Colour theme help

HippySunshine

Senior Member
Im doing a website for a friend of the family who is a freelance plasterer. He wants something quite simple but professional looking.
I have had a look around at other plastering websites, but to be honest, the majority aren't that great.

Im stuck on what type of colour themes to use for this kind of website. I know nuetral colours would be best, but I want to add a little bit of colour to brighten it up and make it less DRAB!

Ive had a nosey on KULER etc, but I need a little help/inspiration from you guys.

Thanks
 
Have you come up with any schemes yet? The first thing that comes to mind for me is creams/off whites and maybe blues.
 
How about using a sandy colour, but a bit brighter, terracotta or similar.
Along with a nice beige
 
Becky said:
Have you come up with any schemes yet? The first thing that comes to mind for me is creams/off whites and maybe blues.

Not yet, just having a play around now.
I was thinking off whites and blue myself :)
 
This is what I have so far... please remember NOTHING is finished yet, its a first draft.

24w81gk.jpg



http://i46.tinypic.com/24w81gk.png
 
Just reminds me of twitter colours which is why I mentioned adding images, as that changes the look of a site completely, the colour scheme should come after the content in my opinion :)
 
I will be adding a decent header, images and better content in time, I have the majority of that figured out, Im just unsure of what colours to use.
 
Personally I can't say the blue says plasterer or any building trade to me. Building work to me personally (my dad's a builder) more organic natural colours such as green/browns (wood), reds, pinks, greys/whites and maybe the yellow/brown of fibreglass. I'd be aiming to go more towards the colours of a building while in development.

Now does the person also do tiles/painting etc or is he purely a plasterer?

If it's purely plastering then the colours that spring to mind are white, off white, putty, grey and the plaster pink (think of a dirty peachy/pink).

Does he have any company colours on his van/business card etc?
 
Levi said:
Personally I can't say the blue says plasterer or any building trade to me. Building work to me personally (my dad's a builder) more organic natural colours such as green/browns (wood), reds, pinks, greys/whites and maybe the yellow/brown of fibreglass. I'd be aiming to go more towards the colours of a building while in development.

Now does the person also do tiles/painting etc or is he purely a plasterer?

If it's purely plastering then the colours that spring to mind are white, off white, putty, grey and the plaster pink (think of a dirty peachy/pink).

Does he have any company colours on his van/business card etc?

Yeah i understand those are the usual colours but they are so drab, thats my problem, is there anyway of using colours that arent so drab or maybe a SLIGHT bit of colour along withe the DRAB!
Yes he is just a plasterer.
 
Colours are only drab if you treat them that way. How many 'designer' houses have you seen using white with white or pale colours and then adding in an accent.

There is no reason you can't add an accent. You could take the greys and the putty/white colours and then add colour using a wood/raw plaster shades or add an accent colour which could be used with a company rebrand (not that blue though as thats not right for plasterers).

A design doesn't need to be vibrant to stand out, just look at some of the minimalist and text only sites or even the apple site, they're not exactly using bright colours. The syfy site is a perfect example of where colour isn't excessively used and it's only used for accenting features etc.

If anything in the building trade websites don't mean as much because your previous work is what you're judged on. I'd also be concerned with using a tradesman that has a vibrant site as personally I'd feel they're trying to attract attention or hide something by using shock/colour rather than selling using their ability.
 
I feel your pain TBH, when I was looking for other sites it was well err.....yeah. :)
My first design just sucked beyond belief as I had no idea where to go with it, it's not until I thought more about the layout when it just came together.

I'm personally in the progress of building a construction site though and I went with Black and Red for that, works quite nice and the feedback was excellent from the client.

How about you focus more on the client for inspiration.
Does he have a van?
If so what colours the lettering?
Does it have a pic on the side?
If so what are the colours used in it?
Does he have a uniform?
If so what colour is it?

That way you are tieing the site into the company more.
Hope it helps in some way.
Jaz
 
Jazajay said:
I feel your pain TBH, when I was looking for other sites it was well err.....yeah. :)
My first design just sucked beyond belief as I had no idea where to go with it, it's not until I thought more about the layout when it just came together.

I'm personally in the progress of building a construction site though and I went with Black and Red for that, works quite nice and the feedback was excellent from the client.

How about you focus more on the client for inspiration.
Does he have a van?
If so what colours the lettering?
Does it have a pic on the side?
If so what are the colours used in it?
Does he have a uniform?
If so what colour is it?

That way you are tieing the site into the company more.
Hope it helps in some way.
Jaz

Thansk for the understanding and feedback Jaz.
Unfortunatley he is only a small/freelance business and his van is just a plain white one and he has no logo or anything else business like so this is a completley fresh palette for me.

I will keep looking around. Thank you
 
I am trying to add rounded corners to a few things:
-Main content and sidebar DIV
-Showcase DIV (within main content)
-Images within the showcase

Now some of these elements are working in Firefox and not in Safari and vice versa.

I am using the following code:
#content {
color: #333;
background:#fff;
border: 0px solid #000;
width: 680px;
height: 352px;
float: left;
padding: 10px;
margin: 0px 0px 5px 0px;
display: inline;
-moz-border-radius-topleft: 0px;
-moz-border-radius-topright: 10px;
-moz-border-radius-bottomright: 10px;
-moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 0px;
-webkit-border-radius-topleft: 0px;
-webkit-border-radius-topright: 10px;
-webkit-border-radius-bottomright: 10px;
-webkit-border-radius-bottomleft: 0px;
}

#shocasecontent {
background:#F3F2ED;
text-align: center;
width: 645px;
height: 120px;
padding: 15px;
margin: 10px 0px 0px 0px;
-moz-border-radius:10px;
-webkit-border-radius:11px;
}

.contentimg {
-moz-border-radius:10px;
-webkit-border-radius:11px;
}

But this is how it is appearing in browsers:

FIREFOX
x4lohw.jpg




SAFARI
281ggib.jpg
 
thats looking quite classy, although maybe needs less header space and a colour other than that shade of blue (don't think it works too well). Maybe try a warmer tone such as a deep chocolate for the highlights?
 
Levi said:
thats looking quite classy, although maybe needs less header space and a colour other than that shade of blue (don't think it works too well). Maybe try a warmer tone such as a deep chocolate for the highlights?

Thanks, and yeah im not keeping that blue, i forgot to change it before i printed screen, I havent worked enough on the navigation or header yet, still decided on colours and trying to work out this rounded corners stuff.
 
Im really liking those latest colours, although is the company name staying in white? maybe it would look stronger in a darker colour to contrast the background? Did you try a full colour image as a background as an alternative to a colour for the background. Just an idea really, but keep going, its looking good!
________
VAPORIZER VOLCANO
 
What version of Safari are you using? older versions need
-khtml-border-radius: 10px;

I think it could be improved if you added some texture to be background? maybe just a bit of the old noise filter
 
Back
Top