TLDR
Principles and templates were not words from Gaudi’s vocabulary. His only template was nature and the principles he adhered to were born out of meditation and thought, and remained stored in his living self. In a world where design and websites follow recipes and a lot of the web is just downloaded from a website market, taking a peek at Gaudi’s work might just be the kind of refreshing inspiration a website needs. The Man Antoni Gaudi, a renowned architect and design thinker, but what on earth does he have to do with the web? Born a long time before the web was even a thing, the Catalan architect became an inspiration to many after him by simply refusing to fit inside of any box. Although he was an educated man and although none of his buildings could be classified as either unsafe or as breaking the principles of architecture or engineering, Gaudi did not adhere to any specific school of thought when it came to his buildings. What gave life to his projects, was more rather a close communication with his clients and an exceptional talent when it came to combining his inspirations into one cohesive piece of structure. The “Principles” We’ve already established that Gaudi didn’t adhere completely to anybody’s principles, but he had a few of his own, mostly drawn from nature, and mostly referring to a perpetual exploration of one’s style and method. It might sound complicated, because Gaudi wasn’t one to be encapsulated, but I’ll try to explain.
The Man
Antoni Gaudi, a renowned architect and design thinker, but what on earth does he have to do with the web? Born a long time before the web was even a thing, the Catalan architect became an inspiration to many after him by simply refusing to fit inside of any box.
Although he was an educated man and although none of his buildings could be classified as either unsafe or as breaking the principles of architecture or engineering, Gaudi did not adhere to any specific school of thought when it came to his buildings.
What gave life to his projects, was more rather a close communication with his clients and an exceptional talent when it came to combining his inspirations into one cohesive piece of structure.
The “Principles”
We’ve already established that Gaudi didn’t adhere completely to anybody’s principles, but he had a few of his own, mostly drawn from nature, and mostly referring to a perpetual exploration of one’s style and method. It might sound complicated, because Gaudi wasn’t one to be encapsulated, but I’ll try to explain.
Color in certain places has the great value of making the outlines and structural planes seem more energetic
Antoni Gaudi
In order to escape the limitations of pen and paper, Gaudi avoided sections and sketches of his buildings as much as possible, and only executed them when required by the authorities, instead, he resorted to 3D models and using chains to calculate the perfect curvature of columns and other elements of his structures. This gave him the clarity required to start building, but also the freedom necessary to experiment with more innovative and natural shapes.
This is a level of freedom that might be extremely useful when designing for the web in the modern age. Some people mistake freedom of form for creating confusing customer journeys, but when you enter a Gaudi building, everything is designed to make you feel in nature and navigate it intuitively.
What I gather from Gaudi’s experience, is that nothing compared to the client’s specific needs and his experience’s when it comes to resources that will prove helpful in building their website or brand, not even the framework you’re using, its library of templates, or some wireframes you’ve found labeled as a magic formula.
There are no straight lines or sharp corners in nature. Therefore, buildings must have no straight lines or sharp corners
Antoni Gaudi
I feel like I can’t stress this enough, but a mere glance at Gaudi’s projects is enough to see the influence nature had on his style, which was ironically extremely well replicated by AI generated images.
No, this doesn’t mean that AI is the way to create more aesthetic, natural feeling websites or visuals. AI is merely a tool that can help us get inspired or facilitate creating early sketches, but as we can see in Gaudi’s work, absolutely nothing compares to first-hand experience of nature itself, cultural sights, and a lot of work, when it comes to implementing your ideas, and even coming up with them. Going out of the web for web solutions should be something we all do much more often.
The Templates
The key takeaway from his entire body of work is, in my opinion, that although Gaudi’s work can be recognized from hundreds of others, no one building of his looks like any others. Different eras of his creation vary according to his influences at the time. He’s also known for embracing the evolution of his work, his style, and his thinking.
So many agencies and freelancers now jump to adhere to a certain style: web3, minimalism, maximalism, 60’s, 90’s. It’s a cozy feeling knowing that your originality lies inside of a manifesto written by somebody else, but your best work, and the best work for a client lies inside something that you haven’t even explored yet. More often than not the best possible work can only be unlocked by truly listening to what a client says to you, or by taking a real look at the current state of their product, website, brand, etc.
Originality consists of returning to the origin. Thus, originality means returning, through one’s resources, to the simplicity of the early solutions
Antoni Gaudi
Abandon templates, abandon styles or platforms that set in stone what you’ll be capable of building, and create something that the client will be able to call their own. “Yes, but that will just make me deliver slower” Speed is built through experience and constant work, not through applying formulas that were there before you.
The Living Breathing Style
Although our style is very related to the gentle flow of nature, this is not an argument for bringing nature into the web. The living breathing style is actually related to paying attention to the process, tweaking where you need to, allowing changes to your way of doing things depending on the project and always communicating your plans and ideas efficiently.
A designer should always seek a simple, clear and harmonious solution
Antoni Gaudi
Building a logo or website factory might be a clear and simple solution, but it will never be in harmony with a brand system or the future of the client’s company. The harmony of a solution to somebody’s problem comes from investigating and adapting, which is something we could really use on the web in this era of templates.
The End
If you’re interested in Gaudi’s life and work, this article is just your starting point into this investigation, as you have way more interesting things to find out. We’ve tried to draw the parallel between the current state of the web design world and the fresh teachings of a 19th century designer. Hope these lessons in design will help you, designers, elevate your craft or for our tech people out there, help you choose and express the feel and structure of your next startup website.