I'm not a designer nor a graphics artis. But I wonder, are there any basic rules that can be applied to make for example diagrams or small illustrations look modern/flat/whatever you would call it.
For example, I have this diagram:
Which obviously is not flat since it has shadows. If I remove shadows and gradients, it pretty much looks like crap. It doesn't give that cosy cute feeling of flat Icons.
So what should I aim for to make this look crisp and nice in the way flat icons do?
Edit
Another attempt was:
Which imo look way worse than the first.
Edit again
Flat http://akkadotnet.github.io/content/images/actor.png
I dropped the shadows (pun intended) And removed some cluttery details, eg the head of the arrow and the cloud.
Better?