All the Colours
Colour schemes. They do so very much suck.
As well as my own recent blog theme horror issue crisis nightmare I am also redesigning the website of the Scout Group I am involved with. I have been trying to get the other people in the group interested in it but I have the old problem that the ones who are interested are too busy and everyone else is, well, not.
Professional web designers, graphic designers and people who know what they are talking about when it comes to this stuff? My respect to you all.
Now my biggest problem at the moment is the colours that the Scout Association uses. They are lovely and go well with each other in their various logos and pages. So the colours I want to use are the Scout Association ones
and the colours which our group uses for our logo
They go so very well together and without making anyone’s eyes bleed this becomes quite difficult. Of course I could keep the brightness to a minimum and have another natural colour dominate the screen but I have to get kid’s to want to come to the site as well… and that means bright and shiny, right? But that bright and shiny = goofy? And the last thing I want is for the scout’s website to look goofy. I also don’t want this to be a site (like this horror) that needs updating every 20 minutes to keep me interested. I just want to get it done and then have to do nothing to it for at least a year… other that to add to it… obviously.
Because of the almost paranoid way we have to be about the information we will be carrying everything has to be inhouse. Instead of hosting all the pictures on Flickr like most of us do to save space and the like it’ll be all here. It’ one of the reasons I am on the hunt for a cheap and usable hosting site that doesn’t limit SQl and gives enough space to be usable… Let’s put it like this. I have added one picture in so fr (other than the them-y stiff) and I’m already at 74.6MB… Yep, this is going to be weighty. Obviously not as fat as this blog but… well, this has been running for less than a year, most of the pics are on Flickr and still this is at… oh 51.89MB. Well, that just blows my crap all over the water. Ignore that bit about my blog.
Oh but when you add in all the photos and videos and audio and pdf’s and blah blah blah that is going to be added in (hopefully) weekly it’s going to go way way way over the 50MB one site offers and is going to kick around the 100MB wihin no time at all. Sigh. I just want it to work like ‘Tree does - simply, easily, with no muss, no fuss. Yes, I am using Wordpress for it. For two reasons - it’s easy to use and I’m too lazy to learn anything else. I think I am beginning to understand Wordpress finally - the plugins that are useful vs the ones that are just tinsel, the things that make it truly great. Of course, I still can’t write PHP, or CSS or any of the useful stuff but I can modify someone else’s code.
Yesterday I tried to follow a step by step for building your own theme and I failed at the first hurdle. But after going through a lot of theme sites and downloading a fair old number that looked pretty I finally found two I liked. I am now modifying the crap out of them for both here and the scout site and then seeing which I like better. Oh, the reason I am not keeping the current design for this place is simple. I don’t like it. I don’t know why. It’s just a no.
I really wish I understood why IE hated the one from before..
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
I can comment!!!!!!
I’m back baybeeeeeeeeee ;o)
Can’t actually remember what my comment was going to be though, just so excited to be here!
Penelopes last blog post..The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.
Comment by Penelope — August 12, 2008 @ 8:22 am
I know nothing of any of this however wanted to tell you that your new blog look is faboo!
Hillys last blog post..Behind The Mask I Wear…
Comment by Hilly — August 12, 2008 @ 5:03 pm
ooo… redesign!
Of course I can’t see it in firefox, safari or internet explorer. could you re-do it please
As for the scouts. Write to head office and ask if they could chose some new colours. Maybe peach, red and green?
Dans last blog post..We interrupt this lull in order to bring you a rant from our sponsors.
Comment by Dan — August 12, 2008 @ 5:07 pm
Hilly - funnily this was the original look for Tree but this theme is not widget ready which just makes it all so much harder to deal with. When I am fully awake I will sort it out. However I always did like these colours - just need to sort the header out!
Dan - Don’t go giving them ideas. The purple and green work well together, and the maroon and yellow work well together but all four? As you can see - horror show.
BTW, this -
Of course I can’t see it in firefox, safari or internet explorer. could you re-do it please
gave me a mild heart attack. Thank you.
Comment by bec — August 12, 2008 @ 8:53 pm
Well, I am just so impressed with the new look that I can hardly type. It makes me feel like I am wearing a designer dress - I feel all new and fabulous. I love it!
Selmas last blog post..Read It And Weep
Comment by Selma — August 13, 2008 @ 2:19 pm
yep, i’ve been theme swopping too - like dress up with out stripping, and good for writing procrastination! Oh, and have you played with this site:
http://www.wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html
L.
lias last blog post..My new blue bike!
Comment by lia — August 13, 2008 @ 11:00 pm
Selma - I like the colours on this but other than that… Things need changing… Sigh… I may have to keep the damn colours… But I need to put my sunshiny tree back in! Are you sure it’s not one of those designer dresses that look interesting but you could never wear out?!
lia - I do so very much usually enjoy the theme swopping but because this was a ‘has to’ as opposed to a ‘want to’ I feel all put upon! That wellstyled site is going to be so very useful I can feel it - Post? Get written today? Pah!
Comment by bec — August 13, 2008 @ 11:10 pm
Penelope - The funny thing is yes! You can now comment again!!! But the Spam stoppery thing decided that you were Spam and I didn’t notice until just now! Sorry! Have given Akismet (the spam stoppery thing) a good kicking! This will now happen again! Probably!!!
Comment by bec — August 13, 2008 @ 11:53 pm
[...] was determined (DETERMINED I SAY) to not pootle around the internet today and I was scout-sited out so I left my laptop upstairs. I sat outside for half an hour with the cat while the fly spray we [...]
Pingback by Out Of My Tree » 7.7 — August 14, 2008 @ 12:19 am
Cranky browsers are the reason why I fear straying too far from the boring old default theme. You start making changes, get it all lovely in Firefox, then see it in IE and it’s a wonky nightmare. HATE IT. And although I love the flexibility of plugins, sometimes they work in one browser but not the other. I swear, if I wasn’t such a visual person I’d stick to just boxes and text! But … NO.
Comment by SJ — August 14, 2008 @ 10:01 pm
SJ - Your site is always pretty - I need the shiny things here to distract from the awful crap I’m writing!
Comment by bec — August 15, 2008 @ 11:25 pm
[...] I foresee using an awful lot of ‘blur’. I’ve also figured out how to make the colours work… well, I think so anyway… and each section will have their own official colours [...]
Pingback by Out Of My Tree » No Distractions — August 19, 2008 @ 12:42 am