Raw concrete. No veneer.
Web brutalism is a rejection of polish. It says: this is a webpage, and a webpage is a document, and a document doesn't need to pretend to be an app or a magazine or a physical object. It strips away every layer of styling that isn't strictly necessary.
The result is confrontational. Some people find it refreshing — finally, a website that doesn't try to manipulate your attention with smooth animations and carefully weighted color palettes. Other people find it hostile. Both reactions are the point.
Monospaced or system-default typography. No decorative fonts. Colors are black, white, and raw grays — maybe one accent. No rounded corners, no shadows, no gradients. Borders are structural, not decorative. Layout is intentionally raw — elements may overlap, break alignment, or use unconventional sizing. Backgrounds are solid or absent. The page looks like it was built, not designed. Hyperlinks are underlined. Buttons look like buttons. No hover animations.
Web brutalism takes its name from architectural brutalism, the mid-century movement that left concrete raw and structure exposed. The architectural movement was never about ugliness — "béton brut" just means raw concrete — but it became associated with hostility and decay.
Web brutalism emerged in the mid-2010s as a counter-movement to the homogeneous, polished web. Sites like Craigslist and the Drudge Report had always been brutalist by accident — they never added styling because they didn't need it. But designers started doing it on purpose: Bloomberg, Balenciaga, and dozens of studios and agencies stripped their sites back to raw HTML.
The movement proved that you could make a powerful impression by doing less. Neubrutalism is its friendlier descendant — it keeps the structural honesty but adds color and playfulness.