My Multimedia class is designing a page for our student handbook, and we’re having some trouble picking color schemes. I’m the Design Person, and it seems as if I have gone through hundreds of ideas, all of which are rejected by whoever.
Right now, it’s blue and orange; Here is a graphic representation. My teacher is big on contrasting/complementary colors but I kind of like more subtle schemes.
I’m wondering, do you guys like that scheme? What would you pick for the site?
Do you have Yahoo! mail? Check out the preset color schemes you can choose in it–I would go with something like that. Personally, I like color schemes where you use varying strengths and shades of the same color, but I’d say do what you think your teacher wants.
Your teacher appears to be mired in the bad old days when “Multimedia” meant “cram every possible noxious color and funky typeface into a page”
Take the saturation of those colors WAY down - perhaps around 15-20%. Strike that… just realized this was web. Looks like that orange is in the area of #FF9900. If you just HAVE to have orange, try #FFCC66. The blue appears to be #0033FF - have a look at #33CCFF. These are “websafe” colors that will display properly anywhere.
Better yet, how about a white background and have elements in the strong colors? Button backgrounds and such. You’ll get the orange and blue, but you’ll be able to use black text on white. Be sure to have some decent white space - you do want this to be usable and readable, right? To me, there’s nothing worse than a page that’s just crammed with stuff.
Ugh. As a former art school attendee, I have to wonder where your teacher’s eyes are, if she likes that. Complimentary colors are great when you simply use them to accent, or when you are going for a big, bold pattern. They don’t usually go over well in your type of format, though.
Green and gray would be easier to read, and the two go well together. What are your school’s colors? It might be easiest to use them. If your school colors are red and blue, for instance, you could use a light blue in the larger block, a muted red for the border (emphasis on muted) and dark blue for the lettering. Just remember that subtle colors are best on something people are going to read.
Your teacher SHOULD know these things, assuming she has a degree in art.
::shrug:: I like it. But bright orange is my favorite color at the moment, and I’ve always been enjoyed bright and cheerful (but still readable) color schemes. My LiveJournal, for instance, is various shades of orange and hot pink, and it works just fine.
Of course, this is all coming from a girl with a bright orange furry shag throw rug and who uses the flat sheet from her set of bright orange bedsheets as window drapery.
