Thread: What works best nowadays ?

I have always thought that color is important in design, but realized that it needs to be aesthetic. You cannot have tons of colors that aren't complimentary on a site because it puts visitors of. Some designers also feel that they need to go all out and prove what they can do... It's better to rather do that in imagery, or mock sites, but leave their business site looking clean and professional.

Web design has gone from extremely simple, to outrageous to a cacophony of color and then turned full circle and went back to basics. It might just be a little more modern. In the end its still the same thing though. What I do though, and I even do this when I decorate my house is to keep one color constant throughout, and then introduce color in imagery, text, or a simple navigation bar. When introducing color, use something that's complimentary. There are millions of pallets out there that ou can look at and see which color goes with what. Even a predominantly white site can be jazzed up with a little bit of color and shadows to create depth.

IMHO, your site communicates with your visitors, it tells people about you in a way. Vibrant colors can generally mean an outgoing personality, where subdued colors can mean the opposite. (It could just be me though). But if your site is gaudy, unprofessional and cluttered (especially with ads), visitors are going to find it hard to stay on your site for long, and you might not accomplish much.

Lol. Its true though. (well I think it is anyway). You can tell a lot about an artist's personality by looking at their work. Its the same with designers. How we design, create, lol and arrange things, is all linked to our personalities. That's probably why an artist or designer that wants to create a gothic art piece or design, won't be able to if its not part of the way they are. It sounds strange, but think about it for a bit :P