some help on design.

hargi

hargi

hargi

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19 Jul 2006
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Got to design a website for a primary school whos colours are red FFOOOO(main) and yellow FFFF00 with the train logo.
Most of the content will be on the VLE but they needs to be some static info pages as well.

No matter what I do I cant seem to do any designs that look like there from this decade everything looks so 80's i dont know if its the colours or if im just rubbish.

Heres the best I have come up with so far.
design.jpg

Appologies while i try to get the image the correct size.


Please help :P

TIA
 
Possibly invert the colour's of the text area's so the background is white and the text is black and that may help.

The design itself just seems a bit.... empty. Maybe try to use the colours in a different way than as a gradient background.

Or just ignore me, my design skills are pretty poor also xD
 
Perhaps more subtle use of the main red and yellow colours (and more subtle use of gradients)

Personally, I'd probably avoid using scripted fonts as they are difficult to get right without making the website look a little amateur.
 
Hope you don't mind, my 10 min effort. Rather than trying to hide the bright bold red and yellow I thought I'd try and make a feature out of them.
 
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Unlucky - nothing quite says 'cheap and nasty web' like good ol' #f00 and ff0.

First thing I'd do is see how much leeway I'd have to deviate from those specific hex values. A darker red and a more orangey yellow will add some much needed class to the scheme. Key word: 'some'. Remember: just because it's in the logo, doesn't mean you have to use it if the design would be better served with other [complimentary] hues.

Don't muck about with trying to jam those two colours together - unless it's a high-concept ultra-designed site, it's not going to work, and I don't think you've got the skills yet.

Keep use of the above colours to an absolute minimum: logo/header area and link highlighting only - and even then, use more red than yellow. Think of them as accent colours rather than main colours. Background: use white. Body text: use a dark grey rather than a black, which you could keep for highlighting, headers etc.

In fact, I've had an idea: Design your site in greyscale first. Decide on colour when it looks 'balanced' in greyscale; it'll make colour placement much easier :)
 
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It's annoying when a client has a bold blue/red/whatever in their logo and then enforce that you use it in their websites colour scheme.

What I usually do is design the site the way I think looks good, then substitute the off-blue/off-red (that I chose) for their original bold colour. Then present them both versions and let them make their own minds up which they think looks the best for a website.

If they still choose the pure blue/red/whatever then I just go on with that design because at the end of the day the customer is always right. As long as I get paid it doesn't really matter to me, I just wont put it in my portfolio if I think it looks poor.

Bottom line, give them the choice and go with the flow.
 
Use white as the main colour and highlight things with their colours.

Thats what I do when people suggest ridiculous colour schemes for things. The link hover text, borders etc get the colour and the site stays nice and clean.
 
Thanks for the advice guys, think your right with the white and little accented colours.
Edward01 i didnt see your effort care to share?
 
I agree with the general opinion here. Use more subtle background colours and accent it with the red and yellow. Text could be better. Try and stick to the web safe fonts such as Verdana, Georgia etc.

Seperate the background gradients with a line border or it can look quite messy.
 
Slight bump, but I just came across this thread Matthew. Unlucky with the colour choice. Having said that, you can still make a great looking site with those colours. You just have to use them in a clever way. Before colours though, I would reconsider the font and typography. If the site stands up on its own due to good use of typography and good layout/design, then the colours will be less important. You might want to look here for some inspiration though;

http://www.webcreme.com/category/yellow
http://www.webcreme.com/category/red

:)
 
Can you not just design a main page banner/header logo with those colours and include the train logo then the rest of the page content could be toned down a good bit and this would afford a bit more leeway design wise?.
 
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