Mark Boulton launched his new site a couple of weeks ago and boy is it a wonderful piece of work. Everything is perfect about it, from the layout, the typography, the subtle colors, even the couple of sketchy illustrations in the sidebar. Under the hood it’s designed with as much thought and skill as the interface. It’s perfect. In Mark’s blog about his launch, he says this about simplicity:

Simple really doesn’t come easy though; like good tea, it has to be stewed for a while. The design for this site was stewing away for about six months. Most of that was getting the brand right—the tone of voice, the typography, the colour. All of it took bloody ages.

That is what is fundamental about simple design. It’s not easy. Just because you can throw some type on a white field and call it minimal doesn’t make it good. It takes skill, knowledge, experience and talent.