The Rise of Brutalism in Web Design
A tactical playbook for using raw textures, oversized type, and unapologetic color blocking in marketing sites, editorial experiences, and cultural products.
Avery Lin
Design Systems Lead, 0design
Share rate
2.3× increase on launch week
Avg. time on page
3m 40s on brutalist stories
Why audiences crave friction
After a decade of rounded cards and ghost buttons, audiences are numb. Brutalism cuts through algorithmic sameness with graphic tension, mismatched grids, and deliberately “wrong” typography.
High-growth brands use it sparingly: the homepage hits you with neon gradients, stretched type, and system fonts, while inner flows remain calm and conversion-focused.
- •Pair hand-coded interactions with deliberately “default” HTML elements.
- •Use browser-native fonts to keep load times sub-1s despite heavy visuals.
- •Add motion artifacts (scanlines, VHS jitter) to create texture without huge assets.
Guardrails to keep brutalism usable
Use a strict 8pt spacing grid, even if the visuals look chaotic. Users should still be able to scan forms and CTAs.
Color contrast must exceed 4.5:1; brutalism is raw, not inaccessible. Lean on black/white + one acidic accent.
Do / Don’t
- ✅ Do reserve noise textures for hero areas, keep body copy on solid fills.
- ✅ Do animate with CSS transforms to avoid layout thrash.
- ❌ Don’t sacrifice focus states—brutalism without accessibility is just noise.
When to deploy the aesthetic
Cultural drops, editorial content, independent studios, and Web3 experiments benefit from brutalism because memorability outweighs strict conversion metrics.
Pair the aesthetic with interactive storytelling—parallax scrims, scroll-hijacked typography, or glitch-triggered audio events.
Key Takeaways
Brutalism works best as a campaign layer, not as your entire product surface.
Accessibility and performance guardrails keep the aesthetic from imploding.
Run qualitative tests—people should feel energized, not confused.
FAQs
Does brutalism hurt SEO?+
Not if semantic HTML, proper heading hierarchy, and structured data remain intact. The visual layer can be wild while the underlying markup stays clean.
How do I sell brutalism to stakeholders?+
Show competitors’ sameness scores, run thumbnail tests to prove memorability, and position the aesthetic as a controlled experiment with defined success metrics.