Okay, so I was messing around with some design ideas today, and I kept hitting this wall. Everything I tried felt, well, drastic. Too bold, too much, too… everything. Then I remembered this phrase “opposite of drastic,” and it got me thinking, what does that really mean in practice?
My Little Experiment
So I started out by listing what I thought “drastic” meant for my current project:
- Super bright, neon colors.
- Really wild, experimental fonts.
- Layouts that were all over the place, no clear structure.
- Tons of animations and effects.
Then, I flipped it. What’s the opposite of all that? I wrote down the opposite of each point.
I came up with this
- Muted, earthy, or pastel color palettes.
- Classic, easy-to-read fonts, like maybe a simple sans-serif.
- A clear, grid-based layout. Everything lined up, nice and neat.
- Minimal animations, if any. Maybe just subtle transitions.
I started playing around with those “opposite” ideas. Instead of shocking pink, I tried a soft, dusty rose. Instead of a crazy handwritten font, I went with good ol’ Helvetica. I made sure everything was aligned to a grid. You know what’s interesting? It felt…calm. Not boring, just calm and controlled.
I experimented. I took a design I had already made which was pretty drastic and step by step using my oppsite list, I changed elements to make it less drastic, and what do you know, I got the results I wanted!
It’s not like “drastic” is bad, it’s just not what I needed for this particular thing. Sometimes, you need that subtle touch. And thinking about the “opposite of drastic” helped me get there. It’s like a little trick to get your brain unstuck, you know?