Hi all -

I'm about half way though Adobe's Dreamweaver CS3 book, and I have the basics on XHTML and CSS down (or, I feel slightly comfortable with them anyways). I'm looking to get started on my own portfolio website (mostly just build a templet for now) but I can't decide on what colors to use and how to lay it out.

 

From the portfolio sites I've seen, it looks like a lot of people use a black bg with gray text and dark images. Is that pretty standard? I'd like to go for more of a upbeat feel, but I don't want the site to look too cheesy.

 

What colors do you all use for your personal sites? Any layout ideas or tricks you have would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!

Julian

For me, I prefer monochromatic layouts with a maximum of 1 or 2 colours.

This a difficult subject and almost everyone will have a diffrent opinion , i'll just give you mine.

 

I usually pick 2 color to work with to get a nice color contrast in my website. I generally prefer a light background. It gives the website a more upbeat / open feel.

You can use whatever colours you like, it is best however to have quite a limited pallet as portfolios are meant to show off the work you have done, so you don't want to overshadow these with too many colours that take away from you work. Black is often used along with other neutral colours but you are not restricted by these, you should have a look at Rob or Eskymo's portfolio sites as they will show you you don't have to create something boring.

 

Also a good site to help you with colours is http://kuler.adobe.com/

Colour is simple a matter of personal preference.

 

I might like one thing and you may hate it....

 

Just go with what feels right. For me a couple of colours is best, a backing colour, text colour and a nice hightlight colour. then once you have them three you can get a pallete based on these. IF you already have a logo, try and use colours that compliment it.

 

As Dizi has just mentioned Kuler.adobe.com is great place to start.

 

Hope this is of help.

Colour is simple a matter of personal preference.

 

I'd disagree with that. If you ask everyone in the world what their favourite colour combinations are, you'll get loads of different answers. But companies have target markets, and depending on how well you can define your market (and filter the answers accordingly), you'll have a much narrower range of answers. If you also change your approach (eg, change the question to "what colours would you associate with creativity?")

 

It all depends on your target market and how you want to be percieved.

Have you tried looking at colourlovers.com? A good site for finding colour inspiration