Less is more – Minimalist Graphic Design Posters

Most of us like impressive and appealing complex and multilayer graphic designs. But sometimes less is more! Don’t let unnecessary elements distract your customers from receiving the main message of your ad poster for example. Today we talk about minimalism in general and in graphic design in particular. What is it and how does it work? Find out about creative ideas for minimalist graphic design posters.

What is minimalism?

Minimalism describes a style which is distinguished by the severity of clarity, means and form as well as the simplicity in structure and texture. It is the art of expressing a complex topic with few simple objects or geometric figures and the elimination of forms and elements that are not necessarily needed.

In history minimalism is known as a movement primarily ruling in the 1960s and the early 1970s in diverse forms of art and design such as visual art, music, architecture, literature and many more. It is influenced by Modernism and said to be the counterpart of Abstract expressionism.

Minimalist graphic design – Composition and examples

In design a minimalist artwork is easy to describe but difficult to make. It consists of a plain-coloured background and one element in the centre of attention sometimes accompanied by a word or a short term. The challenge is to find this one element that describes the situation or topic fully, correctly and clearly so that the message is delivered understandable. It basically is a question of cleverness to find that one element to summarise a whole movement, movie or whatever else.

The France-based graphic designer Outmane Amahou did so with movements in the history of art by picking a typical element of an artwork, simplifying it and adding the name of the epoch to create minimalist graphic design posters.

The artist says about his project: “The series was born from my observation. When I imagine an art movement, in my mind I see a minimalist form taken from a famous work. For example, when I think of Surrealism, the first image that comes to my mind is a melting clock.”

In this manner all other movements are reduced to a typical element of each epoch. Can you tell all the artists, paintings or objects?

Minimalist posters based on a simple grid

You want to design several minimalistic posters for a special topic? Why not apply a simple grid and create each poster only by using elements of this grid. The Poland-based graphic designer Michal Krasnopolski created a series of movie pictures in a minimalist look. Therefore he put together a grid consisting of a circle, a square and some connecting lines.

In the next step he decided for typical colours and the movie information he wants to place and designed the remarkable elements based on the underlying grid. See for yourself: