Warmest Greetings,

The Color Orange  

:: Monday, April 12, 2004 ::

The Color Orange

There's nothing like a little drama in web design. At Cre8asiteForums, several members of the Moderating Team have been working on testing some design changes and forum enhancements. In one demo, the color orange was used. I didn't like it. Others didn't like it. But, as someone told me, "Orange is THE fad these days." Where have I been, I wondered? I didn't know this.

Eventually, after some playing around, the Cre8asite Network, which is a series of web properties built to support the forums community, and interested non-members, nailed down shades of orange for its Resource Library and Cre8tive Flow blog. We got used to the color orange. You may even find it creeping into the forums someday.

All this ruckus over a color...and so wouldn't you know!

Design By Fire starts Gurus v. Bloggers, Round 1. Andrei Herasimchuk does this light-hearted, fun comparison between blogs and the website designs by notable gurus. The blogs win 100%. Why? The color orange was a contributing factor.

     "Switch it over to Zeldman, whose recent compliant, standards-based redesign is smart and snappy. Zeldman uses orange, which everyone knows is the new black, so that wins major points already."

     "As mentioned from the get go, we all know orange is the new black. So I score major points there."

     "But wait… Williams not only uses orange, but yellow and every other shade and compliment one can find for his design of Yellowland.com."

My web designer friend, Diane Vigil, from DianeV.com, once told me to add "happy blue" to my website, Cre8pc.com. I took her advice, as well as other great design tips she offered, and the effect was nearly instantaneous. Both traffic and sales increased the moment I redesigned Cre8pc.com. She was right. Color matters.

Here is an article that talks about the meaning of colors, written by Scott Harris. It's called Thinking About Color

     "Gone also are the days of using color for the simple joy of it. Colors have cultural meaning. You as a designer, have a responsibility to be aware of not only their meanings but their trends."

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 4/12/2004 10:42:21 AM

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