I checked up on my deviantART page tonight, and noticed in the first place that I have 233 new messages (shrug), and secondly that they have a new poll:
deviantART would look better if its was what base color?
- White
- Black
- Grey
- Blue
- Red
- Yellow
- Orange
- Purple
- Lighter green
- The same green it is today!
I casted my vote, which lead me to being directed to a page with the results thusfar:
I can't say I'm really surprised by these stats. When I first read the question, my reaction was Black! … No, wait! … Keep it the way it is!
…and that's what my vote was going to be.
Is it because I think they have a kick-ass base color that cannot be beaten? Is it because I wish I had thought of using that color first, and used it on one of my own site? Is it because I even remotely like the color? No. None of that.
I'll be frank here; green is my least favorite color in design. Unlike my dad, I'm not a fan of green. I love green as it is used by nature, but I dislike it in human design. My first reaction to the color scheme of deviantART when I first saw it was probably something like Yuck!
However, none of that is relevant now. I'm not looking at this site for the first time; you do that only once. What matters now is what my reaction (and that of thousands of others) is when I look at it today, and that is not Yuck!
—It's more something like Ah, deviantART!
…and that's the key. It's about recognition: it's about i·den·ti·ty.
Even if a design choice doesn't appear to be the most æsthetic one at first sight, but is a unique or at least rare one, and doesn't make your eyes bleed either, chances are that—when you push it long and hard enough—it's going to work … some day. Today, devianART's color scheme works; changing it, would be breaking it; breaking it, would be stupid.
My two cents…
ACJ1 comments so far.
Yes, deciantART is being recognized easily from over a thousand sites, but the color isn't my favourite. Don't get me wrong, because it works great. The color schemes are perfect. But the color itself...
Posted by: Rob Mientjes on July 18, 2004, at 08:24