The current fashion within design today is neither Post-Modernism or Modernism, it is a mixture of both. There is a lot of simplicity among design much like late Modernism; logos are in a constant state of change as big corporations strip them back of all typography and flourish until all that is left is the bare symbol of the brand, examples of this is brands like Nike, Starbucks and McDonalds. This de-cluttering of design is stripping it back to the least essential functions needed to communicate with the audience, something Modernist designers aimed to do right from the beginning of the Modernist movement. However despite this back track to simplicity, current top designers like Stefan Sagmeister and Erik Spiekermann talk about the need for beauty among even the simplest of designs, they always put some flourish or finishing touch to a design once they have the bare functions. The standardisation of typefaces has also been lost as more and more typefaces are being designed and used freely each day, designers use a typeface according to the need of a client of the theme of the project, so depending on the variety of work a designer can be using two to three different typefaces for each project, something which would make Modernist Elites shudder.
So the Contemporary style respects both aspects of Modernism and Post-Modernism, however the deciding factor for a design is not the rules of the style, it is the needs of the audience. That is what sets it apart from Modernism and Post-Modernism which put their rules and opinions first before the audience in most cases.
