If you're like most people, you've been thinking of minimalism the wrong way. Ever since minimalism took the world by storm in recent years, most people have failed to grasp what it's really about, even if they claim they have. Inexperienced designers and the general public alike often ignorantly associate minimalism with expanses of whitespace, achromatic color schemes, and rebelliously grayscale images. To put it bluntly–that's not minimalism. Sure, there exist minimalist works that conform to those rules, but minimalism, at it's essence, is no aesthetic. It's an idea. And one worth understanding at that.

We have found ourselves in a predicament where one of the most prominent design trends of our day is also one of the least understood. Accordingly, it's best that we take a look at it and clear things up. We’ll look into the real concepts and principles driving minimalism–the ones that make it actually work.

Get rid of everything. Until you can't

“Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler.” - Albert Einstein. Einstein got it. This is minimalism in it’s fundamental form. You see, minimalism isn’t about the style; it’s about the content. It’s about getting rid of absolutely everything which is unnecessary, and leaving all the space left to prioritize solely what matters most.

The beauty of minimalism is not the lack of things, it is the importance of whatever's left. The few things that are leftover, the things that actually matter, begin to stand out. To put it simply, minimalism is the act of getting rid of everything that doesn’t matter to make whatever does matter stand out.

We're a web design firm, so we have noticed how minimalism helps out in our industry. In design, minimalism means you make can make the things that you want to stand out, such as sign up buttons, mission statements, and other things that are important–stand out. But this can only be accomplished if there are no distractions. If there is nothing left but those vital elements. Else, the user will likely miss the intended message and point of a website.

In design

If you understand the importance of the important, then the only sensible next step would be to implement minimalism into everything and anything. The concept of minimalism is so simple yet versatile that they can be implemented in absolutely every aspect of life. In web design, here are some things to keep in mind:

• Be fearless in getting rid of content. You have to be ready to get rid of as much as you can. The more you get rid of, the more effective minimalism is. However, be careful that you don’t get rid of whatever does matter- or else you’re missing out on the whole point. With practice, you’ll learn to distinguish the important from the unimportant.

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• Don’t do whatever everyone else is doing just “because”. Take real consideration into every element of a design and whether or not it needs to be there, even if everyone else has one.

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• Don’t think of minimalism as a style. Instead- maintain whatever style your brand follows, and use minimalism to decide how much and what type of content to present. Put it simply, minimalism is not best used as an aesthetic, but instead as an ideology.

In life

Minimalism is a powerful concept. It preserves the absolute essence of things. It brings things to their core. And makes them more meaningful. It's not just an aesthetic, or a design trend, it's a way of life, an ideology to live by.

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Understanding minimalism, and how it should be implemented into one's life requires persistent questioning of the norm. Unwavering observation of life to notice the things that don't truly matter. The end goal is to preserve only what is essential. By doing so, only the meaningful things are left. Life, accordingly, becomes more meaningful to one who follows the ideas of minimalism.

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Who wouldn't want to live a more meaningful life?