Since just about every person I know has some distaste for this blog and my homepage's design, I've decided its time for a redesign before I hit the job market. The problem: I have no inspiration. None. This is a first for me, usually when I need to create a website, an idea just pops into my head. Poof. Then its just nuts and bolts. This time, however, I'm coming up empty.
Needing some inspiration, I picked up an oversized compendium of Dali's work (on the cheap--only 20 bucks for a 770 page, high quality tome--score). Here's the plan--I'm going to dissect some of Dali's painting, paying special attention to what kind of color schemes I can generate. Hopefully, in the process, some kind of layout will poof into my head. Let's get started.
Today's painting is "The Old Age of William Tell" (1931):
I planned on creating a five color scheme, but ended up generating seven colors:
Generally, I'm pretty cautious with color schemes, so I wanted to try something a bit more adventurous and to stay away from anything too monochromatic. Now to try this scheme out on a sample website.
I didn't use all the colors--too much clash for me to handle, but I did generate a non-monochromatic, three column layout:
I'm going to try to use this as a template for my teaching portfolio. The main navigation will include course titles. I'll put them in the orange stripe as you roll over them, they will open sub-directories in the green stripe (theoretically). I'm not sure if I'll keep the slight overhang of the white content area into the orange--I like it because it implies that the content area has some kind of shape, and keeps with the rounded corners motif. More on this tomorrow night (assuming my wife doesn't go into labor!)
2 comments:
I like the colors. They definitely recall Dali's work. And the design looks promising. I like the three column design. I've come to appreciate them a lot more since I tinkered with my page.
The splotches in the 4th quadrant risk an accidental look. Do you imagine incorporating them more deliberately with a balance on the other side of the page. Maybe one or two slightly bigger circles that don't look like a watersmudge on my monitor?
I was trying to do something a bit rough and accidental [the Oil > Splatter brush in Fireworks] to counter the otherwise clean, geometrical layout. The page felt like it needed something.
Originally I did something larger, but Meg correctly commented that it overwhelmed the page. So I tried toning it down a bit. I really like the few spoltches of yellow contrasing on the gray, but I'm not quite happy with it yet. Perhaps two circles would work better-- I'll mess around with it tonight. Thanks.
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