Maximalism, as an aesthetic, attracted me because I see it as structured chaos, which provides an opportunity for deeper expression and study of complex themes. During 2025 and early 2026, the aesthetics of maximalism emerged as a dominant direction in design with a rich and expressive visual language.
I got the idea of working with and not against maksimalism during the Erasmus semester class “Creation and Conception” where I worked on an project on the topic of “Growth”, which inspired me to think about the issues of the growth of consumerism and excessive consumption. The consumerism in itself is excessive, overpowering and loud as is maximalism. But it is often presented in a minimalist and stuctured way, which is an opposite of its visual reality.
The topic of informed and conscientious consumption is current and relevant globally, and with the emergence of inflation, changing values and uninformed financial habits of Croatian consumers, I believe that it is particularly relevant and necessary for local application.
I was inspired by existing solutions such as the Commons App, which is not adapted to the local market, but as I previously mentioned I believe that the core of consumerism is not communicated through minimalist and structured or easily readable visual language.
My vision is to create a visual language for communicating about problems of consumerism and excessive buying that is visually visually engaging, loud and „extra“ as well as maximalism is. But as well motivating and informative to prove that the aesthetics of maximalism and the use of diverse materials and sources can more effectively visually communicate the problem of impulsive and irresponsible buying in world of consumeristic practice.
For my project for class Creation and Conception, and with help of my professor and mentor Daniela Gruber, I designed series of posters and visualizations that represent consumerism and at the end produced the final poster.
Fast into my research for poster design, I realized the topic of consumerism in real life practice has much to do with persuading consumers to buy faster and more internet culture and dark patterns. Based on that I focused on internet culture, photography, ads, memes, stickers, icons, emoticons, apps and websites for Temu and AliExpress and other visuals that are associated with consumerist culture and internet culture (which is the source of many consumer habits). In my final poster I found and used real information, symbols and tags found on products from the cosmetics, fashion industry and food packaging and included then in design to contribute to a realistic rather than idealistic portrayal of consumerism.
That were the first steps of my research where I tested if my theory and known information to explore how maximalist aesthetics can used to communicate the topic of consumerism, impulsive buying and uninformed consumers. My further research will go more into explanations of consumerism, esthetics of maximalism and local problems created by consumeristic society in Croatia and world. Also finding relevant projects that support or dismiss my theory that maximalism can be used to communicate such topic.
