Posts Tagged ‘color’

These are projects I have worked on during the month of May 2010:

1. Atlantis DIY – Logo design, stationery, business card design & branding guidelines
   

    

   

   

2. Family Works – Flier design
   
3. Entertonement – Scarface web design
   
4. Entertonement – The Breakfast Club web design
   
5. Jim Allen – Logo and business card design
   
6. AMV – Columbia Hospitality ad layout
   
7. Entertonement – Home page design
   
8. AMV – Columbia Hospital ad design for Seattle Magazine
   
9. Sesame 24×7 – Craig web design
   
10. Sesame 24×7 – Easton web design
    
11. Seattle Reproduction – Flier design & layout
    
12. New Project News – Magazine design/layout
    
13. Sesame 24×7 – Hall web design
    
14. AMV – Bell Harbor downloadable & interactive brochure
    
15. Sesame 24×7 – Naidu web design
    

The following are print & web design projects that I have worked on during the month of March 2010.

1. Sesame Communications – Beaupre web design
   
2. Home Resource Network – eNewsletter design/layout
   
3. Parent Support Group – Pro bono layout of 11 different insert cards
   
4. Seattle Reproductive – Mother’s Day greeting card design
   
5. Sesame 24×7 – Hughes web design
   
6. Sesame 24×7: Robinson web design
   
7. Sesame Communications – Iacobelli web design
   
8. Sesame Communications – Parrot redesign
   
9. New Project News – Magazine design/layout
   
10. Seattle Reproduction – Spring newsletter layout
    
11. Stritmatter – Koehler web design
    
12. Jim Allen – Business card & letterhead design
    
13. 99 Designs – Brochure design
    
14. 99 Designs – Web design
    

The following are projects I’ve worked on during the month of January 2010:

1. McBuzz – Blog header for Michael Powell
   
2. McBuzz – Blog header for Scontrino & Powell
   
3. Sesame Communications – Reed web design
   
4. Jim Allen – Letterhead and business card design
   
5. ANSWER – brochure
   
6. Sesame Communications – Chen web design
   
7. Sesame Communications – George web design
   
8. Sesame Communications – Wadhwa web design
   
9. New Project News – Magazine layout
   
10. Sesame Communications – Frankel web design
    
11. Sesame Communications – Gifford web design
    
12. Sesame Communicaiton – Thomas-Blair web design
    
13. Sesame Communications – Nissenbaum web redesign
    

These are projects I worked on during the month of November.

1. Sesame Communications – Lamb web design
   
2. Sesame Communications – Kawatta web design
   
3. Sesame Communications – Adams web design
   
4. Sesame Communications – Kemp web design
   
5. Sesame Communications – Pazios web design
   
6. Sesame Communications – Elliot dental web design
   
7. New Project News – magazine report ad (making use of lots of the same word “leads”)
   
8. Sesame Communications – Oberg web design
   
9. Serene Coaching – New design & blog
   
10. Sesame Communications – Rey web design
    
11. Seattle Reproduction – flyer design
    
12. Sesame Communications – Lindenhurst web design
    
13. Sesame Communications – Alter web design
    
14. New Project News Magazine – Magazine layout
15. Sesame Communications – Paventy web design
    

These are projects I have worked on during the month of September:

1. Sesame Communications – Roth web design
   
2. Sesame Communications – Wright web design
   
3. Sesame Communications – Pratt web design
   
4. AMV – VanSkyhawk web design
   
5. Sesame Communications – Wiggins web design
   
6. Stritmatter – Print ads for Bar Bulletin and Trial News
   
7. Stritmatter – Postcard for speaking engagement in 2 spot colors
   
8. Sesame Communications – Mortensen redesign
   
9. Sesame Communications – Woods web design
   
10. Sesame Communications – Kim web design
    
11. Curvine – Waddell Properties web design
    
12. New Project News – Ad design for placement in magazine
    
13. Sesame Communications – Harrison web design
    
14. Sesame Communications – Fowler web design
    
15. Sesame Communications – Marxen web design
    
16. Sesame Communications – Hilgers web design
    
17. New Project News – Magazine layout
18. New Project News – Pinnacle ad design
    
19. Sesame Communications – Alter web design
    

Color affects and influences us both emotionally and psychologically on all levels, whether it is personal or business. Certain colors have the ability to raise our blood pressure, cause our breathing to become rapid, increase our pulse rate and adrenaline. Color influences every level, from the brand logo, image, signage, display, print materials, and the product itself.

Consumers are in an emotional mode when they shop for a product or service. And when they are in an emotional mode, they are more visually attuned.

Choosing the wrong color(s) guarantees failure, choosing the right color(s) can close the sale.

Red - Any design in red takes on a persona that is exciting, passionate, provocative, and dynamic.

• Aggressive in nature
• Commands attention and demands action
• Sexiest of all colors, red is equally seductive in the marketplace

Consumers respond well to wine tones. They see them as rich, refined, expensive as well as more authoritative, mature, lush, opulent, and elegant than a vibrant red. The result: burgundy is an excellent choice for expensive products.

Pink - Depending on its value or intensity, pink has various mood swings being either romantic, youthful, happy, or sweet.

• Used for less expensive items such as toys or plastic novelty goods
• Bubble-gum pinks are immature, artificial, and seen as tacky on expensive
• Excellent choices for the food and beverage industry, cosmetics, perfumes, bath products, facial salons, and health care products.

ORANGE - The hottest temperature of all colors.

• High arousal that is associated with autumn’s shimmering foliage or radiant shadings of sunset
• Intense orange is a color not taken seriously because it then becomes playful, expressive, happy, and childlike
• Bright orange is an excellent choice for toys, games, inexpensive plastics, and any novelty products that appeal to children or the young-at-heart
• Peach, apricot, coral, and melon are pleasing to the eye and are outstanding choices for the upscale, affluent markets. These colors are nurturing, approachable, tactile colors that people want to reach out to touch or taste making them first-rate choices for healthcare products, dining areas, food services, or food packaging. Other first-class uses of these colors are makeup salons, beauty spas, and in beauty products and/or packaging.

YELLOW - Warm, sunny, luminous yellow equals splendor and the heat of the sun in every society.

• Optimistic
• Creative
• Imaginative
• Feeling of well-being

Various shades of yellow are associated with delicious foods such as banana cream or custard. Lemon yellow is happy with a sweet, citrus taste although less sophisticated than cream yellow. Green-yellow is often associated with tart, acidic tastes such as the lime.

Using yellow and black together is a predatory and dangerous color combination. Think of yellow and black road signs.

BROWN –

• Rich brown is associated with hearth and home, substance and stability, and earth
• Earthy colors generally give a positive response

Whether related to wholesome and healthy or satisfying your sweet tooth, brown relates to good taste and is appropriate to foodstuffs or food service environments.

BLUE –

• Constant, quiet, serene, dependable, reliable, trustworthy, committed
• Cool blue is the most popular color and is strongly associated with sky and water
• Blue is an ideal color for corporate identities, web sites, packaging, and because they convey dependability and trust
• Brilliant, electric blue is dynamic and dramatic, expressing exhilaration
• Teal blue is rich, unique, and definitely an up-scale hue, pleasing to the eye and combining well with many other colors and is appealing to both genders

GREEN –

• Soothing, nature, refreshing, fresh
• Blue-greens and aquas are first-rate choices for packaging or the colors for personal hygiene products or beauty products as they are flattering to every skin color
• Mint greens are refreshing and fresh
• Bright greens are the first buds of spring, and renewal
• Emerald greens are elegant
• Deep greens mean prestige, security and feeling
• Deep green is an excellent choice for promoting banks, lending institutions, and other businesses where prestige and/or security are considerations
• Yellow-greens relate well to gardening/floral motifs
• Olive green is a color that does not rate well unless combined in an interesting, complex way and then only appeals to upscale buyers
• Seafoam greens are non-invasive, cooling, and calming to consumers

PURPLE –

• Regal, spiritual, elegant, mysterious
• Complex color preferred by creative and eccentric types
• Many people view deeper royal purple as regal and majestic especially in the European market or for people of European backgrounds or sensibilities.
• Grayed undertones give moresophistication and subtlety to the color
• Watered down purple becomes softer, sentimental, nostalgic, and genteel

NEUTRALS –

• Timeless, natural, classic, quality
• Beige, gray, and taupe impart the psychological message of dependability

Use these colors whenever the message is one of durability, permanence, or dependable performance whether it is for interiors, packaging, clothing or other products or services.

WHITE –

• Lightweight, pristine, pure, bright, innocent
• Implies purity and simplicity
• Pure white can cause glare and optical fatigue
• White is often used in infant products, and products involving hygiene and health

BLACK –

• Powerful, mysterious, strong, classic,
• Associated with magical mysteries of the night
• In food packaging, consumers will pay more for a black “gourmet image.”
• Too much black  sometimes gives the feeling of something ominous
• Packaging, signage, and advertising should never be completely black as the message would be somewhat lost to the consumer
• Black and white is the classic combination of strength, clarity, power, and purity

Fact: Colors may appear to change according to their surroundings.

Fact: Outline a color in black or a darker shade will enhance the enclosed color, giving it clarity and richness.
References:

Pantone Guide to Communicating With Color by Leatrice Eiseman, Grafix Press, Ltd. Distributed by North Light Books.

Design Principles and Problems by Paul Zelanski & Mary Pat Fisher. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc. NY. University of Connecticut.

Color Voodoo #1: A guide to Color Symbolism by Jill Morton. Electronic books by Color Voodoo.

It’s a Colorful, Colorful World by Jacci Howard Bear, Desktop Publishing.

Psychological Impact of Color by Diane Toops, News and Trends Editor, June 5, 2001. Food Business, Color Strategy, June 2001.

When I’m working with new clients, I typically need to ask them for a vector version of their logo. Most have no idea what that means and more often than not, they don’t even know where to look for one. Many clients that have very busy logos that don’t look good when scaled down or need to be black & white only.

If you are having a new logo made, you need to know the following information:

1. Your logo should be scalable. The best logos are simple with clean lines. If you have too much detail in your logo, it will look messy when scaled small.
2. Ask for a logo in black & white, color and reversed so you have a version that will work with whatever printed or web piece you may need in the future.
3. Be sure to get a vector logo as well as high-resolution JPGs. A vector logo is one that is created in Illustrator or Freehand. The file can be scaled to any size without losing quality and will always appear sharp. It also usually has a transparent background and can be placed on anything. The file extension should be .ai or .eps. JPGs usually have a white background, which makes it difficult to place over color or photos, especially if your logo is mostly text. JPGs are useful when a client needs to the logo in a Word document or something with a white background. A client can also view a JPG on any computer, but cannot usually open and view a vector file. JPGs can only be scaled down…scaling up will result in very poor quality.
4. A logo from your website will NOT work for printed pieces. Your logo on your website is only 72 dpi (dots per inch). You need at least 300 dpi for print. Since the web can’t display a vector logo, it will either be a JPG or GIF, neither of which can be scaled larger. While a print-out of your web page may look ok on when printed on your desktop printer, it is handled differently when printed on a press and will appear blurry/fuzzy.
5. Your logo tells who you are and should be safe-guarded from loss like any other business file. Put all these versions on a disk and in a safe place. Keep the designer’s contact info in case you ever need to refer back to them.

As a value-added service, Lolalu Design will always give you a logo designed to be scalable and in various formats with instructions on keeping it safe. I will also help you insert your logo in your email signature and give you instructions for other scenarios where you might want to use your logo.

With the start of the new year and resolutions, think about your tired website. When was it last updated? Could it attract more traffic to increase business?

I do a lot of shopping online (both for products and services) and here is what I look at as I’m viewing the site:

• Does the site convey trust? If the site looks thrown-together or amateur, I wonder where else the company or person has cut corners. Will they process my order in a timely manner? Will they safeguard my credit card information? If the site doesn’t look professional, I move on.
• Is the site easy to navigate? It drives me crazy when the navigation on the home page is so long that I have to scroll and scroll to find the category I want. The best sites have main topics in the main navigation with subtopics listed in a drop-down/flyout or as a secondary topic on the main topic’s page. Large sites should also include a site map to make it easier to find what you need.
• Does the home page give me information or sensory overload? Another pet peeve of mine is the home page that tries to put all the information on one page instead of breaking it up logically. It usually results in page scroll hell: the kind that just seems to go on and on and on. I immediately leave these sites. You may have the greatest product or service in the world, but if I have to scroll forever to find it, you have just lost my business. A good site’s home page will give only enough info to grab the viewer’s attention and make them want to see more! A good site will also have “white space” to rest the eyes. Besides a good web design, I highly recommend that you hire a writer who will help you write compelling copy that will entice viewers. If you need to use animated banners or flash modules on your site, it’s advisable to have a maximum of three loops; more than that and it starts to become distracting and viewers may miss important information. If you have audio, please—I beg you—have an on/off button! And if you use animated gifs, watch the flashing text/lights…if it really bugs my eyes, imagine what it does to someone with epilepsy!
• Is important information at the top of the page? I’ve come across quite a few sites that locate their search feature at the bottom of a very long page. Not only do I have to scroll forever to get to it, but it’s easy to miss this feature if it’s at the bottom. Another good idea is the ability to view a shopping cart at the top of the page if the site is selling a product. Contact information is another feature I like to see at the top of the page, especially if it’s for a service and I want to contact the company or person to get information about my particular need.
• Are your site colors appealing? The right color combinations make your site more appealing to the eye…which in turn keeps viewers coming back instead of fleeing in terror. You also want good contrast between large blocks of text and background colors. You don’t want viewers to get eye strain and give up looking at your products or services! One of my biggest pet peeves is the use of color…specifically colored patterns. Trying to read text against a colored-pattern background makes my eyes cross.
• Can you be found in the major search engines? Many sites lack structure and/or code that makes them friendly to web crawlers (the main way search engines find new sites). If you can’t be indexed by the search engines, you’re losing business! Sure, everyone wants to be at the top of the search results…but it’s hard to get to that point. By using some key techniques, you can at least be in the first couple of pages.

These are just a few things to think of when evaluating your website for the new year. If your website could use an update in any of these areas, I can help! Just visit www.lolaludesign.com and complete the information request on the contact page to get started.