Current Project: Leg Shaving Leads to Trouble
Status: Trying to finish the beast
I think I've dilly-dallied long enough. I need to create a Web site. Well three to be exact - one for my writing, one for my freelance PR and editing stuff, and one for my crafty things. The thought of that makes me want to run for the hills.
I am most concerned about my writing Web site because it needs to be branded in a way that might not be my natural inclination. I can put as much pink on my craft Web site as I want - people will still go to look at pictures of my items. But the writing Web site needs to speak to what you write, speak to your target audience and be accessible. It needs to be planned with care and a big part of that is color choice (i.e. I can't make it 10 shades of pink. Dang!)
Last Thursday the speaker for our chapter meeting was the fabulous Pat Pritchard, writing as Alexis Morgan. A lot of what she said had me furiously writing notes or escaping in my mind to think about things. One thing in particular related to Web sites - she goes to stores and grabs paint cards for color inspiration for her Web stuff.
GENIUS. Pure genius.
As someone who has worked on sites before, I find it incredibly difficult to choose a color palette. I don't have a natural sense for which colors go together. So what did I do over the weekend? Go to Home Depot and Lowe's and grabbed one of every paint combo card they have. My stack is about 6-8 inches tall. Not just the regular paint cards, but the ones that show colors that would be complimentary to each other in a room.
I even had a story planned out if they were going to ask me why I was taking so many cards. "Well, myself and a half dozen friends are all planning to repaint our houses and we need inspiration to look through as we sit and drink cocktails tonight." I suppose saying "I need these to design a Web site" would have worked just as well. But not as fun!
I started cutting the colors out of the rest of the booklet and attaching them to paper, so I can just flip through a binder of color inspiration. I can also see how this will help with writing a bit. What colors would my characters choose? Would my heroine have a classy combo of deep reds, sage greens and browns? Or is she all sunshine and happiness with bright yellows, greens and oranges?
Have you given thought to a Web site color palette? If you worked on your site or chose your colors - how did you go about it?
9 comments:
I'm a closet decorator. Before I got crazy writing, I redecorated every room in our house. Did the whole paint palet, color scheme thing. If I weren't a writer, interior decorator would be my second (or third) career.
I love colors and tend to have a good eye for what goes together, but I also LOVED Pat's suggestion for paint chips to give her inspiration for website color themes. I wrote that one down too!
And Lisa...I LOVE the main page you have for www.lisacatto.com which shows links to your different pages. Are you going to keep that?
And I know I've said this before, but at Nationals last year, my editor told me if there is ONE thing I went back and told all my seeking-publication writer friends it was this: GET A WEBSITE. Even a very simple one-pager shows you are dedicated to being published. And my editor goes and looks at prospective writers blogs and websites when she's considering making an offer on a book. So even though we don't think it's important...IT IS.
Great topic!
I thought Pat's comment about the paint colors was a good one, too.
For my website, I had a picture I wanted to use and then we(my daughter and I) used colors that complemented it.
My blog, I use the same photo, but I went for a more fun palette of colors. I want the website to look professional and the blog to be a place people want to come to that reflects me.
I like the start you have on your website. And there's nothing wrong with pink when you have titles like - Leg Shaving Leads to Trouble!
Good post!
Lisa, I also thought her paint swatch suggestion was very, very clever. I tinker with my website(s) all the time -- it's my favorite means of procrastination -- and I'd never heard that suggestion before.
Here's another good place to go if you're looking for website color palettes: http://kuler.adobe.com. You'll need to create an adobe account (free) to be able to use the site properly, but it's incredibly powerful.
I am slinky out of the room, knowing I have no right to discuss websites, color wise or in any other way. I have been a very bad writer. Well, okay, not a bad writer, a bad webber. (Is that a barbecue gone astray???)
I say if your heart says pink, go pink! Gr a dozen shades of pink!
The paint chip idea is a lovely one. I am going to call my daughter and invite her and kids down here with the secret agenda of getting her to show me how to access my web site so I can fix it.
Now I'm going to go look at your website, Lisa...
I love it!!!! Verrryyyy classy.
I had to go peek at the website, too. Cool pics!
Does anyone have colors that they just can't stand? I don't know why this bothers me, but my daughter's favorite colors are the exact opposite of mine. It's not like she chose them to irk me; that's just how she is. I guess that'd apply to Lisa's idea about what colors my heroines would like. Like the purse. I liked deciding what was in my heroine's purse.
Elisabeth does have a natural knack for decorating. No fair.
Eli - that explains why your house is so incredible! I especially love how you've decorated the large room with the tv and pool table. :)
I don't think I'm going to keep that main page. The concept with the colors is just too much to deal with. I think I'm going to recreate what I showed you today for my other pages, just with a different color palette and background pattern.
Paty, thanks! That's a great idea to start with a photo. That's what my plan was too on the site Eli mentioned. I found a website where you can upload a photo and it gives you the main colors used in it, so you can use them on a website.
Debbie, LOVE IT!!!! OMG! New addiction!!!
Alice, muhahahah! Good plan ;) And thanks! It's going bye-bye though. I'll post the link to what I worked on over the weekend, I like it much better.
Kendra, yeah there are colors I can't stand. Namely orange :D
The link to what I'm working with now for my craft site is:
http://www.lisacatto.com/carpe_catto/carpe_catto_index.html
What I think I'm going to do for my writing site is keep the same general idea, but swap out the background pattern with another of a different color. Replace the solic color blocks with colors that complement the other background - and change the shape of the header graphic a bit.
Thanks for your comments!
Aw, thanks for the decorating compliment, Kendra. :) I love how your house is decorated though. That blue office you've got??? LOVE that! I love bold colors. And LOL, Lisa...the big TV and the pool table were DH's contributions to the decorating scheme.
Oh, and yes, Kendra...there are colors I can't stand. Namely yellow and green. Together.
*shudder*
This is really sad, but a few years ago my son was on the A's baseball team (I think it was t-ball even...how cute is that?) The hubby got me an A's visor, which he found in the mark down rack at some sports store, so I could wear it to the boy's games. Guess how many times I wore it? Um. Yeah. NONE. every time I put it on and looked in the mirror, the A disappeared and all I saw was green and yellow. ACK! You or Lisa are more than welcome to that thing! It's brand spanking new!
Geez, Lisa, I've lost track of the days so much since remodeling our house has kicked into high gear that I had to look to see if I had commented on your blog post. I didn't!
Guess that could mean I didn't have anything useful to contribute to the discussion. But I'll plunge in here anyway. LOL!
I'm surprised that you've hesitated over creating a Web site. With your background, it would seem like second nature. And I thought you already had a Web site featuring your favorite pink. Sigh. I'm so far behind.
Anyway, I have to vote with many others: Pat's idea of using paint chips to choose Web site colors is a keeper.
The first writing Web site I designed used pastels: cream, light blue, lavender, etc. just because I liked them. My current writing Web site has richer colors that harmonize better with the colors in the covers of my books.
I do have some design books that have color combinations. Great inspiration! I've also done graphic design long enough that there are several color combinations that I really like and I know work well together.
Many times I'll take color cues from one item, like a painting or a photo, and use them on an entire project. I also like monochromatic colors--like a dozen shades of blue or purple or gold.
I'll also choose colors depending on the mood I want to convey: professional, sexy, playful, spooky, etc.
Probably more than you wanted to know. Have fun with your paint chips! Can't wait to see the results!
Post a Comment