How to Create a Stagnant Website Background?
Your website’s background is one of the first things that visitors will see, so it’s important to give it the proper attention. While you may want to put your focus on the content within your blog posts, the background is a good place to experiment with different colors, patterns, and images to see which ones evoke the perfect mood for your blog. Once you identify this perfect backdrop, you can use it as a reference to create parallel versions in different colors or designs for other parts of your website.
If you have a plain, white background on your site, you’re doing it wrong. You want your site to pop, so your background should match this “vibe”. If you use a plain white background, you’re losing out on the opportunity to have something more artistic and creative for your audience to look at.
To get you started, here are some easy ways to make your website’s background more interesting:
Colour
Depending on your blog’s subject matter, you may want to keep some of the tones similar for the background and the text in order to create a cohesive look. For example, if you have a food blog and your background is green, you may want to use an orange scheme for your menu buttons and other interface features on your site.
However, if you have a personal blog about politics, you may want to choose a different color for your background and web interface elements since the two usually don’t go hand in hand. If your blog’s purpose is to provide information about fashion and style, using brown or beige for your background will create a more elegant look.
Pattern
If you have a patterned background, you may want to keep it simple and clean for the best display of your blog’s content. Choose a simple, striped or patterned design in pure white or pale gray for the best effect. If you use a solid background color and pattern, it will tend to draw the eye away from the content on your site and reduce the “blur” effect that you want to achieve by keeping the background simple and uncluttered.
Texture
A texture-based background is always a good choice when you want to add a bit more oomph to your blog’s design. For example, if you have a wood-patterned background, you can use this as a starting point for adding some depth to your site’s design by using different shades of brown for your web interface elements. This will help give your site the handmade feel that you’re going for.
Layout
A vertical or horizontal layout is always going to be more eye-catching than a flat one, so make sure that you use this option whenever possible. Remember that your viewers will be on a desktop or a laptop rather than a mobile device, so make sure that your choice of layout is going to be engaging enough to hold their attention for the entire duration.
Images
As we’ve established, your website’s background is one of the first things that visitors will see, so it’s important to give it proper attention. One way to do this is by keeping the background as uncluttered as possible while still keeping with the theme of your site. This is where images come in handy since they allow you to keep some of the elements (such as the cobblestone street or the cloudy skies) while replacing the rest with images that are closer to what you’re going for.
To start, load your image hosting site with some high-quality stock photos that you can cut up and use on your site. For example, if you are using Squarespace, you can find plenty of free images that you can use in your design. Alternatively, you can use a tool like Canva to create a beautiful, paper-based magazine-style template, which you can then insert your images into.
Once you have some high-quality images, you can start replacing some of the text on your blog with images. Bear in mind that you can only use images that are a relatively similar size to the original text box you’re replacing them in. If the image is bigger, it will tend to take up more horizontal space which makes it harder to read the text below it.
If you’re looking for inspiration, you can browse hundreds of free graphics and templates online that you can use to make your blog look more like a magazine.
Test
Once you have your basic layout and design, you can start adding more polish by using different variations in color or pattern for different elements on your site. You can use this option to find the one that works best for you.
If you want to test different colors or patterns, create a quick mock-up of your blog’s design using a tool such as Photoshop. Make sure that you test these options out on a mock-up of your site before using them in production because the colors and patterns that you tested out on a mock-up don’t always work in reality once applied to a real website. If you used a pale colored background in your Photoshop mock-up, now you have to find a way to make this look rich.
Production
You’re almost there! All that’s left is to put the final touches on your brand new blog and enjoy the results. Now that you have a background that you like, you can use this opportunity to experiment with different colors and patterns to find the ones that work best for you.
With all the prep work, making your website look flawless is easier said than done, but it’s worth it in the end. You can use tools like Canva or Photoshop to help make the process easier and to get you closer to your goal.