Rounded corners
Rounded corners are everywhere, like it’s the new black some other stupid quasi fashion guru statement. I remember 45-degree angles being the visual cutting edge of internet design. The old MTV2 website was thing to behold in an era when we all thought flash was going to replace HTML for building portals and alike. Of course this never happened, it was a dream. All we were left with were those 45-degree angle corners. Pixel/ISO design was at its peak.
The main reason why we saw these ‘fancy’ angled corners so much is that the internet is square, in every aspect. Anything to break that idea would do, even if it did look angular. Designing for something so geek like as the internet struck fear into our hearts, it still does.
So where did the now ubiquitous rounded corner come from? Other than replacing the angled corner method. Well I blame the graphics software. Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks and even Flash allow for easy rounded corner design, and let?s not forget to mention the scourge of the internet; the drop shadow. I think I’m going to throw up.
All these visual effects ‘can’ look great but can also make your work look overdone and even amateurish. Despite the great designs the effect can actually ruin your work, so beware. I wonder what kind of crappy design effect will pop up next.