These days it seems like almost everyone has a website, which makes it even harder for ours to stand out! It doesn’t matter the content, there is always many other websites with the same goal as yours. There’s multiple ways that we as creators can best design our websites in order to best showcase our message and brand. Ideally, we want our readers to walk away remembering our content and increasing the probability that they will come back to our site later. Whether it’s the physical design, or tying it all together into our personal brand, the opportunities are endless.
A crucial component to remember whenever designing anything, from graphics and videos, and into your own website, is your personal brand. Your personal brand is the individual characteristics of your project that scream ‘YOU’ that makes anything unique and individualized. Design components are a phenomenal way to present this message to our readers and viewers, however you must determine what your brand is first. This brand could include feelings you want to display, ideas you’re passionate about, or morals and beliefs you personally have. Throughout your entire website, you want your personal brand to be evident, as well as consistent.
One of the first design components you should focus on when developing your website is the emphasis of your content. Emphasis is the parts of your design that stand out or are meant to catch the reader’s attention. What is the most important part of your website? You can take this in a few different ways, from the physical design of something, such as a bolded type, bigger title, or graphic put into white space, or you can think of it in layout, like where your posts are seen or what content is displayed. What is most important for your readers to see? Is it your latest blog post? Or maybe it the ‘about me’ section to provide a little context? Once these questions are answered, you can know what things to put emphasis on.
Next up is repetition! The key to your personal brand is learning how to repeat the ideas and values of your personal brand in new and interesting ways. It’s almost an art to be able to say the same things, using different words. However, on the other hand, repetition can come from repeating the same colors, types, fonts, shapes, and styles. Repetition also reinforces the ideas of consistency and unifies many different aspects into one general look and feel. In a blog, you wouldn’t write every paragraph with a different font, instead you would typically choose one font to use throughout, no matter the point in design. Repetition also creates a sense of belonging and brings ease to the viewer.
When utilizing designs on a website, another crucial component is contrast. Contrast is what we think of when we say we’re looking for something that ‘pops’. Obviously we want our own content to pop, so how do we do this? Use opposite colors, like something bright paired with something dark, such as lime green paired with black. Use thick fonts for your titles and headings, but then pair thinner fonts for the tag line. Find a super crazy font to use for your title, then maybe use something san serif for the headings. My favorite way to use this is when websites utilize social media. Typically an Instagram feed can be set up to show the series of images on a blank background, that also utilizes white space.
Finally, one of my personal beliefs is that color has the power to make or break a design or project. Color has a unique way of evoking feeling from our readers, so we should make sure to utilize it in the right way. For example, when someone sees the color green, it’s typically associated with freshness and relaxation which is why we often see it with products such as mint gum. On the contrary, the color gray is associated with maturity and stability, so it is often utilized in designs to look more modern and clean. Think about how you want viewers to feel with your website and your content. Are you using a website to sell essential oils that are supposed to relax? Maybe you want to use purple and blue. Maybe you’re developing an online profile, in which black is one of the best ways to emulate sophistication. Utilize color as another reinforcement into the design of your website.
Design plays a huge role in the ‘make or break’ of your website. Visually a design can fully influence the way your viewers think about your content, especially if it confuses and stresses them, versus calming them and creating a sense of coherency. With this in mind, we must use these important concepts throughout our entire website in order to best position ourselves for online success.
Pursuit of Purpose 