Business success in today’s technological world can depend significantly on one’s online presence. Building and maintaining a website is vital to the growth and prosperity of a commercial enterprise, regardless of its size. Whether you own a mom-and-pop shop or a giant corporation, the company website is your introduction to the world. It provides information to potential clients 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and once established it’s a cost-effective promotional tool.
You want then, to ensure your website is not just illuminating while being user-friendly, but aesthetically appealing too. With online resources, such as WordPress.com to guide you, it’s even possible to build your own. Yet, no matter how the website is created, one of the most important elements of your design will be the images you choose to create visual interest. Selecting photos that put your best face forward, that make a strong first impression, are an integral component of any website design. Especially, if you want to be noticed.
Though there’s no discounting the importance of this, there are really only three steps to consider when deciding upon the visual elements to enhance your website and how to best present them. These hold true whether you are working with a professional or building your own.
1. SELECT A COLOUR PALETTE: The very first thing to ponder has less to do with any of the features that will actually be showing on the site and more to do with making a random selection cohesive. Whether the graphics are generic or specific to your business, finding complimentary hues will make the end result more attractive. There are a number of websites that actually makes this quite simple. You can find inspiration in all of them, while some actually allow you to generate your own combinations:
• DesignSeeds.com
• ColorPalettes.net
• Color-Hex.com
• ColourLovers.com
• DigitalTelepathy.com
• ColourPod.com
• ColorMind.io
• FlatColors.net
2. SOURCING IMAGES: For some businesses, all the images you need will be found within your enterprise, whether it’s pictures of your facility and its content or the end product. However, if the type of business you have means you will need to find outside sources for the visual elements, it’s very important you access them from a source that guarantees you will have the legal right to use them. Online subscription graphics services provide options to suit needs and budgets. Most important, however, is that once you purchase a subscription you are able to use the images, provided the usage falls within the licence regulations, without fear. They will be virus free and you will be protected from any copyright infringement.
Once you find the source that suits your needs you can work with the palette to make your selections. To help you better see the possibilities here are some lightboxes from iPHOTOS.com — which offers quality photos, illustrations and more for business, education and beyond — that have been matched from various online colour palettes:
1) From DesignSeeds.com’s selection ‘A Door Hues’ : iPHOTOS.com Lightbox 1
2) From ColorPalettes.net’s selection #3327 : iPHOTOS.com Lightbox 2
3) From Color-Hex.com’s selection Spring : iPHOTOS.com Lightbox 3
4) From ColourLovers.com’s selection ‘Saxophone Blues’ : iPHOTOS.com Lightbox 4
5) From DTelepathy.com’s Selection ‘SoftwareMill’ : iPHOTOS.com Lightbox 5
6) From ColourPod.com’s ‘Sense of Security’ : iPHOTOS.com Lightbox 6
7) From FlatColors.net’s selection ‘Warm Flat Rock’ : iPHOTOS.com Lightbox 7
3. DESIGN YOUR WEBSITE: Now that you’ve settled on a colour scheme and chosen the beautiful images to create the visual interest you need, it’s time to design. Remember too, that responsive design is an important part of creating a website.
As an example, here’s the fresh new look our team gave the Vital Imagery Ltd. website, with help from Canva.com and iPHOTOS.com. The chosen palette was #76 from Canva.com’s Design School blog
These were the lightboxes created for each of the colours:
• Turquoise
• Cool Grey
• Brownish Purple
• Orange Red
From there, it was quite simple to select the pictures while designing the site with the surety that everything would blend beautifully.
