Preserved Topic: Too much orange? (Page 1 of 1)

disclaimer: this site is not my creation.

my daughters friend created a non-profit and this is the site: http://www.girltalkback.org/
i suggested posting it here and was told to go for it...

my humble opinion is that the orange background screams at the eyes....
would love some feedback. i'll send them the url to the thread..

velvetrose

Nope... the orange doesn't bother me too much. I think it would have been fine if the whole page had the gradient that goes across the top though.
I really like the top and left side.... looks smooth.
That horrid blue 'welcome' needs to go.
If the orange is going to stay..... try the text in black.

seems to me that i heard that orange was a no-no because it was so hard on the eyes..
that use of the color was only to be done in moderation.. ??

velvetrose

the orange looks hideous...it stands out like a sore thumb

I think the problem is not inherently in the orange (although that's probably not a popular color choice to begin with). The real problem is that there is absolutely no cohesion in the design. Let's break it down.

First the colors are all over the place. White, yellow, orange, green, blue, pink? Dark, light, saturated, pastel, it's all there. Why so many colors? What are we trying to convey here? Some places the color choice actually becomes visually jarring like the green lists on the orange background.

Second we have the fonts. The main body sticks with a consistent font, but the title and menus use widely varied fonts that don't seem to have anything to do with the subject matter or each other.

Third is the layout. Not the placement of the elements per se, but the interaction of them. It doesn't feel like one page. Syncing up the colors would do a lot for this, but it seems like a contrast issue as well. The main contrast is between the body background and the border. Next is the contrast of the individual page titles to the rest of the page. Then comes the body text. Finally we have the header and logo coming in very washed out looking. That's the sequence of attention that your page receives. Obviously you don't want the dominating factor of the page to be the border between content & menu.

The remedy for this is to start with picking out some colors from the get-go. I would recommend pastel colors for a background, with darker (but not over-saturated) colors for text and images. That will solve 95% of my problems with this page. I could make more suggestions about how I'D do this design, but it's a standard layout scheme, and should work fine. One nitpick, some of the rollover images are slightly different sizes, causing the text to distort unpleasantly when you move the cursor over them.

Other than that I'd say u have a good start, just work on bringing the elements together, design-wise.

thanks for the feedback.. i have forwarded the url

velvetrose

Yep, that orange is a shot to the head alright. I'd prefer to see more muted hues.