this simplistic style? dead or still the new thing

Hey Everyone

First of here are example images of the style I am talking about below. I do hope these users do not mind:

http://www.netspiel.com/work/NetSpie...%20Concept.jpg
http://www.netspiel.com/work/CounterStrike%20Forum.jpg
http://www.simplisticmind.com/
http://hatchmyblog.com/blog/

(you should get the jist of it by now)

I wanted to get your opinion on this "new" simplistic style. I say "new" because it came into age I do believe early 2006, which would now make it "old" considering most things last max 6 months no a days.

But is it really old? Or is it still worth trying to do?

The purpose for it i purpose in my since, is to use it as mastheads and horizontal navigations, or just as headers for content areas, and leave the rest of the design to CSS.

This would decrease load time, because fewer images, but can still pull of a good design.

Also can anyone point me in the direction of how to design this properly? I have found a way but the result from me is very ugly, lol. I want to learn it regardless if it is dieing.

So is this style dead? dieing? still have a chance? or still the "new" thing.

If it is no longer the latest greatest, what is the new "style" soon to be (W)(H)(O)(R)(E)(D) per say?

Look forward to your answers.

IMO....

I don't care for that style. Never have...looks bulky and became quite popular as Web 2.0....(as seen in your first two designs.)

i think you have talent....but I would suggest looking into other styles...
You have to go where you clients are again IMO.

Those are not my designs, all of my designs are not online right now, they are on my backups somewhere here in my room lol. But I did give it a shot with this: http://jwilkinson.ca , but I actually don't like it, because to make it look really good, you need a lot more images, and i like to keep it simple.

I don't really see how those websites have a similar "simplistic" style really. Some of the examples aren't really that simple at all, unless you compare them to those silly clan sites you see where everything is an image.

As for the style, it's not relatively new, and I don't see it getting phased out any time soon. They can still look good but the simpler you get the more attention to need to pay to small details as inconsistencies or misplacements will stand out even more on simpler designs than more complex ones.

This is not really a style. Its adding whitespace around elements. This looks like a style because it has come in the last few years and wrongfuly people have classed it as being apart of the web 2.0 but its not.

It is just part of the medium evolving because of the technology we have now thanks to css etc. This has been around in the print world for decades.

Also I agree with Joe these are not really "simplistic" they just look like it compared to the rest of the crap I have seen for a while.

[EDIT] Not aiming this at any one on this forum.

well i must say they look quite appealing and would probably get you quite alot of traffic..just my 5 cents

I think they look good, I think this will be around for awhile longer

They are nice, but not simplistic in my mind. When I think of simplistic, I think of:
http://www.pauldixonwebdesign.co.uk/
http://www.xhtmlteam.com/

I agree with you there chaka42, for a deamed to be simplistic style it realy is not that simplistic, and the examples that you showed, are the types of site that I like.

I recently designed another version of my site (actually last night) that I think fits the "simplistic" style : http://jwilkinson.ca

I like the style but it can be very image intensive.

I don't know if can be classified as a "style" or not.
but it looks nice and i do think that it is still "in".