{ Color Psychology }

When it comes to colors there is a lot to know before you pick your colors for that logo you've been working on. So here are some things to know before you start your next design.


White - the universal color of peace and purity. Find it in logos as reserved text or negative space.

Yellow - can have conflicting messages. Bright and highly visible it's often used in logo design to get attention, create happiness and warmth.

Orange - combining red and yellow's attributes, it's often used to draw attention. Find it used in logos to create playfulness, stimulate emotions or even appetites.

Red - an intense color that can summon strong emotions from blood and warfare to love and passion. Used in logo design to grip the viewer's attention ans has been know to raise one's blood pressure or make people hungry.

Pink - a feminine color conjures feeling of inccocene and delicateness. Often used in logos to add a feminine flare.

Purple - implies royalty mystery, spirituality and sophistication. As a combination or red and blue, it has both warm and cool properties. Find it in many education related and luxury product logos/

Blue - a calming color that and can stir up images of authority success and security. Most people can say they like at least one shade of blue. The most popular color in logo design, it can be seen extensively in government, medical and fortune 500 company logos.

Green - represents life and renewal, it is a restful and smoothing color but can also represent jealously and inexperience. You can often find it used in companies that want to portray themselves as eco-friendly.

Brown - indicates nature, woodiness and utility. Brown is used in logo related to constriction and legal logos due to it's simplicity, warmth, and neutrality.

Grey - neutral and cool, grey is often used for the type within logos because it is neutral and works well most colors.

Black - symbolizes menace or evil, popular as an indicator of power. Found in many logos for it's boldness, simplicity and sophistication.

What Colors Make You Feel 

White - cleanliness, innocence, peace, purity, refined, sterile, simplicity, surrender, truthfulness

Yellow - caution, cheerful, cowardice, curiosity, happiness, joy. playful, positivity, sunshine, warmth

Orange - affordable, creative, enthusiasm, fun, jovial, lighthearted, high-spirted, youthful

Red - action, adventure, aggressive, blood, danger, drive, energy, excitement, love, passion

Pink - appreciation, delicate, femininity, floral, gentle, girly, gratitude, innocence, romantic

Purple - ceremony, expensive, fantasy, justice, mystery, nobility, regal, sophistication

Blue - authority, calm, confidence, dignity, established, loyalty, power, success, secure

Green - crisp, environmental, fresh, harmony, health, healing, money, nature, tranquility

Brown - calmness, depth, earth, natural, roughness, richness, simplicity, serious, woodsy

Grey - authority, corporate, dullness, humility, moody, practicality, respect, stableness

Black - authority, bold, classic, conservation, formality, mystery, secrecy, serious, tradition

{ How to Fix a Bad Design }

When it comes to designing, we all have created things that we may not have been so happy about. So here are some tips to fix a bad design.

{1} Scrap Bad Photography

This single step can have a huge impact on a design. Modern, on-trend photography is the only kind of photography that should be included on a website. If it isn't good, it's better not to use images at all. Cheap and tacky imagery makes the website look cheap and tacky. Unless you can replace your photographs with a professional's work, scrap them all and rely on your font choices.

{2} Make Navigation Simpler

Your users won't stick around unless your website is easy to browse and navigate. Surfing the Internet is all about doing something fast and getting it done without obstacles. Clever, easy-to-use bars, straightforward menus and clearly demonstrated buttons ensure that site navigation isn't a problem.

{3} Choose Better Fonts

Fonts can present all kinds of problems in your site's design. Is the font size consistent with the site as a whole? Does the color of the font clash with the background or other text? It is almost always best to go for a unified appearance. It is a novice's mistake to choose more than is absolutely necessary. Use no more than two font sizes and one, or at most two, font styles.

{4} Declutter

Your site's layout can always get better by getting rid of the clutter: minimalist design wins in most cases. Try to eliminate anything that stands out in a distasteful way. You don't want your users to be overwhelmed. Eliminate badges, links and networks, and if you absolutely must include them, put them on the About page.

{5} Fix Bad Call-to-Action Buttons

Call-to-action buttons are a tricky business. They're needed, but when used badly, they can make the site look more like a cheap advertising setup than a classy service. Be discreet. Make them evident but not overwhelming. Camouflage them subtly. Find appropriate positions for them and make sure they work correctly and don't lead the user anywhere irrelevant.

{6} Use a Grid

You make think alignment issues have gone the way of the dinosaur because of grid systems, but amateur site designs almost always suffer from this problem. Sometimes a seemingly cluttered site design can be drastically improved by imposing a much-needed grid layout. Also, if the client's site isn't responsive or at least optimized for mobile, there's a serious discussion to be had on that front.

{7} Correct Broken Links

If a client hands you an aging site and is looking for a refresh, you can bet good money that you'll find some ancient links floating around that no longer work. Checking all the links on a site can be a dull, tedious task, so be sure to use a tool like the W3C's Link Checker.

{8} Coordinate Colors

Another mistake amateur web designers make is choosing terrible color schemes. If the site your client hands you makes your eyes bleed, your first task should be to update the colors. Like everything else, the rule here is to simplify. Like removing ugly wallpaper from an old house, you might find something decent under that bad color scheme!

{9} Harmonize the Text-Background Relationship

Don't let the background harm the readability of your content. This kind of mistake is considered the ultimate crime by professional website designers. Browse your site and pay close attention to any background choices that don't complement the text entirely. Your best bet when it comes to your website's background is almost always white.

{10} Is It Worth The Effort?

The most important consideration to put forth when attempting to fix a bad design is whether or not it's worth the trouble. Always give your honest opinion to a client and let them know when starting from scratch will be faster, easier, and/or better than putting a band-aid on an ultimately doomed project.

https://creativemarket.com/blog/2015/01/09/how-to-fix-a-bad-

{ Choosing The Right Colors For Your Website }

When it comes to choosing the right color palette for your website the right colors can make all the differences. The combination of shades can create an every lasting impression on your website visitors. A food blog should make you feel hunger and ambition, commercial sites should inspire desire for the product, whatever your site is it should inspire your readers to keep coming back for more. Whatever the purpose of the site the colors contribution should always set the mood and personality. A professional appearance is essential to success, so here are some examples of excellent color designs to keep in mind the next time you create a website.

Three-Color Websites

The following examples are of three-color websites. The three colors can be any combination, primary, secondary, tertiary and they can be complementary or analogous. It’s important for the colors to work well with each other, but it’s also essential that they don’t overlap too much. If your colors are too similar, your site may not pop and users may go elsewhere for a more stimulating experience. If you like a three-color scheme, check out some of these next examples.

{1} In addition to an adorable icon that saunters as you scroll down the page, the Fat-Man Collective website clearly has its web design in order. The three-color scheme includes a neutral warm gray, a professional and powerful black, and a warm and invigorating yellow. These colors work together to suggest professionalism, creativity and intelligence. The yellow helps elevate the feeling to one of optimism.

{2} Blue evokes feelings of calm, stability and peace, and that’s what the French design website Pentagon wanted to express with its front page. Using multiple shades of blue and leaving the background white for clarity and cleanliness, the business has created a soothing yet respectable appearance that appeals to a wide variety of customers.

Five-Color Websites

Expanding on the three-color theme, five colors allow for a greater variety of accent tones and interest. With five colors, you can stimulate a full sensory experience based on the way a color makes a person feel. The extra shades refine the image to one that perfectly suits your web design. Check out the following examples for good uses of five-color themes, and check out some available themes to streamline your design process, rather than starting from scratch.

{1} The perfect case of a website utilizing three strong main colors and two accent colors can be seen in Mint. Using white for clarity, green for money and growth, and black for professionalism, the website also uses orange and red as accent tones that add optimism, cheer and energy to the site’s overall sensation.

{2} Some companies use all colors with equal weight, more or less. Your blog or business doesn’t have to use two or three dedicated accent shades; the colors can swap places depending on the page layout, and each color can take a turn as the main option, like in the example of Carbonite, which uses purple, green, blue, white and gray. The result is accessible, trustworthy and clean, exactly what you want from a file saving company.



https://creativemarket.com/blog/2013/11/19/choosing-the-right-colors-for-your-website?utm_content=buffer7aee2&utm_medium=social&utm_source=CMfacebook&utm_campaign=buffer

{ Throwback Thursday - 5 }

This is the fifth installment of my Throwback Thursday. This week is all about logo design and I decided to showcase the first one that I ever created at Villa Maria College.

This design was created my Freshmen year in the Fall 2011. This was the first logo design that I created at Villa, the idea behind the design was simple. We had to pick one letter and one number and combine them in a serious of designs, from there your favorite design would be created into your logo. I combined a lowercase "r" and the number 2. Since my name is Rachel Rising and I've been called "R" squared on occasions it made sense. After about fifty sketches and four designs I final picked the one below.

If I had to make any chances to the design I would make a color chance, and probably create a new company to represent the logo. Since this is one of my first designs, I'm proud of how it turned out and wouldn't change it for the world.

{ Wine Bottle Designs }

Since my 21st birthday, everyone I know has been asking my all kinds of questions. Such as what  your favorite drink, or what your favorite brand of wine or beer. Since I'm not a big drinker it can be hard to come up with an answer. So recently as I was doing my daily check on Buzzfeed I came across something that may help me when it comes to giving people an answer. Buzzfeed had posted the 33 most brilliantly designed wine bottles. So now when someone asks I can just answer with the wine bottles that in my option are designed the best. Here are some of my favorites, if you want to see all 33 wine bottle designs just click here.



{1} This wine bottle has a very unique design, the crystalline fox creates a very visual pleasing design. Sadly this is not a real brand of wine, it was part of a student project by an unnamed designer.

{2} The pull away strip idea on this wine bottle is a great idea. It also is making a abstract interpretation of the Spanish flag, which when you pull the strips becomes the regional Catalan flag. This bottle design was created by La Fonda Grafica and can be found around Barcelona.

{3} This is my favorite wine bottle design. The idea of using the wine bottle to look like a bouquet of flowers was genius. It does a great job of showing a loved one how much you care for them. This was designed by PACKLAB and can be found in Finland.

{4} This wine bottle has a lovely colorful and geometric pattern that is visual pleasing to the eye. The color scheme is a perfect representation of the wine itself. The designer and where this wine can be found is unknown.

{5} These wine bottle designs are great examples of how three different bottles can appear similar as long as you stick to the same color scheme. The use of simple colors, black and white makes the design both stylish and smartly designed. These bottles were designed by Tsilili and can be found in Greece.

{6} These wine bottle designs are wonderful examples of simplicity. The simple star design and layout of the constellations make for a great layout. These bottles were created by White Fences Vineyard that has unfortunately gone out of business.

{7} It may come as no surprise that many graphic designer including myself are fans of sans serif especially Helvectica. The simple layout and design of this wine bottle is the perfect example of san serif wine. Unfortunately there are only around a thousand bottles of this wine available in the world. It was designed by WildWildWest in Spain.

{8} These wine bottles have made the list because they are an unique example of what a wine bottle can be, they don't have to be the generic size that many wine bottles are. This bottle is perfect for drinkers who don't intend on drinking the whole bottle of wine. This was created by Stack Wines and can be found on Amazon and other sites that sell wine.

{9} This design is similar to number four on this list, because of the geometric pattern. Unlike number four this design is simple and has a much more open color scheme. It's can be assumed that the design was based on a kaleidoscopic illustration. This wine design was created by designer Simon C. Page and is not available for sale, but you can download the pattern as a wallpaper on his website, for the link click here.

{10} The last design on the list is a much simpler designer that sends a lovely message to the person whom your giving the wine too. The whimsically design makes for a wonderful gift to give to friends or a host of a dinner party. This was created by Small Talk Wine and can not be found in stores or online.

{ The Art of Using Color}

Colors affect us in countless ways, mentally and physically, consciously and subconsciously.  Psychologists have suggested that color impression can account for 60% of the acceptance or rejection of product or service. Good color choices should never be neglected in web design. A bad color combination can have the same negative effects as a poor copy and slow load times. In this blog I will briefly discuss color coordination and how you can use this to your advantage when designing with colors.

{1} The Color Wheel

The Color Wheel is a simple tool that's used to discover and coordinate color harmonies, especially in web design. The first circular color diagram was designed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666

Warm and Cool Colors - The color circle can be divided into warm and cool colors. As a general rule, designing a website with an excessive combination of warm and cool colors can confuse the viewer. It can often make the site or design look busy, dirty, and untrustworthy

The warm colors are Red, Red Orange, Orange, Yellow Orange, Yellow and in some cases Yellow Green. Use warm colors in your design to reflect passion, happiness, enthusiasm and energy.

The cool colors are Green, Blue Green, Blue, Blue Purple, Purple and Red Purple. Use cool colors in your design to give a sense of calm or professionalism

{2} Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Colors

The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. The secondary colors are green, orange, and purple and are created by mixing two primary colors. The six tertiary colors are created by mixing primary and secondary colors.

{3} Color Harmonies and Schemes

Certain color combination look very pleasing, while other are painful and abrasive to look at. Why is that? It's more objective than you think, it's based in the color wheel. Color harmonies or color scheme consist of two or more colors with a fixed relation  on the wheel.

Complementary Colors are those which are directly opposite each other on the color wheel. Due to the powerful contrast of complementary colors

Analogous Colors are those which lie on either side of any given color. Analogous color scheme are often found in nature and are harmonious and pleasing to the eye

Triadic Colors use the power of three colors which are situated at 120 degrees from each other on the color wheel. Triadic colors harmony is considered by some to be the best color scheme. You could use one color for a background and the two remaining for content and highlighted areas.

In conclusion color can be your most powerful design element if you learn to use it effectively. Coordinating color between layout elements and photographs is a great way to create unity. Coordination makes everything look as thought they belong. Keep this in mind when designing.

{ Adobe Kuler }

Number three on my Top Ten List for Designer Resources on the Web is Adobe Kuler. Adobe Kuler is an Internet application that lets you create individual color schemes with various colors. Much like any color wheel Adobe Kuler has the possibility to create thousands of color combinations. Adobe Kuler is a easy website to pick up. One of the best features on Adobe Kuler is the ability to create a color scheme from any photograph. All you have to do is upload an image on the website and it will find five colors that it believes look good with each other. Once you have created a color scheme that you enjoy you then can save that scheme and it will be kept in your color themes. Since this website is created by Adobe it's a reliable color source. I would suggest Adobe Kuler to anyone who loves mixing colors and creating color schemes to use in designs.

Below I have shared the link to Adobe Kuler, along with some photos from Adobe Kuler that may help you better understand Adobe Kuler and what it has to offer.

{ Adobe Kuler Link }

This is what the homepage for Adobe Kuler looks like. Here you can pick from what kind of color scheme your looking for. For example this photo is showing an Analogous color scheme. You have the option to change the colors the wheel had selected. If you like the color scheme you can then save it into your color themes.

 This is what the explore page looks like. It shows you the most popular color scheme, or even random schemes. If you find one you like you can then save it into your themes. 

This is what happens when you upload your own images. It tries to find a color scheme from your image. You can pick the color mood you want Adobe Kuler to pick up on, for example this one is showing a colorful color mood. Once you have a color scheme that you like you 

can save it into your themes. 

Happy Coloring!!!