Since this week’s installment of my Blogging 101 series was all about Choosing a Platform and Identity for your blog, I decided that I should probably talk to you today about my blog color scheme and what it means and conveys for my blog and its “brand.” Look, I am by no means a branding expert, but one thing I do know about branding is that you can do all you can to produce a certain image to your audience, but ultimately your brand is decided by them! It’s sort of a funny thing, trying to control other people’s opinions, but that is where consistency comes into play. Having a consistent look and feel to your blog and social media posts really helps to establish the vision of your brand that you want to convey to your audience. As you can tell by looking around, I have a pretty specific color scheme for my blog and the colors I have chosen are significant for a reason.
So, take a look around. What colors do you see as being most prevalent in my blog? If you said teal & grey, than hooray for me, because those are the colors I want to stand out to you on my blog! I have chosen the colors teal & grey for a reason. Not only are they some of my favorite colors, but they also mean specific things that I hope transfer to your minds when you visit or think about my blog. But, how do these colors affect the way you feel about my blog?
It all has to do with, wait for it… Color Theory! Now, don’t be afraid, I am not going to go all Art and Design 101 on you, but basically in society certain colors convey certain meanings and for me, teal & grey convey a specific message to you (hopefully!) whether you realize it or not. Teal or turquoise, as the case may be, supposedly conveys an image of femininity and sophistication. Grey, on the other hand, conveys a sense of security, reliability and intelligence. Since I write about lifestyle, career advice and issues that are geared towards women, I want my readers to feel a sense of reliability and intelligence in my writing. I also want them (you) to feel like this is a safe place as a sophisticated woman to share opinions with other like-minded women. These colors don’t just convey a message that I want to portray to the internet, but they also help me to attract the right reader to my site. After all, if I am writing for women but attracting only men, my message is lost!
Okay, so I have gone and explained to you what my blog color scheme means, but what good does that do you if your blog is blue and peach? Well, I can’t go into each and every color and what they all mean here, but I have a very handy one pager with the basic meanings behind colors pinned for you to review here. If you are still deciding on your color scheme for your blog, use this resource to help you design a blog that conveys a message that reflects your blog and your ideal reader! If you already have a blog, use this resource to see if your current color scheme is saying what you need it to say and attracting who you need it to attract! You may find that you need to make some adjustments to your color scheme if you aren’t projecting exactly what you desire to the internet!
So, did the colors work? You tell me? Are you a woman, either in college or with an advanced education who considers themselves to be sophisticated, intelligent and career minded? If you don’t fit that demographic specifically, don’t worry, it doesn’t mean you are in the wrong place! Although I write for a specific ideal of a reader, that doesn’t mean that someone outside that sphere wouldn’t also find my blog useful. Remember, none of this is an exact science. So, let me know in the comments below if you fit my mold or if you’re outside the box a little! Either way I’m glad you’re here adding value to this community!
I certainly got the feeling of a professional but safe place when I visited your blog! The design welcomes the professional friend that you can relate to. Love it!
Thats awesome! Thanks for sharing and glad that you are enjoying it!
You know the weird thing is, when I first came across your blog, I got a very sophisticated vibe from it and I knew that this was a more professional and career orientated place but I couldn’t put my finger on it. When you mentioned the colors I was like, “ohhh yeah!”
So yes, it worked on me 🙂
That’s really awesome! Glad my color scheme is helping to support my content and draw in the right readers!
I just found your blog today via My Life as a Teacup’s link love post, and I must say I like it. I’m particularly loving this series on starting your own blog, because it can get really overwhelming! I’ve been trying to start one for (embarrassingly) a few years, but can never seem to really get it going. It tends to alternate between terrible design and somehow-broken-because-I-tried-to-change-it, sigh. Yours is gorgeous, by the way!
I haven’t read all your posts yet (lemme make a fresh pot of coffee first!) but I was wondering if you had any advice on writing an About page? I’ve tried writing it off the cuff, or alternately going back and editing it with a flamethrower, yet somehow keep ending up with an About page that screams “forced!!” or “phoney!!” Any tips for that?
Thanks!
Emilia