Are you holding onto the hammer?

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail."

Abraham Maslow

I've been thinking about this viral Twitter thread today.

The author points to a bunch of examples of everything from modern architecture to everyday objects, and tries to show how "unconscious, small m minimalism (...) has become the social default for seemingly every design choice."

So everything from doorbells to benches to corporate logos has to be minimalist now. Stripped of excess detail and colour.

To an extent, this is true. Not to say original, non-minimalist design cannot be found, but I would definitely agree that minimalism has in fact become the social norm.

There are some conclusions to be drawn from this, and The Cultural Tutor back on Twitter points to some. Most explicitly, they state the following:

Perhaps minimalist design is so prevalent because we no longer have anything to say.

You don't need me to explain what the Gothic cathedral says, for example.

But the skyscraper? It doesn't say anything, really. It's just... *there*.

This is obviously reductive to anyone with an understanding of the history of minimalism as an art movement. And I don't think we no longer have anything to say.

But it's not my intention to criticize The Cultural Tutor here. Maybe they oversimplified minimalism to justly criticize lazy design practices. Again, I agree that minimalism has become a lazy default. A deformed shell of its former self.

Instead, I want to offer a different explanation based on a simple historical observation:

This contemporary criticism of minimalist design is an echo of similar sentiments expressed with regard to every other art movement in history.

In the so-called High Baroque period in classical music, a small group of composers throughout Europe had grown fed up with what they perceived as rigid, soulless music of such unoriginal musicians as Johann Sebastian Bach. They started looking for improvements to the musical genres of their time and paved the way for composers of the dawning Classical period.

In hindsight, it's easy for us to see that there was tremendous value in the music of High Baroque. But it's also to understand that the sons of Johann Sebastian Bach, several of whom were also composers of historic importance, were tired of the Baroque style that surrounded them. It was time for change. The tool was no longer fit for purpose.

But it doesn't mean that people stopped using it right away. Many composers continued to write music in Baroque style well into the second half of the 18th century.

So what?

These things work on a global level and any one person has, if any, a very limited influence over them.

But reflecting on them may offer a mini-c insight.

Style (such as minimalism) is nothing more than a collection of concepts, patterns, and tools.

So if you find yourself doing things the same way that everyone else is doing them around you, or the same way that you've done them for ages, ask yourself: Am I doing this because it's the best way to do things, or because I refuse to move on?

In other words, am I holding onto the hammer?