Mercer Web Design

Whitney Mercer
Web Design Rationale
April 27, 2010

Colors:
I thought it would be appropriate to use a dark background for my web page, since the entire event it based on the idea that it’s being held in the dark. I decided to go with a midnight blue background rather than a black one because I wanted to keep some color in the page. The light blue navigation bar and bottom bar, as well as the side bar and the stroke around the central information, was a nice contrast to the dark blue, while continuing a soft and cool color palate. The hot pink is a definite contrast to the cool colors, and I used it to create a connection to the cupcake’s frosting in the upper left corner. I used a yellow font to show the different sections on the navigation bar ‘lighting up.’ Here are the color values in RGB:

Pink: R=230, G=64, B=151
Cupcake bottom: R=253, G=187, B=48
Navy Blue: R=0, G=44, B=119
Light Blue: R=169, G=196, B=236
Yellow: R=243, G=232, B=0

Cupcake:
I created the cupcake in Illustrator with the pen tool because I thought it would be nice to include some element of dessert on the page. Cupcakes are simple and universally-recognized! Also I knew that I could use bright-colored sprinkles and frosting without making it look inappropriate, and I knew I wanted to use bright pink for some of the text on the page.

Font:
I really like Bruno JB Std (which I used to write ‘Dessert in the Dark’ and the headlines for the information boxes) because it gave the appearance that somebody had used frosting to write the words out. I like the double stems for the capital letters, and I really can imagine seeing this type face on a cake or other dessert. I used in in 100 pt. for the main headline and 48 pt. for the information headlines. I kept both in the hot pink type and same type face to create visual gestalt. I used Caeceilia LT Std. for my other font, because I think that it too reminds me of something that could go on a dessert. It is easy to read the the wide letters are sort of playful- I almost imagine a cupcake store using this type face on the outside of the building.

Design:
I wanted to include a side bar as well as a top navigation bar, so I created a fun fact, or ‘Eye Opener’ on the side bar for each page. I also wanted to have my information go inside of a box that had the light blue stroke, but was more of a continuation of the navy blue background on the inside.

Photos:
Since there are no photos from the past for this event (as it’s the first one) I ended up finding pictures on Google Images. I wanted to use pictures that relate either to sign language, or else to the event itself (hence the dessert buffet photo). The images of the logos for the sponsors come from those sponsor web Sites. Here are my sources:

Hand reading braile: http://www.vtsworld.org/images/Braille-Hand.jpg
Baby and mother signing: http://blog.oregonlive.com/themombeat/2009/07/large_baby-sign-language.JPG
Hands shaking: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge4xuJC2x1BDYA5JbKUNMl03iFXgoLRtAEp_Tw5m7nFAcSvu0cWweg60WwQvWo9AHmi-OjelW_BIi80a3M3hAf0evSewHMuJW-iKYNFHpTpl6Edq6Nw3btmrFJ3dk4OTlNyW2S6cXLQoWj/s400/img_hand_shake.jpg
Dessert Buffet: http://www.lovedivineinspirations.com/USERIMAGES/DESSET%20BUFFET1%282%29.JPG
Map: Google Maps