Mel Rolle's CMS 3710 Project 2 Web Site Analysis:
Dot.Comedy.com
Color
Leatrice Eiseman (Head of the Eiseman Center for Color Information and Training) suggests that “color adds value and meaning to communication” (ref. in Curtis 147). Dot.comedy combines a secondary color, orange, with a tertiary color, yellow-orange because colors with “closely related values are calm and non-invasive” (151). Eiseman emphasizes the “association of color temperatures” when applying color psychology (150). Orange is a warm color that engages the site’s users. The site’s designers also use brown and the hueless color, black, to support the content's “raw and uncut” theme (See Figure 5.1).
Psychological Response to Color
Users can psychologically respond to Dot.comedy’s colors through color-word association (147). Orange is “earthy,” and “passionate.” The site features less saturated forms of orange and yellow to resemble the color of leaves during the fall season.
Figure 5.1
Dot.comedy's colors are
orange, yellow-orange, brown, and black.
Dot.comedy achieves its thematic value by combining orange and black, two colors associated with Halloween (See Figure 5.2). The less saturated orange and the “bold” black suggest that the site is adult-oriented and uncensored. Horton and Lynch argue that “saturation is useful to signal depth in displays” (Sidebar:Color Terminology). They suggest that viewers expect “faraway objects to look desaturated and gray because of atmospheric effects and foreground objects to be more intensely colored” (Sidebar: Color Terminology). Thus, the desaturated orange appears in the background and the “bold” black stands out like a comedian: center-stage.
Figure 5.2
Dot.comedy combines orange and black, two colors associated with Halloween.
The site’s logo is red, white, and blue (See Figure 5.3). These colors suggest patriotism and pride. The patriotic colors reflect the boldness and originality of the site's content, as well as the comedians who take pride in their talents. Red and blue are also associated with humor. In fact, clowns often where red noses, and red and blue afros.
Figure 5.3
Dot.comedy's red, white, and blue logo.
Mel Rolle
CMS 3710
Updated: 20 April 2009