Clip Art Press

Tips on Choosing a Color Scheme for Websites

Thinking about the perfect color combination can be as perplexing as thinking about how to build a self-sustaining raft with a slab of cement with a metal chain connected to it. What makes selecting color combinations equally scary is that the wrong combination will send your company into bankruptcy and you’ll be the talk of the business world if you mess up (what did he/she expect would happen after pairing those colors together. Amateur!) Okay, none of that may be true, but that is how many people feel when confronted with the task of color coordinating. Choosing hues for your website doesn’t have to be a dreaded task, and with a little planning you will be more successful than you thought possible.

The first step is to write down the objective of the web page for which you need these graphics (and colors.) Is the content formal (business) or informal (fun or personal)? What is the tone of the site? The voice of the content? The message you wish to pass on or the action you want the reader to take? Knowing the purpose of the content will immediately help you eliminate colors from your choices.
Now make a list of colors that best convey your message.

One way to do this is to look at websites, magazines and TV ads. What colors trigger certain emotions in you? Which grab your attention? Even black and white trigger emotions (ask any marketer.) If your website is for fun, you may want to stay away from gray or brown. Fun choices would be hot pink, bright green, or yellow. For formal, business sites you will want to stay away from purple or pink unless those colors are associated with the business.

Choose Your Colors

Another great way to choose a color scheme is to simply find a web template or graphic that you really like and pull a color from it to inspire the rest of the site. Once you choose a color from the graphic, select a light, medium and dark color that complements it. To help you with color ideas, go to ColorSchemer, a web studio with free ideas for color schemes. Print out a color copy of your graphic and hold it up to each of these combinations to see which works best!
Just remember, some basic design tips are that the background is always the lightest color; the largest graphic isn’t the darkest or the lightest color, but somewhere in the middle; and your accent graphics are your darkest or brightest color.

Color Wheel

To further help you choose colors, look to the color wheel which shows us how colors are arranged in the spectrum. By using each color’s position in the wheel we learn which go best together, which complement others, and which are contrasting. Okay, so let’s say you choose red-violet as your first color. Where do you go from there?

Colors next to one another are not complementary. If you were to choose red and violet, the two colors next to red-violet you’d be selecting a bland color scheme. The most complementary colors are listed opposite of each other on the wheel, so the color that will really make red-violet pop on the page is yellow-green, while yellow and green (the two colors on each side of yellow-green) are also complementary to red-violet.

Source: Cornell University

The color wheel is a basic tool that should always be consulted when pairing graphics on a new or existing site. You are making a terrible design error if you think color coordination and schemes do not apply to graphics on a web page. You can avoid this by brainstorming the purpose of your website, listing suitable and unsuitable colors, and then making sure that any new images added complement your existing website by consulting the color wheel.

Have a colorful day!

Turning Online Clip Art Images Into Wall Art

Let’s all take a moment to look at our walls. Walls in our office, hallway, bedroom, kitchen, family room, heck even the laundry room. Aside from the occasional light switch plate, are your walls pretty much bare? The sad fact is that many walls go neglected because wall art is either expensive, so inexpensive it looks cheap, or simply not the right design for the homeowner. Stop the wall abuse! Stop walking around your home or office like a drone because you have no art to liven things up! With the abundance of free and inexpensive web graphics you can now create your own wall art that looks like it cost a pretty penny. Start an art revolution in your home and free your walls from their boredom.
Artwork is not just for the discriminating collector, enthused investor or crafty creator, it is also for the freelancer who works at home and is sick of bare walls, the half-drunk college student who needs posters to cover damage to apartment walls, and anyone who simply wants more color and interest in a room.

So, what are we talking about here? Are you suggesting you print out some clip art on your laser printer and tack one up on every wall? Interesting, but no. You must think “clip art” and beyond, seek out art prints, posters, paintings, images of framed prints abstract, impressionist, children’s art, figures, sketches, landscapes, photographs, art deco, old ads, old record albums, movie posters, pop art, vintage maps, seascapes, vintage, modern, still life, and classical images-just to name a few. If you can find copyright-free or royalty-free images, then you can use those images to create art for your walls.
The copyright on many vintage art prints has expired, which means if you find an image online (try a google.com image search) on a domain free of copyright restriction you can use that image. It is important to know that while the classic painting may no longer be protected by copyright, the digital image of the picture may be. Be sure to check with the website owner for permission if you have doubts. Libraries, museums, and art organizations are a good place to start. To give you an example of what you might find, the original WPA (Works Progress Administration) posters that were commissioned from 1936-1940 are a great way to decorate and most of the images are available online for free. You can easily download these bold, graphically hypnotizing images, email them to the local copy store, and create an instant poster. These posters are interesting enough and don’t need fancy frames. A $7 clear poster frame will do just fine. Reproductions of these prints sell for $30 to $200! And the originals? Forget-about-it!

Old Prints

Old books have old prints and decorative block text. Old children’s books have old children’s prints. Old historical books have old maps, See were we are going? Many books– images and all–are online for public use. If you find one without copyright restriction by the site owner, you can download images of maps, decorative borders, pictures and prints. You can create framed prints, posters, or use vintage designs as borders in a room. A huge design trend (as seen in all the decorating magazines and even Crate and Barrel’s catalog) is to frame portraits of varying sizes from old books. The originals are etchings from old books (1800-1825), usually of the monarchy or aristocracy. You don’t even have to download these images, just print them out on beige paper to give it an aged look. Go to garage sales, flea markets, thrift and dollar stores and buy wood frames in varying sizes to match your prints. Paint the frames the same color (such as brown or black) and add your new “aged” pictures. Group them on your wall over a bed or dresser. Expensive look-low cost. You can take this grouping concept, and use old prints of animals, pictures from old children’s books, images of vintage playing cards, covers of old books, you name it!

Vinyl Wall Decorations

Use simple images cut from vinyl to make wall decorations, which can then be perfectly integrated into your interior like painted art, and they’re removable. The picture to the right is an example of vinyl clipart intergrated into the interior design. Imagine how much it would of cost to have a professional artist paint this image on your wall. The cost involved when using vinyl would be about $20 for the decoration and you can apply it yourself or hire a professional. Either way it would be allot cheaper then having to hire a professional painter. See some fantastic samples from vinyl wall art.

Now for the grand finale: turning an online image into a work of art on canvas. This can be done easily and inexpensively. Find your desired image and then go to the local art or craft store and buy a canvas of the same size. You will also need some spray adhesive and acrylic gel. These items are very inexpensive. The first step is to lightly spray the adhesive on the back of the printed image and attach it to the canvas. If you need to realign the picture, gently peel the paper up and reattach. Next, use a soft brush to gently cover the image with the acrylic gel. This will add a polish to the image that makes it seem painted on the canvas. You can also create those lumps and bumps we often see on oil paintings. When the gel dries you can frame and hang your new picture!
Will you ever look at web graphics and clip art the same way now that you know how to use them offline? Use these ideas not only to decorate your home or office, but to redecorate inexpensively and often! You can even create gifts, or create a new business doing this for other people.

Have a creative day!

Robert Gillen

http://www.graphicsfactory.com