August 21, 2008

Fade to Gray

I realized the other day that I’ve been creating designs in grayscale lately. They’re not completely void of color. They always have some dash or splash of color. Yet, I find myself gravitating toward base colors that are primarily shades of gray instead of color.

The other day I was trying to wrap my mind on why I have a bent toward this. I think the primary reason is that grays are neutral so they can handle any color you throw at them. Web site content changes (or at least should change) frequently. Rarely does content only involve text. Usually it involves graphics and sometimes video as well. And since you obviously can’t plan on always having the same color imagery, a neutral container or template makes it all come together nicely.

Here are a few some black and white, or grayscale sites I’ve seen around town lately:

Also, coordinating colors is much easier. I do consider myself a designer but not in the classical sense, and sometimes I find it challenging to put different colors together. That’s probably why we’re about to re-paint our den.

Here are a few of the grayscale page designs I’ve done recently:

I’m not saying every design should have a grayscale base—that would be a bit dull. I do, however, think it works great and almost always looks classic.