basic, corporate styles which are very popular and common in today’s society.
Modern brutalism is heading towards using a lot more decorative elements in their designs with more commonly used shapes and graphics being used along a standard, bold, sans serif font. It is often now becoming a mix of anti-design, brutalism, and conventional design. Anti-design may be seen as like brutalism by many but despite this it upholds very different beliefs. Anti-design often tries to rebel against oversimplified design by creating intentionally ugly or disorientating designs that lack any visual hierarchy, whereas brutalism will still try to uphold basic design elements but will try to reject against artificiality and lightness.
