2013 was the year of the battle between Flat Design & Realism (or skeuomorphism). Based on that inTacto created an interactive card with an epic story + a HTML5 game + a new year greeting on video!

A Well-Designed Story about Designing Stories.

Flat vs. Realism is the digital design showdown between flat design and realist design. The site offers an HTLM5 experience that tells a story about the history of digital design as you scroll down the page. The site takes a humorous approach to explaining that realistic looking design once dominated websites and other online design elements, until new designers started using the cartoonish “flat” style we often see today. Examples of both elements are well designed and explained on the site, which was created by the digital agency inTacto.

Battle as Flat or Real.

The site emphasizes its point by offering a Mortal Kombat-style game, where players fight as either the “flat”ly designed character, or the one with the “realist” design. The game takes a while to load and is simple to play, but it’s more done for humor and entertainment value than as a game that should be played regularly. As the site says at the conclusion of the game, “It doesn’t matter what design wins, because we like both flat and realistic design.” The site claims that these two styles were at odds when featured on various websites throughout 2013, but that 2014 should be the year of mutual acceptance and further exploration of new digital styles. If you have any interest in the ways in which digital content is presented to you online, you should definitely scroll through the Flat vs. Realism story and play the accompanying game.