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New Brutalism and web accessibility: what you need to know

Ryan Houk
UX Collective
Published in
5 min readOct 14, 2022
typography in the style of brutalism with modern straight lines

New Brutalism is a trend that has been growing in popularity over the past several years. A rejection of the sleek and modernist style of buildings that came out of the post-war era, Brutalism is more raw and unrefined. In its rejection of glamor, Brutalism creates an almost industrial aesthetic, often with exposed concrete and other materials reminiscent of factories or warehouses.

There are a lot of reasons why it’s so popular with designers. It defies the trends of web design ubiquity. New Brutalism gives designers permission to have uninhibited creativity. This creativity is often expressed with characteristics like “asymmetry, broken hierarchy, broken grids, big bold typography…overlapping elements, geometric shapes, solid [and] bright colors” as described in “BRUTALIST WEB DESIGNS — The UGLIEST Design Trend of 2020

With the rise of web accessibility as a key concern for usability professionals, it’s no surprise that Brutalist design style has caught the attention of designers. Many of its principles directly align with accessible design while others are totally at odds with them.

Here’s what you need to know about this trend and how to avoid creative pitfalls which break accessible design rules.

A brief history of New Brutalism

Published in UX Collective

We believe designers are thinkers as much as they are makers. Curated stories on UX, Visual & Product Design. https://linktr.ee/uxc

Written by Ryan Houk

Product designer of 15+ years — I write about tech & design.

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