Like on fadtastic.net but the background gradient repeats .
On 456bereastreet.com (recently a redesign) has a variant, using a long brownish-green background gradient (about 450-500px height) but goes further down in a solid colour taken from the gradient.

I used in my new design here gradients to make a border around book cover images.

Transition effects I dig.

But as you mentioned, the subtle gradient is what tends to standout as elegant, and there’s less and less of those around these days.

However, if a designer repeatedly uses the same technique, then that signifies a lack of creativity - it’s time to move on to new ideas.

I went through a spell of uses flat blocks of colour with rounded corners on everything. After a while everything began looking boring and tired to me, I had to use new techniques.

Variety is the spice of life.

I think a little originality with gradients can go a long way. Patterned ‘fadients’ are very chic at the moment.

I think what gradients do is add noise to the page, meaning the transition from one color to another adds noise or the element of change. In doing this, you force the viewer to interpret this change often overwelming the viewer. However if you design calls for a element of change, gradients could be the answer. (as posted above)

These very same questions were posed to me by a marketing person the other day. I said, ” I was always told to not use gradients” they replied,”why it softens up the page”. Ironic I found this post a little to late

Moral of the story, I added the gradients and it looks soft and confusing.

Next topic to use centered justified type or not :>) (another one of my don’t use it vises)

A solid block is fine, a pattern is fine, but even these become gradients in print as the light reaches them and to that end a good gradient can be the difference between a nice site design and an emotive one.

It is also worth noting that a gradient can be a million different things. Right now the gradients in use tend toward the light, but don’t forget the gold effects of yesteryear, Victorian style parlour wallpapers with uplights, the sky at dawn, or dusk, and so many more.

I don’t believe that gradients will die when the Web 2.0 design-a-like trend disappears, they will just change. But just as the golden ratio will be used, intentionally or otherwise, forever, so will gradients.

Having said all that I have just gotten rid of mine.

Can fads be great? Depends on your point of view. From the comments received it seems many of us are getting a little sick of adding gradients. They do make a design softer and lead the eye but sometimes we might just want to consider other possibilities instead of doing the usual. Time for a change? Maybe soon…

Are they gradient sick because of lots of articles about web 2.0 design mentioned gradients as not done?

Gradients are not that simple to make in Photoshop - requires good sense of color usage. Maybe the gradients look sloppy?

The best use is when it is slight - one shade to another perhaps.

I do remember the old days of print as well - the blocking that postcript used to create - now I am showing my age (21 … hut hum)

A colour with a slight highlight or lowlight (take our menu bar for instance).

It’s all very soft. Rarely do I see different harsher colours blended together. While it’s not really done now, it may happen soon. Any examples of usage of harsher blends are more than welcome.

Trends, hey, they never go out of fashion!

When we look at surfaces in the real world they do not appear as solid colors. Even my desk, which is a pretty uniform black, with lights hitting it has subtle color changes all over it. Even a white sheet of paper does this with the light around, and I think that’s what is appealing about gradients and gives insight on how to use them properly.

Take for example, colorings. When I was real young I’d fill in the coloring book with solid colors trying it to make it uniform. Then I saw an older guy push down harder on the edges, and make it darker on contours. It made his coloring look so rad, so I started doing it and it really made my drawings look better. But he didn’t just fade everything and if you look at successful gradients in design it’s not necessarily subtlety but perhaps extension, or accent. It isn’t he object itself but through the use of gradients we can give other objects in our design more vibrance, more life, and the direction of the gradients and how they resemble light work to your advantage.

We’re all tired of that reflection logo effect but it’s important to understand why people like it. It looks like a shiny surface…the gradients on those buttons and so on give them a look of being an object, reflecting light and that’s why when one uses a completely different stlye it sticks out like a sore thumb. Like sticking someone in a photo when they’re lit different.

I don’t think they’ll fade away like a fad. I think they’ll refine and our understanding of how to create more rich textures and surfaces will expand.

Can you imagine what we’d be doing with gradiants if the png worked as it should across all browsers?

For the web though, I think they add a softer feel, if used properly. Yes, they’ve been over-used, but that’s not to say you should rule them out of your design.

Everything in moderation.

I think when gradients were big 10 years ago it was horrible brash gradients like orange to blue but nowadays being subtle is the name of the game.

(Yes, I use “gradients” on my site)

Sachman put it well, gradients add a “real” look to colors. Nothing in real life is totally flat. I tend to choose gradients to avoid a flat, 2-D “paper-like” look. This usually means its a subtle tone-on-tone gradient, not a fade between two different colors.

Gradients are also less distracting than many patterns. They add a nice depth. But they should only be used when they add to the design, and not as the only visual element of the design.

I’ve seen some designs lately that attempt to emulate the “web 2.0″ gradient look, but they lack the polish and attention to detail that makes a professional design, and those are the ones that seem to end up looking gradient-happy.

Like the author, any time I find myself falling back on a technique repeatedly, I force myself to come up with an alternative, just to be sure I’m using a creative and appropriate solution. Maybe the answer is a gradient, but maybe I’ll come up with a good alternative instead.

Computer screens by their nature appear more flat and intangible to their users. They are very different to a printed design, which can be bent, folded, handled, flicked through. So a raft of techniques have emerged to simulate depth in web pages, one of which is gradients (others would be the simulation of real world elements such as crumpled paper, drop shadows, and the overlapping of elements so that one appears above another).

As for the question of whether we can expect gradients to die out sometime soon. I don’t expect so. Looking at the evolution of Operating System interface design we can clearly see that there has been a steady progression from flat design towards smooth gradated design. In fact, OS design exerts a *massive* influence over web page design. When did glass buttons become de rigeur in web design? About the same time they debuted in Mac OS X.

Having said that, if there is one rule to predicting the next design fad, it is that whatever follows will be the opposite of what is popular right now! Following that logic, we can expect to see a move back towards bold flat colors.

Many of my clients think it looks more … sophisticated, valuable etc

Robert (or anyone really), why do you think this is?

accessing massed content is easier and more relaxing with a structure.