Re: On colour

[digitect mindspring com]

> 
> ulf obsession se wrote:
> 
> Your proposals include too many too diverse colours.

Oops, I guess I didn't mean to suggest that we use ALL these colors on one page. I really intended to create a *family* of colors to be used in more selective compositions (as you suggest) across www.gnome.org, developer.gnome.org, gtk.gnome.org, help.gnome.org, foundation.gnome.org, etc. The palette is a total range (figure, field and accent) of all the sub-sites in the gnome.org domain, which together define GNOME. I would heartily agree that no artist could/should work out a composition with even half of them!

But thanks for bringing it up, because I'm wondering if you think that's a valid approach. I've been thinking that each major section should be a variation of one theme. Perhaps they all use a monochromatic color scheme, each with a different color from the family. Or maybe they all have one brown, but use different accents. 

Take Microsoft. Their "look" is those primary colors (along with other non-color devices). But each product, sub-site, or application uses a different color as the primary and one or more of the others for accent. In this way each gets it's own look, but yet stays within the recognizable family. With just the four total, they get over a hundred valid compositions. But do you think GNOME should have our different sub-sites look different, or all the same?

I'll also say that there are more than just two theories about what constitutes "good" color composition, although the two you mention are the most common. Here is an interior design site that does a pretty good job of outlining some of the more commonly accepted theories. Read "Color Schemes" about half way down:

  http://www.kitchen-emporium.com/colour.html

I'm particularly fond of neutral, but that's because I'm an architect. (Imagine concrete, white plaster, stainless steel, bleached maple flooring, and black granite counter tops--mmm, delicious.) For the GNOME web site I also think it does a better job of showing off the muted colors in our artwork. 

My current proposal is that the GNOME site be a white background, with light tan and dark brown page elements (from tradition), dark gray text accented by the periwinkle blue. Most other sections reuse the white background and dark gray text, along with the tan and brown, but are differently accented in the greens, ochres, or rusts from my proposed family of colors. And sometimes (like developer.gnome.org) we use more black to make it more suspenseful, or flip accent and primaries. The user continues to see the same color scheme, the "brand" of GNOME, but recognizes a new subsection intuitively because of the compositional adjustments, all of which are choreographed around the desired mood in each site. ("Help" is friendly, "Foundation" is businesslike, "Developer" is ominous, etc.)

Wow, it's tough to discuss this stuff in writing! Thanks for bearing with me.

Steve  [ digitect mindspring com ]