Yes I’m sure you’ve noticed whilst reading this topic that I do indeed have a very good looking blog, unlike myself! I actually “stumbled upon” (you like what I did there) it whilst I was looking for templates, half of which weren’t even working properly. Some of them the nav bars wouldn’t be there other times the posts ad disappeared. To think back I can’t even remember how I got to this template but I’m more than glad I did. I needed a look and feel about this site I need it to resemble my roots and where I come from.
I think that the bricks in the background are a definite UK thing that people from the UK or even visitors can relate to as most of the houses are made of bricks. Nice solid and strong, could also resemble a British personality which is quite reserved yet strong in they way that they carry their words and present them selves.
To me it feels like a home look, makes me feel comfortable and the features such as scrolling menu and posts with the back ground staying in one place is a great thing to. I know I’m supposed to base this site around my visitors and what they think about it. Making sure its inviting and it can be stared at whilst reading a post or 2. But from the feedback I’ve had already from the people, its all about the people, they seemed to have received it well and think that it carries my point of being a UK based Muslim.
Another trick of the site is that as you stay on the site the links colour changes from one colour to another. This is with out refreshing the page or having to click anywhere else at all. You could be sat reading a post of mine and the whole of the links in the NAV menu including any links in the posts will change from on colour to another, how cool is that. Keeps people awake a bit more as well, not that any one would ever fall asleep reading one of my posts.
A lot of these types of blogs quite look the same with the white background and the black background or funny old neutral colours. I think that image based backgrounds make for much more character. Being a web designer my self I know the difference in impact one design can make from another design. From my experience every design has to follow the point or the goal of the site to relay the message well as soon as anyone visits.
This can help you to embed a good image in the person’s head who visited you blog/website and make sure that they remember how it looked and more importantly why it looked like it did. Every thing has an image, your image could be how you walk, how you talk, how you dress. Oh Shazad talks like this or walk’s like that, his website looks like this and talks about this. You see the relativity?
Something so basic that most people over look time and time again through times and stages in their lives where they are posed to make a decision, things are not as complicated and should never have to be for any one, especially your viewers/readers. All out complicated decisions and references are made up of simpler situations that all in all add up to become that complication. So why not keep it all simple, there is no need to go get fireworks and illustrator and make a dozen different graphics to use on just the back ground of your site. Keep it simple and find a great picture to lay out as the back bone of your page. Make it talk to your viewers/ readers and make sure it relays your sites message well.
The whites out
Now a lot of people will prefer to stick to their simple safe white backgrounds, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that at all in fact I think white is a colour much easier to read on rather than black or red. They can be a bit blurring, the last thing you want is to hurt your readers eyes. Its should be an enjoyment talking to your readers and having them love what you write, the way you write it and how your site looks all in all will go hand in hand to keep getting you repeating visitors which is what we all want especially me.
What about black
Now this really depends on the age range of your site and what age people are going to be reading it. I’m sure you’ll agree that someone of a mature age won’t really like a dark black site un-less its blends well with the purpose of the site. Say if the site were about black as the colour or tar or along those lines then black would of course be perfect. I’d recommend matching black with white just simply because black and white will always go together. Black with white writing seems to be the perfect match as it doesn’t blur the person’s eyes as much either.
Would red go a miss
Well I’ve not gone into red as much a I maybe should have done but then again what id say about any colour or theme of colours you choose is to make them eye catching like the colour red would be very eye catching. If it were me id use it on a heart related or love related site or a site about roses or even a bloody roar the game that I used to love. But to balance out red I use cream for maybe the navigation and header.
Over all use what represents you, make sure our get the information stuck in your readers/viewers head through the look of your site, use colours that compliment each other not conflict with each other. Try to keep your goals in focus so that you can be recommended for looks and style as well as content and authority.
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