In my career, both freelancing and working with a design agency, I have had many people send me website designs and mobile-friendly sites and asked me whether it has a “timeless” feel to it.
That got me wondering. What truly “timeless” web design means, and why it matters to these people, and to some extent, to me as well.
In my early freelancing years, I didn’t have the time to spend so much time on learning resources, which is why, as soon as I perfected skeuomorphism, parallax scrolling became trendy, and once I learned how to do that, neon gradients were the latest UI/UX trends.
I learned the hard way that web design trends change swiftly, and it is almost impossible to keep up with them, even for the most professional designers.
And this shadow followed me to my professional life as well. I would design a fresh website for a client, and they would return a few months later, saying that the design looks dated.
That is when I started ignoring certain design decisions and adopting others so that any product/design I created has a timeless feel to it. While creating a 100% timeless design isn’t possible – even Swiss design style or flat design isn’t non-ephemeral – we can create a layout or system that ages gracefully and doesn’t need constant redesigning.
When I stopped chasing web design trends and started focusing on timeless designs, my projects lasted much longer, and I could give my clients a stronger brand identity. Their websites were usable, clear, and emotionally cohesive with their customers.
So, when designing a website for a client, aiming for a timeless design, keep in mind that it should serve a brand, not just a momentary need. A website is the digital face of a company; it is the first impression that decides whether a client will invest in that brand or not.
And most of all, a website shouldn’t be an embarrassment for a company years later.
So, stop asking, “What’s trending?” and start asking, “What will still feel relevant ten years from now?”
Why I Do Not Chase Trends and Focus On Timeless Designs
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Why Timeless Web Designs Win Over Trends
While working with Global Bay, I had the chance to design for PurePPF, a brand known for car detailing services.
Websites are time-based. They should be vital, a need of the moment, immediate, and current. They should look exciting. But designers sometimes go overboard with current trends, forgetting that the website will look completely out of place 12 months or a couple of years later.
I leaned towards minimalism while designing PurePPF’s website to make it look timeless. Clean typography, white space, necessary graphics, and imagery – that’s all. All of these design elements guaranteed that PurePPF will be in its industry for the long run, and will build trust both among stakeholders and clients.
Similarly, another project with Global Bay was with Valsanzibio, an Italian garden estate.
The property itself was steeped in centuries of history, but it required a website redesign with up-to-date qualities to survive the COVID and post-COVID decrease in ticket sales.
Here, many fellow designers wanted to follow the trendy web design approach. “It should be the coolest website in all of Italy,” and “let’s aim for virality. That is how we’ll break that wall of stagnant sales,” they said.
But when you want a sustainable website, there is nothing worse than having a website that looks pathetically out of fashion a couple of months or years after you have done it. Trendy, also, sometimes doesn’t go with the brand theme. Valsanzibio was a heritage property, and any flashy web design elements would have looked out of place on its website.
But Does Timelessness Always Work in Favour of Branding?
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Why Apple’s Website Is An Example Of Timeless Design
Working with Global Bay gave me a chance to work with several global luxury brands as well as local startups. And one thing I always noticed when creating websites was that the “timelessness” that I was aiming for was heavily dependent on their branding and marketing strategies.
You see, if McDonald’s or Apple weren’t as popular as they are today, no one would have paid attention to those golden arches while driving on a highway or the bitten apple when walking in Times Square. Even though Apple’s is a classic example of a timeless web design, and even the web design from 2015 (on the left) looks pretty much modern, it was years of marketing and a focus on creating a legacy brand that gave them the liberty to maintain a timeless logo or brand message, even.
Basically, a good website design is a good website design. But that is all it is.
Which means that timelessness might not work for every company or brand.
Some companies deign to be associated with the past because their audience is Gen Z or Gen Alpha. Familiarity breeds contempt. However, other timeless websites might work for a long time, because the style elements on which it was built stayed in fashion for a long time.
The latest software and AI are also changing the formulae of timelessness. So, as a seasoned professional, I would advise the young and fresh website designers to focus on things that will date much more slowly, rather than quick web design trends that they will get the chance to practice just once.
Nothing is truly timeless, indeed, especially in the web design world. However, future proofing is also a quality of timelessness, and I believe every website should be future-proof and stay relevant as long as possible.
So do this;
- Master the fundamentals; Typography, hierarchy, and layout – you need to perfect those.
- Think for the decades, not months; Your design must make sense at least five to ten years from now.
- Always listen to the brand voice; A web design should honour the brand.
- Use trends only in dire situations; Attention doesn’t always mean success. Don’t go for short-term solutions.
So, do I still experiment with web design trends? Of course.
I play with AI models, animations, and Gen Z lingo.
But I also treat them as options, and not let them taint my creativity.
My philosophy has always been the same, and one which I plan to continue with during my time at Global Bay, and it is that the more a web design is stripped from trends, the more timeless it looks. Aim for emotions, not attention, and you will create a lasting impression on your visitors.
Jay Harrison 