First, I wanted to thank all of the Effective Altruism Global organizers and participants. I found it to be very valuable and overall well put together. There was obviously a ton of work put into it, most by conference organizers who I don't believe will get that much credit for it, and I very much commend their work.
That said, there's always a lot of room for new ideas, and I find I often get a bunch of ideas at and after these conferences. Because of the EAGx events, ideas described now may be able to be put into action somewhat soon and experimented with.
As may be expected, I recommend that people make all of their ideas be independent comments, then upvote the ideas that they think would be the most useful.
For one thing, minimalism isn't normal and this isn't a criticism but just a suggestion. Very few brands are minimalist, and with reason. This is less about specific picture choices, more about the use of color and the presence of pictures.
You're right that that one page is somewhat minimalist, but other pages and design elements are less so. (like the home page, and others with maps and globes and the universe in the background).
The banners and logos definitely didn't seem particularly minimalist.
These guys have something I would consider a minimalist brand (which is fitting for them): http://www.theminimalists.com/
Among other things I was the person who designed the website, so am really happy about feedback on this.
When it comes to classifying the design-language that I used for EA Global, I think minimalist fits quite well. I don't think using basic background imagery, especially if it's the only visual element on the page and is clearly related to the brand identity, would count much against a minimalist style. In general the usage of images is limited, and the whole style is monochromatic (with some very exceptions) to put full focus on the UI elements.
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