With web design, consistency is key and creating a style can help build and shape your brand. This may seem like a difficult task but once you have the basic elements of your website style, you can really just re-purpose these to create a style.
Usually, when creating a website, you will have a logo for the company and maybe even a colour pallet/ brand guidelines to accompany this. These can all really help when getting a head start on designing a website because you can use these elements to influence how you will design. However, if you only have a logo, you can take a lot from this as it may contain fonts, shapes and colours you can use throughout your website design.
Typography
Typography is key when designing anything with text because it is a communication tool between the website and the visitor. This means the typography you choose has to be clear as well as fit in with the brand.
For example, Connect Insolvency uses the logo font for the headings and a round sans-serif font for the body text. Not only does this reinforce the brand throughout the design, but it also creates hierarchy and makes the design clear to use.
Colour Pallet
This may be included in brand guidelines or the logo that you are using but knowing how to use colour throughout your website will really help with creating a style throughout your design.
There should only be around three primary colours throughout your website, any more and it may look busy and chaotic. However, using secondary or tertiary colours may be necessary, and these may be lighter or darker versions of the primary colours.
Using white, grey and black is also very useful to use as well as the primary colours because they can allow your brand colours to stand out. White, grey and black can help with dividing up the website and breaking up the layout too. Leighs Nurseries uses only the brand colours as well as grey and white to create a consistent style.
Imagery
Imagery is really important for creating style and direction in web design. It can reflect tone, audience and purpose as well as consistency. High Life North uses a lot of imagery throughout their website. Imagery is a key aspect of their website, so sourcing the right imagery is crucial.
For many websites, this fact will be the same and it is important that the imagery compliments the content as well as providing further information for the content. Images are also a great tool for breaking up large amounts of text but shouldn’t be used too often at risk of overcrowding the design.
When creating a style, there is a lot of factors to take into consideration. Sticking to a consistent style and establishing a this before you start designing will help to create a clean and well thought out website. Not only will creating a strong visual style throughout your design help with usability and desirability, but it will also allow the user to trust your website.
