E-Book Review: Color Voodoo

Color Voodoo. The very term raises images of magic, as though the thoughtfully planned use of appropriate color is seemingly inexplicable. But Jill Morton's series of Color Voodoo e-books guide Web developers through the use of color in a concise, richly-illustrated, color-accurate Web format. If you want to leverage your message through the power of color communication, this series gets you up to speed quickly and confidently.

Color has a significant impact on visual communication, and "80% of the brain is dedicated to processing visual communication. Color and form are the two basic elements in this communication...form affects the intellect and color affects the emotions." [Source: Color Voodoo #5, pg. 16.] Released from the budget constraints governing print color usage, Web developers who appropriately and judiciously use color tap a free and powerful communication tool.

Your site's message can be quickly supported or undermined through your color choices. "Marketing psychologists state that a lasting impression is made within ninety seconds and that color accounts for 60% of the acceptance or rejection of an object, person, place, or circumstance. Because color impressions are both quick and long lasting, decisions about color are a critical factor in success of any visual experience." [Source: http://www.colorcom.com/color.html]

Our words are filled with colorful idioms. For example, "On that red-letter day, her broker was green with envy watching her e-picked blue chips rocket. Hoping for a tip to get his margins in the black, he brown-nosed her with little white lies." Way overdone? We even use color as a universal condemnation: "Sheesh! So off-color!"

Web color usage is finicky and Web developers lacking color knowledge operate with more limited design possibilities, waste more time on color choices, and risk dissonance between a site's color and message. Without authoritative color knowledge, it is also more difficult to guide clients whose personal color preferences may undermine their Web site's message.

As a practicing Web designer as well as author, educator, and color consultant, Jill Morton understands the myriad variables Web designers face in production. "Monitor sizes and resolution, gamma differences, font sizes, pixel ratios and user options are all contributing at the same time to the instability of any given Web page. Consequently the Web designer is challenged to deliver a visual product for an extremely wide range of variables. An understanding of how color creates logical and engaging visual effects is essential to successful design in this flexible environment." [Source: Color Voodoo #5, pg. 14.]

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