Colour-happy admin strikes again!

[Misti Wolanski]

Er, okay, so I'm not sure why I'm calling myself "colour-happy," because I don't use the British spelling of color 99.99999% of the time and I'm not happy with the colors as they are—I know they're terrible—but I've decided to try again to mess with the colors to get them nice.

This process will probably be gradual in the midst of… well, busy enough life that my freelance job is giving me a break.

Anyway… Feel free to offer feedback at any time.

Misti

EDIT: Please give me feedback.

I still haven't given up the idea of giving the site skins, either… But my style sheet's messed up enough that it might be better for me to start anew in my modifications. Even the formatting's weird.

[celebrewien]

it's very.........busy.

[Misti Wolanski]

Am I going overboard, do you think? I'm planning to make post backgrounds and the forum sections white, in attempt to balance it… But then, I suspect I might've already gone overboard…

Like the new buttons?

[Misti Wolanski]

With one skin somewhat under my belt, I've decided to keep the original around while I figure out how to make some more skins so we can have a skin selector—and figure out how to make it so each skin can have its own buttons.

Oh, and a nice little surprise: I've found a way to make the site images mainly self-supporting, meaning I won't use up all my bandwidth and lose my free image host, meaning that the backgrounds for the other skins are actually going to be hosted by this site, and with our small size (meaning few avatars, etc.) I won't have to buy more storage memory for the site, since I won't reach the limit.



Misti

[C-Dog]

The buttons are okay, but the purple-y grey tones look kinda icky with the pale blue.

[Misti Wolanski]

Yeah. :?

I'm trying to figure out how to make these new buttons so they only show up with the other skin, and keep the old ones with this one…

I'm working on a green skin, too.

-Misti

[C-Dog]

Green and purple wouldn't look bad together. It isn't that blue and purple don't go together, it's just that the particular shades don't seem to work well. It might also be because of the white lettering on the purple. And the purple bar on top doesn't have the gradient shading that the blue one does, making it look flat next to the blue so it looks odd.

[Misti Wolanski]

Yeah… I'm trying to figure out how to keep the old buttons w/ this skin, these buttons with the blue sponge paint skin, and some simple red text ones for the green skin I'm working on.

Speaking of the Green one, I was thinking of doing a sort of dot with that one, but it isn't working—doesn't look right. Any suggestions for a background pattern for the green skin-in-the-works?

-Misti

[C-Dog]

If you use a patterned background, unless you tone down the pattern, don't use anything that's repetitive like a checkerboard. You'll drive everyone crazy. You could try using a marble pattern, but a paper or watermark pattern would work, too, so long as the pattern isn't terribly prominent. Like this and this. If you use a textured background, though, you have to make sure it doesn't clash with the buttons, and probably the background should be your only texture.

If you're working on a red and green theme, make sure it doesn't look like Christmas. And since this is a writing site, don't make the colors too bright, especially the red. A deep red and a pale green might work, but you'll have to play with that.

[Misti Wolanski]

Oh, I wouldn't do checkerboard or striped, as that would drive me as crazy as everyone else, though I might eventually develop one with those for those rare people who like that type of background…

Thanks for that input. Every comment/bit of input is helpful.

-Misti

[C-Dog]

You know, if the white is a problem, you could always ever-so-slightly tint it grey or blue; that would take the edge off.

Oh, and, if you're working with different color schemes, you might want to look at a color wheel. Might help a bit. I have a color mixing map that mght help, too.

[Misti Wolanski]

True [about the white].

A "color mixing map"? I dunno what that is, but it sounds useful. When could we get together, d'ya think?

Misti

[Recovering Romanticist]

I think I'd like to see green and white... Classy colors. But I am a classy kind of girl.

[Misti Wolanski]

[cough]

Good thing I just finished my pb sandwich!



Sorry, healer—I just find that really funny.

Green and white… [thinks] That might work better. These buttons that we have right now aren't too good—I might move the red ones to the blue sponge paint…

Which would mean scrapping my pretty buttons. Oh, well. They didn't take that long. I did them at work.

-Misti

[C-Dog]

Green and white, with maybe a pale yellow or possibly a red for accents, would look good. And I don't think the buttons we have now look too bad. But what doesn't look too great right now is the cherry-red pips with the blue and purple.

Um, the color map is basically different mixtures of paint and shows off a lot of colors and tints that most people don't really think about. It's for painting, and it's a bit like an advanced color wheel. I dunno about getting together; maybe next week? I'm on break all week, but I've got projects to attend to. Maybe Friday or Saturday?

What about a taupe or ivory background with green and white?

[Misti Wolanski]

Hm… That sounds like it would work… Taupe, though, not ivory. I really can't stand ivory and white together. Maybe ivory instead of white… [thinks]

I'll work more on that. The taupe/ivory background would likely be easier to make, too…

Ty for those thoughts, & I've returned the pips to their former color.

I have Friday off school.

[Recovering Romanticist]

I like the buttons....
Okay so maybe I'm not classy, but I like classy things...
I think pale yellow, green and white would look great together and what you all said as well.

[C-Dog]

I'm not too sure I care for having the clear bars separate the posts in the threads...

[Misti Wolanski]

Oh, you mean there being no post divisions?

[grimaces]

Sorry, I'll get to work on that, though I might not have time till later this week… I still have about 200 pages to read for lit class and a 1-act play to write for playwriting—and oh, darn, I still have to do my history reading for today.

Bye.

[C-Dog]

I don't think the deep red text works well with the blue and purple, either. Sorry!

[Misti Wolanski]

Well, I tried to pick a color that would go better with blue, and I think I failed again.

At any rate, the buttons have no space between them, something I intend to work on.

Comments, anyone?

-Misti

[C-Dog]

Yes... yes, I think you failed, too...

Those buttons, though, might work with a green skin. Or a brown one. Hey, yeah, what about a brown skin? Like this one, but maybe not so orangey?

[Misti Wolanski]

Maybe…

I'm trying to figure out a complementary or contrasting color so there's something on the page besides just blue, though.

o_O

Misti

[C-Dog]

Orange is the complement of blue.

[Misti Wolanski]

I know. But this burnt orange isn't exactly the right shade for the blue on the site, is it?

Misti