I’ve been researching this time period’s printmaking on archive.org through the lens of web design<p>I’ve reached a conclusion the modern web is far too Modernist/Minimalist for its own good. Ornaments raise the barrier to entry in publishing. I think moving towards <i>appropriate</i> ornamentation in web design from high end brands/enthusiasts online may give <i>non-technical</i> users a visual reinforcement into sources which are more trustworthy or at least genuinely invested in their topic than the drivel found on the first page of Google<p>As I currently see it, it is far too easy for disinterested parties to fart out SEO driven pages produced in Canva, Shopify and Squarespace based sites that are disproportionately aesthetically pleasing for the garbage-grade content they provide<p>I’m worried that the internet outside of the titan’s walled gardens will forever be in this current state of “local advertising section” of a cheap local tabloid that we currently find itself in<p>If we have to make the internet less “democratised” and raise the barrier to entry in publishing a website worth reading then so be it in my eyes. Where are the secular, digital equivalents of illuminated sacred texts? Users are more than happy to devote thousands of hours to their interests as Reddit mods or Wikipedia contributors, but why can’t we organise efforts towards a web that we’re actually proud of?<p>The internet is a <i>beautiful</i> array of technologies, perhaps the greatest accomplishment of our species so far. How can we raise the standards of the web whilst thwarting off the ever-looming corruption of commercial interests of the SV titans of <i>our</i> species’ one universal platform?