Orange anyone?
Image copyright: Photonut
As many of you know, I’ve been contemplating a site re-design for a while. After all, designers are never 100% satisfied.
Rather than a complete overhaul (if it ain’t broke…), I opted for a simple colour change, choosing more of a corporate theme (greys and white with just a hint of orange), rather than the bright blues, clouds and grass shown previously.
I was surprised by just how different my site could appear with such a simple change (top / bottom banners and heading / link colour).
Before a dose of vitamin C:
…and after:
I feel the result is both a little more professional, and more reflective of my preferred design style. If you’re reading from your feed reader or an email subscription, and want to see the latest change in my portfolio evolution, please do stop on by and have a look .
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So I’m not the only one burning the midnight oil!
I noticed your design changes 30 minutes ago. I quite like it David, there’s nothing like a change in colour once in a while. I especially like the black/orange footer—and the logo in the header now looks more promenant. Great re-jig.
Hi, The header of your site is looking great then the previous one. Its neat, clean and well ventilated.
Feels like DA RELOADED.
Kris
It’s a nice change! Although I’ll miss the cloud banner – I always thought you tied it in to your name. You know, Airey… airy…
I noticed your favicon’s changed too. Way to keep your branding consistent ;)
I feel like there should be “something more” up top.
Like the new design a lot. Looks more professional and consistent. The blue of the headlines of the old version didn’t match the header. Now with black and greys and a subtle touch of orange looks just right. Maybe the link color could be a little darker, very little contrast.
I really like the change. Definitely more professional, and if that’s your style and your preferred look when designing for clients, then having your blog reflect that will attract clients that feel the same.
Beautiful! I think orange and gray make a great combination. The new site is clean and refreshing. Great work!
I also agree that there should be something up top. Looks nice though.
Much better.
Completely professional.
A design that backs your being. :)
And the favicon to is simple and nice.
Very nice – I like the simple, the color is nice, and you’re right, it does look more professional.
And on another note, I love reading your site – thanks for putting up great content consistently!
I always loved black&orange combination, but I found old design more eyes friendly. Anyway, like somebody wise said ‘the only constant thing is change’. And I’m waiting for header ;)
Woah.
The small change made a huge difference. That’s crazy.
I like it. A lot.
Very nice!
Very nicely done David! It’s amazing what a little color change can do for a website.
David, I have to be honest, I liked the old design better. I liked how the clouds went perfectly with your last name. This color scheme is attractive in its own way – very stern, serious and corporate – but it lacks the personality embodied in the symbolism of the original.
The previous design with the blue sky and clouds was friendly; the new design is more business-like, to my eyes. I like the contrasting white and black on the header and footer; I think these really demonstrate the versatility of your logo. I prefer the current design to what your site showed previously. It’s a good idea to make slight changes instead of a major revamp – like you said, if it aint broke…
Not only does your logo “pop” more because it is no longer competing with the clouds, but it also has more internal contrast since it’s on either absolute white/black. I think you have, therefore, successfully shored up the two biggest weaknesses of the previous incarnation.
And there’s just the right amount of orange to maintain renewable interest. Very nice indeed!
Really enjoying the greyscale+orange theme you have going here.
I like the design overall David – although I think I’ll agree with Doug C. that the old design was just “friendlier” and had a little more personality. I guess if you are using this strictly to convert clients, then you have done well with a more professional look.
Overall, I like it, but I still liked the old design as well :)
It really is incredible what a subtle colour change can do for a website. Great work. I agree it has a definite professional edge to it now.
Great work.
It looks very nice. A lively feeling on your website now.
The orange is not very legible; very little contrast to the white background. Apart from that, it’s a great change.
looks a lot better – and now even the feedburner icon matches your design ;)
Hey David,
I just changed my site from orange to a mix of light blue and dark gray. :)
I really like the change in yours. It definitely gives a more professional look.
Are you going to put something in the header or it will be just the logo?
What about the magazine theme, are you thinking on it ?
Szabi
Greetings David,
its an interesting change on the top, as i see it, i thought, what will be at the bottom? after scrolling down i find the green picture which i also found at the “old” site.
in comparison to the old design – the former header and footer where forming a set. the new design with orange is nice, but i think, it would be more complete if you also design a new footer, which grabs the orange theme from the top and bring it to the footer.
never the less – an interesting and surprising change – and the picture on the left is a qualitative jump forward and much more better and friendlier then the old.
greetings from germany :-)
andreas
ps – sorry, the old footer where in the cache… cool now! thats stylish
sorry, had the old footer in the cache – after reload i saw my mistake.
very stylish :-)
Definitely like it, the orange line is bringing out your logo at the top much better that the clouds.
The color is right chosen, orange seems to be the trend for the last year or so. In Holland many companies switch to a logo with orange. Personally I find the orange used in your template a bit too orange, I’m more a Sienna 1 kind of guy (http://www.computerhope.com/htmcolor.htm).
Btw, love the footer but missing the bring me to the top link.
Hi David,
Personally, I was never a huge fan of the clouds on the old design. I also really like Orange and grey so really like the new design. It is much cleaner and simpler and looks a lot more corporate.
It is amazing how a minor change can breath new life in to something.
As you know, I am considering using a magazine theme in a redesign and I am interested to know why you have chosen to stick with the traditional blog theme?
Steve
I really like it David however as some have said I remember you saying how the blue tied in with your name Airey, but sometimes one does need to change to reflect your current work.
And nice photo change ;)
This has inspired me to do some CSS tweaking.
Yeh a change of colour is great, and a lot of people feel they have to stick to the same colour scheme when updating.
The only thing I would say is that the sidebars seem a bit monochromatic. What about the headers in orange? Or have you tried and disliked that?
Well anyway, good to see some new posts as well, it kinda went a bit quiet for a while!
Take care
Nathan Beck
I like! The only problem with using orange is that when you actually write “Orange” in HelveticArial, you can’t help but suggest the mobile phone network of the same name! I doubt it’ll be the title of that many posts, so no need to worry…
Must say I like it very much! A job well done!
Thanks so much for all your comments! I knew some of you would prefer the old incarnation, and I’ve addressed some of your thoughts / questions below.
Andrew,
I actually thought of placing the bottom banner at the top, as I do like the reversed logo, but in the end I felt it served better to ‘ground’ the content with the darker image (less top-heavy).
Gio,
There was some correlation between the clouds and my surname, but to be honest I needed a change, and felt the clouds had ran their course. They may return for a testimonial at some point. Who knows?
Neil,
At first, I too thought something was missing from up top, but I’ve grown to like the white space, and it ties in well with my business card design (I recently updated the photos on that post).
Lothar,
You were right about the lack of contrast on the original orange I chose. I’ve since updated the hex codes and gone with a more legible tone. Thanks very much.
Doug,
I had a feeling you wouldn’t like the change, given your previous kind comments about the cloud banner. I feel more comfortable with this cleaner, more minimal style, but do appreciate your thoughts.
Tracey,
Quite a few random emails come in, mentioning how easy my site is to navigate and read, so it made sense to stick with the same design. Glad you’re in favour.
Brian,
It’s not that I’m using my blog strictly to convert potential clients, although that’s an important factor. For the time-being, this style is more reflective of my design tastes, and I think it’s necessary to feel ‘at home’ in your own website.
Timo,
Yep, I didn’t need to alter the feedcount chicklet, which was a bonus.
Szabi,
I like your change from orange to blue. It helps separate your theme from Derek’s standard download, which is important.
Andreas,
No need to apologise for the cache issue. Not at all. I’m glad you find the new photo an improvement over the old. My girlfriend chose it.
Sander,
Thanks a lot for the colour code link. I used it when choosing a variation, and have gone for ‘dark orange 1′.
Steve,
I’ve chosen not to use a magazine style (for now) because quite a few people comment on the ease of navigation here. If I move away from this layout, I’ll need to set aside a fair bit of time — and I don’t have much to spare at the mo).
Nathan,
The sidebar headings were initially shown in orange, but I felt it was too much, and the grey titles are more effective / less jarring.
Daniel,
I can’t imagine you’ll see too many oranges in my post titles, but if the need ever arises, I’ll not forget your comment. :)
To everyone else, thanks again for leaving your thoughts. Good of you to pay me a visit.
I like it, but it’s too bright.
I prefer this design, indeed.
Btw, you removed the credit of Derek Punsalan?
The layout was definitely wise to keep. I liked the previous header/footer photographs, but can sympathise with never being satisfied about the design of your own website!
Wow! Great work!
=D
Hi David
Love the new look. Love your new photo. It definitely show that you are serious about design and that you have lots of experience. Your previous site was a little disapointing and did not reflect to me your work style as well as this one does.
The orange color reflects warmth to me.
I like the new design seems more clean. I recently did a re-design of my blog and one thing I found was you should not do a drastic re-design if your theme works.
Daus,
There was never any design credit mentioned, as I created the theme from scratch using the WPdesigner tutorials. Perhaps you’re confusing the design with my other blog, Logo Design Love, which credits Derek Punsalan.
He did give inspiration for the horizontal navigation, and Lakshmi was very kind to help with some code for that.
Richard,
Thanks for the sympathy. :)
Giroin,
I’m also happier with the new photo. It’s a more recent one too (taken about a month ago) which helps.
Didik, rmaspero, Rebecca,
Good of you to visit.
I always read the feed via email but had to check the site for this one – it looks fantastic!
Extremely good design, impeccable. I can’t really think of a flaw!
I know you favour logo design overall, but perhaps you could branch out into WordPress template design? Just a thought :)
i personally like the orange more seems more clean!
David I noticed that visited links go back to the text colour, I find this very annoying as I can not tell where the links that I have visited already used to be… maybe a fainter orange?
I feel a little mixed about the change. The idea behind the change makes sense and I do like how it looks, but I miss the clouds. They tied in with your name and logo really well I thought. It made your site more distinctive. Hmm…
I think it’s great. It displays growth and maturity from your previous blog design. Even such subtle changes like your picture make a big difference in your image now. The overall look is just more professional and serious…but the articles and the header pictures on each one will soften and lighten it up….so I think it is a great change David.
Damien,
I’m really not that great a coder, but I appreciate the compliment. Thanks very much.
Kristel (and Rock),
I knew that not everyone would prefer the new look, but glad you see the sense behind my change.
Jacob,
That was unintensional. Thanks for the heads-up (should be sorted now).
Brian,
Precisely what I was aiming for, so it’s great to read your comment.
Thanks James.
Hi David!
Just my personal feelings here (I am not a designer). You actually made me jump from the RSS reader to your site (good job!)
I like the black/gray/white approach. As you write yourself it comes across very clean.
However, I am not fond of the color orange at all — but that’s just my personal taste — I am more into bluish tones.
You will certainly know much more about color psychology than I do, but I remember an academic study conducted in 2003 by Joe Hallock — http://www.joehallock.com/edu/COM498/associations.html — in which the results for orange were not exactly favorable. Orange was associates with “cheap/inexpensive”, and it was among the least favorable colors as well.
Just my 2 cents
John
David, I love the colours, but I gree with some of your other posters in that the other site design was a little friendlier. This orange/grey scheme certainly seems to lend itself more to the professional corporate world. I do feel that the home page is now a little overwhelming. There is no block of colour or image to offset the large quantities of text that are there. Am I alone?
Also as an aside, I am huge fan and longtime reader, but firstime poster. I love your insight and enthusiasm, what an inspiration!
David,
Less is more. I agree, why re-invent the wheel. The Orange is a great addition.
I’m going threw the same for my website, which is a still a work in progress~
Regards,
CS
Looking good Airey!
The site reskinning looks fantastic! Bold move to ditch the old look and strike out into the great orange unknown ;)
Like many others have pointed out before, the new design feels more corporate, though very clean and professional. I do like it though, I have a couple of comments:
- The footer looks much better than the header, how about changing the places? There’s too much white space in the current header, and I like how your logo stands out and brightens up on the black background that’s accented with a tangy orange.
- There are just too many sites nowadays with a very minimalistic colour palette, with b&w&grey and one accent colour (usually red or orange, sometimes green). How about introducing another colour? Blue and orange actually go really well together.
Saying that, I can certainly understand that the design should reflect the designer’s taste and preferences, so if you currently feel you favour a very minimalistic style, then you’re on a right path, however if you like to be a bit daring, try injecting the new design some non-conventional approaches.
I do like however, how you only changed the colour scheme to show that only a simple colour change can make the site look very different.
Hi David,
I’m loving the change, especially the choice of colour (i love bright colours) and that oh so sexy footer! However when i first looked at it I felt the top was a bit bare.
I recently used orange in a corporate identity project at college and found it worked really well and made the stationery look really professional.
I go on a lot of design blogs and i have to say yours is by far the easiest to navigate around!
A simple yet very effective change, good job!
The site looks good, but I’d be careful of using orange as an accent. As far as I’m concerned it’s on the downward part of the trend curve right now and may become dated pretty quickly.
I enjoy reading your blog. Keep up the good work David.
Yeah, Peter. It is. Sad because orange is my favorite color!
I was just reading some of the new comments and thinking maybe a second accent color, maybe something reminiscent of the sky blue, would be a good tie in and add more interest. But then I saw inspirationbit beat me to it! I second that thought.
Great new look. There must be something in the water i’ve just updated my site. I love orange and blue.
I have to confess I prefer the former version, but looking at my blog design (I am still using a wordpress template!) my opinion shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
Great job, great blog.
Chris
John,
Thanks for jumping from your feed reader. The orange may not stay, but I’ve found it interesting how a small change can have a big impact on the overall feel. Thanks also for the colour psychology link, which I’ll head over and read shortly.
Julia,
I always appreciate when a reader makes their first comment, and I do hope you offer your thoughts more in future. I’m hoping the post images will help break up the text blocks you mention. We’ll see how it works out.
Christine,
Good luck with your own site changes.
AzAkers, crazyleaf,
Thank you both.
Vivien,
I like the idea of adding a non-conventional approach. I’ll look around for inspiration, and will also give the dark banner a try at the top, see how it looks. I tried it briefly before, and felt it might appear too heavy for visitors, but you’re not the first to say you prefer it over the lighter option.
Kerry,
Glad you appreciate the ease of navigation, and finding information. There are quite a few posts here, and the aim is not to let them become easily lost.
Peter, Juno,
I’ll definitely bear that in mind RE: orange as a trend. In saying that, use of clouds (as I was doing for over a year) was also considered a past trend, and it seemed to work well for me.
Kristel,
The additional accent colour is an idea I like the sound of too. :)
Mali, Chris,
Good of you both to comment. Chris, not sure if I’ve thanked you already for the blogroll addition. Thanks, and very glad you like the blog.
No time to read the above conversation atm, but I just have to say I love your new picture! I will miss David Airey blue, ;) but you’ve made a good business decision here; black/grey and orange look very sharp.
I do agree with Vivien’s critique; I think the header needs more visual weight (especially your logo!).
I really love the new look and great picture of you!
Loving the orange! The new color scheme looks very streamlined and professional. I’m digging the new b/w photo as well.
Definitely it’s a good change. It gives a more professional feeling about the page, and so about the author. Good job!
Sadly don’t have time to read all the comments above (sorry folks!), but I just wanted to say I totally dig the orange! It doesn’t get used much, but it’s a good, warm, and yet fresh colour. I was never really “feeling” the sky and grass — although now that I see them next to each other I realise how clever they were, sky=top, grass=bottom — I like the increased simplicity here.
Lauren, Beth, Jon,
Glad you like the updated mug-shot. The older one wasn’t great quality, and it was about time I made a change
I tested the black banner at the top once again, but feel it’s just too heavy on the eyes. I’ll see what else I can come up with for the visual weight / anchor point.
Kris,
Great how you approve of the updates, and if there’s ever anything you, or any others, don’t like (such as the previous sky / grass combo), please do let me know.
Manu,
Cheers for commenting.
The orange was a good move. For some reason (perhaps you’ve changed the text colour too?) there’s a lot more contrast on the page—like that too. And love the black and orange footer. And can see that footer flipped vertically and used in the header too. Nice job, David.
I think the change is much more suited towards the site, and does indeed look more profesional. I like the minimal use of orange just for links etc, and I am suprised how much this has changed the overall appearance of the site.
I didn’t dislike the header and footer, it just didn’t grab me… I was indifferent. :P
I agree with johno about the current header and footer, still got the kind of inverted idea going.
I think it’s a great change David! Your logos work so well because they look great in greyscale/black+white printouts. They don’t rely solely on color, like so many others do. It’s great to see the design re-enforcing that.
The small amounts of orange do look more professional as well I think. Looks good! :)
I’ll miss the old blue design! But the new orange with grey shades scheme is growing on me. One small thing that’s slightly niggling me – I would prefer there to be a little less space after the sidebar headings, and a little more space before, thereby creating a stronger grouping of the headings and related content.
Great job on the redesign- glad you went with subtle changes. Too often we, as designers, err on the side of making lightspeed jumps (I’ll still never forget the time I changed my site dominant color scheme to yellow… ”just for a change’… shudder…). You’ve got a great look going here, and these changes were tasteful and appropriate. Thumbs up from my end of things!
Hey I like the new redesign looks professional. Love the old one as well. The one thing I love is the new favicon. Simple and yet the best idea.
Very cool David. Small changes, but a big difference in the feel of the site. I love it.
Your old and new design are both clean. They both look great, but the new one feels a little lacking. Maybe you are working on a different header image.
Something just seems a little odd about the orange band at the top followed by white space, then the content of your pages. Perhaps putting your footer image as your header, then your header as your footer would resolve it.
Either way, it does give the more professional look you are after.
John,
I’m glad you think the orange was a good move. Not everyone’s of the same opinion, which I expected, but it’s here for a while at least. As for the standard text colour, it’s actually the same, but I’m glad you think there’s more contrast. I wonder what prompted that.
Danny,
I was surprised too. Just goes to show, you don’t need to spend too long to achieve a big difference.
Kristarella,
Ah yes, I jumped to conclusions there. Sorry. The bottom banner was tested again up top, but to be honest, I feel it’s a little too heavy / overwhelming to stick.
Michael,
Thanks buddy, and congrats once again on your blogging milestone.
Jonathan,
You have a keen eye, and I took your advice on board. There’s now less padding beneath the sidebar headings, and I think it helps a lot.
Stephen,
I’d like to have seen your yellow addition. Do you think yellow can’t work at all, or only if used as a secondary colour? I can’t actually recall a website with lost of yellow.
Joe, Randa,
It’s those little details that make all the difference. Glad you like.
Matthew,
The header is something I’m still contemplating, and I thought of using faded rotating quotes on the right, or some large angled type, but I’m not sure. We’ll see what I can come up with. Nothing’s ever set in stone with me.
I agree that the black on top would be too heavy on top (if it wasn’t clear before, I mean I think it’s clever how the bottom is still a sort of inverted version of the top).
I like how simple it is, but a subtle rotating thing (quotes or faded images or something) is a cool idea.
David, I really like what you’ve done here…it’s simple and elegant, just like your designs. And the new headshot’s terrific, fitting in nicely with the new look.
Looking a lot fresher and stronger David! Switching to orange was a good move and looks great. Just shows what a small change can do when the body copy seems to be a stronger contrast and yet you say it is the same colour as previous.
I like Matthew’s idea of putting the footer image at the top. It would be a much stronger statement, although I don’t see why you can’t have the same top AND bottom – give it a try!
hey david !
you new design is Fantastic !! it’s more professionnal and much better !
and i don’t agree with who said that the header needs more visual weight, i really like the space in the header : too simple, clean, light and beautiful.
and yeah, the black banner would be too heavy on the eyes. just keep it like this !
for me, the only thing that needs changes is the favicon, it’s too simple and i think it will be more beautiful if it represents your logo (an Orange Da for exemple..)
anyway, as is said before, the new design is Fantastic !
I like it. Bright. Clean. Neat. Congrats to a fine renovation to your blog home.
Looks good David, really like the simplicity of the whole thing now.
I really liked your old design – in-fact I even used it as inspiration for my own site. But I think you’ve made a wise move. I think that the combination of the orange, and the back and white photo rather than a colour one really does give a much more professional feel. Good call.
David, very nice! I like the fact that its a familiar layout still, so that old readers like me are not flummoxed. :) If ever you need any rehaul help, just holler.. Always glad to do things for my fav. designer and person :)
I have to agree that it gives it a more professional look although I must admit that I am a ‘blue’ person so anything with blue in it looks good to me. So I like your old design as well.
Yes, I like it. I’ve always been a fan of a grey and orange combo :)
Hm… I love the orange and grey colour combination but I have to agree with a few other comments. It feels like there should be something more up top. The first time I opened the site I kept trying to scroll further up the page because I thought the orange bar was part of a bigger picture.
Hi everyone.
Thanks a lot for leaving your thoughts and suggestions. I’m taking a short break visiting family in Northern Ireland, so excuse the group response. Still a few design tweaks to be made, but overall, I’m much happier with the progression.
I hope you’re all enjoying the weekend!
It just goes to show that you don’t need to completely re-design a site to make it look brand new. That’s one of the reasons WordPress is so great.
I think it’s a lot better than the old design. It almost makes me want to scrape together enough pennies to hire you.
I like the new design..
Good work David.
Really nice change, David!
The blog looks very clean and has nice new footer! :)
Hi David, I didn’t have the opportunity to comment on this so here I am now…
I somewhat agree that the header doesn’t look complete but maybe that’s why it feels clean and fresh. if you want to make it more sexy, maybe you could change the mouse-over button images to a shade of orange. …I just realized you have that for your rss button so never mind. lol. Maybe just add an orange hairline somewhere so the flow between the top orange header and the orange title/links flow better….anyhow loving the new look and photo..it feels more personalized now.
bye for now..
tif
Dave,
‘Almost’ eh? I’ll need to keep working on it. ;)
Niyaz, Zaoris, tif,
Thanks a lot. Glad you approve of the changes.
Nice try. Change is always good…! :)
mmm, its good to have a shake up sometimes, although I did prefer your old design, a little more friendly I think. Although I know where your coming from with your reasons, maybe its a grower!
Thanks Chaitanya.
Gareth,
Here’s hoping it is a grower.
I like the look. Just a little bit of color can do wonders, I have to get some on my site. And maybe some day I’ll get a cool logo too!
I think it looks great, but I would say that because orange is my absolute favorite color! Getting rid of the top photo helps make the navigation bar more prominent as well.
Bill, leandra,
Thanks for your comments. That’s a great point about the top nav bar being more prominent. Any way I can promote better site navigation is a plus.
Overall I like it better, despite my not liking the colour orange normally…
However, I do think the header looks little odd now.
I love the black/orange footer.
I hate the favicon :(. Where’s the DA symbol? (Dark grey?)
Aw, I like the favicon. I think it’s pretty clever. Nice, recognisable favicons are hard to make.
David, Great choice! Love the orange color, pops a lot more than the blue – seems blue is used often these days. (Not that I don’t like blue) – but I rather enjoy your change! I’m working on some changes too and believe it or not, it has orange in it. haha. Don’t you hate how your never satisfied? It’s frustrating to me – change my mind all the time :)
Caesar,
The header seemed odd to me at first, but I quite like it now, and the white space helps draw attention to the navigation bar, as leandra mentioned, which is useful for new visitors. As for the favicon, I don’t think my DA symbol reduces as well as I’d like to 16×16. The icon might change, but it’s not a priority.
Kristarella,
Glad you like the favicon, thanks. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible to mirror the simplistic design.
adelle,
It’s funny, some people commented how orange has been used quite a lot. You can never please everyone eh? As for the constant mind changes, yep, certainly the bane of a designer’s life.
Hi David, I am a little late to the mark with this one aren’t I! I was browsing some of your previous articles and noticed this one about the site change and wanted to say I love the new change and do agree that it looks sharper, more distinctive and refined. I do approve! I have recently felt the creative urge to refresh and it sounds silly, but you do feel better about it – another step forward, progressing etc.
Loving the site – thanks for all the great articles, keep it up!
Hi Adam,
Better late than never. ;) Very glad you like the colour change, and thanks for visiting.
Tell you frankly David…Orange is not my fav color, but its looking really good there…. :)…
Just wanted to know your perception on this…How will you like a sports blog to look like, in terms of color that is…
Thanks, Narendra.
Your question depends on the sport. On the target audience and the content, so I can’t say for sure.
Great design. I totally agree with you, it’s better this new orange look without the clouds. Great seeing you at how magazine. You’re a clear reference for people trying to learn about corporate identity.