“A berry red that blurs the lines between warm and cool, Viva Magenta is the bold color that is turning heads on the runway and turning up in the metaverse. Described by Pantone Color Institute’s executive director, Leatrice Eiseman, as “audacious, witty” and like “a fist in a velvet glove,” Viva Magenta can make a statement big or small, whether it is color-drenching kitchen cabinets or simply as an accent in colored glassware on open shelving. Indeed, it’s an appealing option for any room of the home that calls for a color that can be as alluring as it is accessible.”

What does it entail? You will need a domain and a hosting company. The WordPress software and theme will need to be installed. Content is usually provided by the client, but often needs editing or enhanced to fit into the layout. Images and photos need to be researched, curated and sized. Pages and links need to be planned and a blog started or imported from the previous website. As many or more than ten plugins that add important security and functionality need to be procured and configured.

Check for broken links, test for mobile, and publish. Revisit the domain and point to the correct url. Test for broken links again. Test for mobile again. Wait ten days and check again. Finally add Search Engine Optimization with researched keywords and google analytics to track your progress. It’s a lot of work. But the cost is one time and can be financed over months. The site is yours and can be edited and altered as you grow.

You can alternatively go to a commercial website and hosting company such as Squarespace, Shopify or Wix, and many do. They use predesigned templates  that are not builder templates and cannot be modified except with CSS coding. You pay a monthly fee indefinitely and if you decide to change companies, or self publish, you cannot take the site with you.

If you need a simple site that is quick and less complex that may be the way to go. But if you are in the long haul, a self published website is worth the time and effort.

Or, I might actually be making a living using my graphic design skills. I spent about four to six weeks designing a 170 page historical book on an area in South Boston. That was a nice change in that I worked with a colleague editor from my Boston Globe days. We will be going public with this after it has been distributed to all interested parties and it will available for sale on Amazon!

I am also happy to volunteer web and graphic design help to the organization Together for 2020, a Democratic grassroots web site that promotes Dems running for office. (Apologies to my Republican friends.) It really keeps me busy as we promote activities each week for volunteers coming to the website. We have a weekly updated web page, Wave of the Week, that promotes one action, one recommended candidate,  and one event to attend (by Zoom.) The activities are fun, like texting to voters around the country, and it’s easy because it is run by an app. We really hope to get 10,000 more volunteers to help out so if interested go to https://togetherfor2020.org. The nice people in the group are very smart and working hard to make a change in November.

This week we celebrate my twin’s birthday, and Father’s Day on the same day, then my birthday a week later. Walks with my husband in the many woods around Metro West is also a joy. That wraps it up for me; family, nature, art and justice. Hope you are all healthy and happy and keeping busy!

For a limited time, free to current clients who pay for regular Web Care, I am offering to print a data driven report of your website upon request. This will include Security Checks, SEO / Analytics, and Broken Links, as analyzed by the software that has been handling your web updates.

By appointment, over a cup of coffee, we will sit and go over your website together, maybe something we haven’t done in awhile. Let me help you make a plan for updating your site’s outdated theme or layout, and improve content and user experience. We can discuss what is still working and what is broken or if your website is becoming “stale”.

Your company has grown and your website needs to mirror that. Let’s meet to discuss goals for 2020 and beyond! Email me to request your report and set up a meeting by phone or in person. I look forward to it!

The color is Pantone Color 16-1456, or Coral Craze. Last year was Ultra Violet. I saw this color used on a website matched with a alight retro aqua green and it was very eye catching. A definite new color to consider for 2019! Optimistic and a hope for better things to come. When you are tired of the same old colors on your website, month after month, a switch to a new color can be refreshing. Photo credit: Pantone.

TEXT
You may already have text from a previous website that you want to update or you may have none at all. Brochures, reports and other publications may offer you a good start. The designer or content developer will take this to edit into something usable for the new website, keeping in mind what key words need to be added for search engine optimization. This is a start and you will have to involved in the editing to make it work for you.

GRAPHICS AND PHOTOGRAPHY
If you have a logo, that is a good place to start for color exploration. Not having a good logo may provide an opportunity to include that design in your agreement. Photographs you may already have should enhance your color palette and brand. If you do have good photography, the designer will suggest or select the ones that will be placed on the home page. Another option is to purchase high quality photographs from a stock agency. Designers will look for photographs with the right colors and style for your site.

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
Mapping out the layout is key to good user experience. Your visitors will need a clear understanding of what you do and how you will help them. Your designer will create a design that provides a satisfying pathway for a visitor who follows through with a call of email to find out more.

SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH
When all the functionality is set and the layout is finished, your designer will launch the site and make sure everything is working correctly. Flow, typos, links and software kinks need to be worked out. Your site should have a security certificate and your new site should be added to search engines and social networks. Incoming marketing efforts can begin to provide traffic to your site which can then be tracked.

Your involvement as website owner is necessary to achieve good results from your website from the very beginning to the end!

Where do you start with color?

Type “color” on Google and you will find color wheels, web color palettes, color theory and even a link to the International Color Consortium, which promotes vendor-neutral, cross-platform color management systems for computers. It’s getting complicated.

Even if you aren’t a visual artist, you probably go to the paint store and draw on the color wheel information you learned so long ago. It is as valuable as the algebra we use to calculate size variables. How many of us remember learning the color wheel in art class? Well, it is still a valuable tool for graphic designers, interior designers, architects and other visual professionals. When sitting in font of a blank canvas (by this I mean my computer screen), I often pick a starting color based on client research. It may start with a main logo color. The next color I pick is going to be complementary. Why? Because it looks good! See basic color wheel rules from coschedule.com.

Cool Tools
A  cool tool for color, from the software company, Adobe, can help you create or complete a color combination for your website. Use their color wheel to create a whole new palette or download one from their online community. Try it out! 

A color mission at Color Marketing Group
The Color Marketing Group’s “mission is to create color forecast information for professionals who design and market color.” They state that “color sells and the right colors sell better.” At annual design workshops, members track trends and their influences on design and color. The site says these “influences run the gamut from social issues to politics, the environment, the economy and cultural diversity. It is an understanding of the influences that provides the most useful information, and it is the input of so many color designers, that gives each forecast its tremendous validity.”

Start with one color based on what’s new.
Pantone, a design color authority, already announced Ultraviolet as the color of 2018, also assembled a list of new hues to watch as we approach Fall ’18. Consumers will continue to focus on self-expressive colors and non-traditional choices. So, what are the colors for this year, keeping in mind that one of colors from Pantone could be used for your website, and not all of them at once!