I am not advocating. I am investigating use of color on the web. I have two competing theories. They probably are both wrong and definitely both cannot be right. Theory 1 says, the primary text on web pages should not have artistic effects. That means the type-face is going to be normal, not special, the color is going to be black on white. This theory is a narrow and rigid form of the principles Holly explained about making the form of the text invisible to support the voice of the writer or the meaning of the words. Theory 2 says, good art added to anything functional always makes the result a world better than is reachable without art. Honest people know good art and people promoting piles of rusty metal randomly arranged as art are disqualified from participating in this discussion. We have good art on the forum. It is beautiful. Theory 1 says the art applied to primary text takes away from the product. Theory 2 says Theory 1 is moronic, and lacking something spiritual. Theory 1's response is, "Yes, it is lacking something spiritual, just like a lot of commercially optimized ways of doing things. The reason major online publishers nearly all use black on white for primary text is the result of exhaustive research and testing that shows the best results, especially long term results, of primary text comes from black on white. No matter how well another color scheme does at any point in time, like clothing fashion, styles changes and non-black-on-white will come to look like bell bottoms and weird hair from the 1970s, whereas black on white never goes out of fashion." Theory 2's final response: lighten up and enjoy life. And if our colors start looking like bell bottoms, we can change them! So my question is: what do you think about these color theories and what is your theory that helps you decide the colors you are going to run for primary text?
How great that you featured Ronald Reagan, who held his own in an otherwise flamboyant decade! So, color. I would start by looking at the purpose of the web site. Finance, banking, corporate? Stick with the usual suspects. Black, white, grey, lightly saturated shades of blue. Entertainment, light reading, music, humor? Maybe brighter accents, but the text needs to remain neutral. As I think about text on a computer screen though, I've always been drawn to play with the white a little. Does ffffff white actually exist in the real world? Does 000000 black ever lurk in the dark corners of the room? Of course not. Even on a blank white piece of paper you can see greys where the light hits it at an angle. I've always found the solid white block of the computer screen to be distracting when I'm reading, and the solid black text harsh. Without the natural gradations of the paper the words float in an ocean of white. If you look at an old book, don't you just love how the edges start to turn a warm shade of honey on the sides of the pages? That's why I like to play with the color of the pages and the fonts, just a little. Just the color though, and nothing weird ever. No purple, no bright colors, no crazy fonts and absolutely no comic sans. (Apparently Comic Sans is font faux pas) Straight black and white definitely has its place in web design, because there are times when one needs to fit into the crowd, and besides I think there are other ways to draw attention to a clean layout. I adore the austerity of pure black and white, precisely because it is so unnatural and systematic. But when I want to pull someone to the page, and make them want to touch it, just a bit of deviation from the lifeless colors might be just the thing. Are there trends in web design? I suppose there are, because all I read about is how everything is flat now. But I just started learning about shadows! So you can see I'm all about making things float around ... The thing about trends is they happen when people try to imitate others. When someone has an idea or a look all their own, one that others are trying to copy, my opinion is that it never goes out of style. Besides, the person setting the trend is probably moving on to new stuff by the time the rest are imitating her. I'm not saying that I'm one of those, but my ideas are not the result of seeing other websites and copying what they do. I get an idea, and then try to figure out how to make it work. I actually had something a little harder to implement in mind for Holly's site, but I couldn't figure out how to do it so I left it for another day. Now that I think about it, it's probably too distracting anyway. But I will use it someday, maybe on my own site.
I was wondering about the idea you had said you have. Kirsten, this is a terrific thing you have written for me here. I thank you so much! it all makes sense and what you write is like your designs... that is itself extremely cool. I have something to show you. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kirsten Bolda has hit a record-breaking home run, but Sparky has come out of the dugout and called time before Kirsten could finish running the bases! She is going to be called out! . . . . . . . . . . . There is something very seriously holding back the design you have done for Holly's forum. That idea you mentioned might help, but it will not address this fundamental issue, it will not fill this hole. Something needs to be added. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I am deeply concerned about this . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . where is it? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . When can this be added to the forum styles? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I want to add that I learned about color and writing colors tonight. What yuo wrote is now my guide on that topic.
This is so great-- the way you built up the suspense, and simultaneously took me through a tour of my work in the past year. It's hard to believe that last year at about this time I was still stuck on the Scenic Route. And now ... my work is featured all over Holly's site! I know you said last year that I had potential in the area of web design and programming, but I never thought I would get as far as I have already. As for the logo, I have a place in mind for it right up there on the header. I will have to mention it to Holly and see if she wants me to make that happen. All we need to do (I think) is put the image on the server and I can link the image to the header. I had a placeholder, for development only, up there when I was working on the colors so it should look right.
