Carl Barenbrug

Research + product design

lab

New Creative Direction

I have been involved in running Minimalissimo since 2012, when I took it over from two Dutch designers Maarten P Kappert and Stan Grootes—who did an incredible job to gain a substantial readership. Since then, I’ve looked to evolve the site from a blog into a more rounded magazine. This is not only reflected editorially, but also in terms of its scalability. The core of the site has not drastically changed since its inception and with the emergence of many other minimal blogs and magazines, I have found that Minimalissimo is in need of a new creative direction. Not necessarily from the print side of the brand, but rather its digital side.

We’re still running in a very niche market, but this market is becoming increasingly competitive with the global rise of the minimalism movement. Although Minimalissimo might be considered a big fish in a small pond, I am never one to rest on my laurels, so I am planning a creative change for the brand. We want to give our readers a stronger reason to return to our site, to continue to find inspiration through what we publish, and how that published content is presented and consumed.

We are going to look at structural, editorial, aesthetic, and monetary changes. A significant part of this will be a complete website redevelopment from back to front. The project is now underway, so I am excited to share more with you soon, but I just wanted to express that we don’t just plan on Minimalissimo surviving in a saturated market, we plan on seeing it thrive with a new direction. Risky or not, we’re moving forward in order to focus more on experience and less on the numbers.

If you’re a long-term reader of Minimalissimo and want to get involved in how we could improve the site, I’d love to hear from you.

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