|
|
|
5 Common Mistakes of Website Design
Huge Mistake #1: Creating a Website with Flash -- Did you know in a recent study, top internet marketers discovered that having a website created with Flash, actually decreased the response from prospects and customers by as much as 370 percent?...
Developing a Login System with PHP and MySQL
Used with the author's permission. This article is written by daBoss. daBoss is the Webmaster of Designer Banners . daBoss can be contacted at sales (at) designerbanners (dot) com. Developing a Login System with PHP and MySQL Most interactive...
Is Your Website "Killing" Your Online Business?
The design of your website is crucial to the success of your ebook publishing business. People have gotten wise to Internet amateurism and a poor looking website will turn many visitors off buying. Similarly, a site that lacks focus and tries to...
Testing Your Web Application - A Quick 10-Step Guide
Interested in a quick checklist for testing a web application? The following 10 steps cover the most critical items that I have found important in making sure a web application is ready to be deployed. Depending on size, complexity, and corporate...
Top 10 Web Design Mistakes
As a webmaster, you want to keep your visitors content so they’ll come back again. Below you will find ten common mistakes made by webmasters that may deter people from returning. 1) Poor Color Choice There's one important thing to keep in mind...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Graphic Design Using Color
Color is everywhere and conveys a message even if we don’t realize it. While this message can vary by culture it pays to know what colors “say” in your own corner of the universe, and even what color means to your target market.
If you don’t think that color speaks just complete this sentence, “red means ---- and green means –“ even a child will know what red means stop and green means go. If such simple ideas work for all of a given culture or market what could it mean to the graphic design of your website, brochure, or product if you know some of this information.
First let’s start with the basics. The color wheel. We’ve all seen it. The color wheel shows the basic colors, each wheel is different in how many shades of each color is shown, but they are essentially the same.
Color harmony, colors that go together well. These will be colors that are next door to each other on the color wheel. Such as blue and green. In reference to clothes these colors match each other. Instinctively most of us know which colors go together when we dress ourselves every morning.
Color complements, colors that set each other off, they complement each other. These are colors that are opposite on the color wheel. Such as blue and orange.
Color depth, colors can recede or jump forward. Remember that some colors seem to fall back such as blue, black, dark green, and brown. Other colors will seem to step forward such as white, yellow, red, and orange. This is why if you have a bright orange background it may seem to fight with any text or images that you place on it. The orange will always seem to move forward.
Now you have the basics so let’s go further. Just because to colors go together or complement each other doesn’t mean that yo necessarily want to use them on your project. I opened this article with the meaning of
colors now here is an example, keep in mind this is one example from western culture.
Color Survey: what respondents said colors mean to them.
Happy = Yellow
Pure = White
Good Luck = green
Good tasting = Red (tomato)
Dignity = Purple
Technology = Silver
Sexiness = Red (tomato)
Mourning = Black
Expensive = Gold
Inexpensive = Brown
Powerful = Red (tomato)
Dependable = Blue
High Quality = Black
Nausea = Green
Deity = White
Bad Luck = Black
Favorite color = Blue
Least favorite color = Orange
So in designing your project it’s important to know what colors mean. You can now see why a black back ground with green type would be bad, beyond being nearly impossible to read, if your target market thinks that black represents mourning and green makes them sick. There are exceptions to every rule of course.
So you may want to include some research in what colors mean to your target market. Colors that would get the attention of a teen would probably annoy an older person and the colors that appeal to the older person wouldn’t get a second look from a young person.
Color may be one of the most overlooked aspects of design.
Copyright 2004 Kelly Paal
Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an educational background in photography, business, and commercial art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography principles to her web design.
|
|
|
|
|
|