# What Color is a Church?



## jwithnell (Oct 24, 2011)

What colors would you use (or not use) on a church website and why? I'm in the midst of a redesign for ours, and yes, I know hot pink is likely out of the question


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## raekwon (Oct 24, 2011)

Ours is very earth-tones-y. (See link in sig)


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## Phil D. (Oct 24, 2011)

I agree with Josh.


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## jwithnell (Oct 24, 2011)

Rae, your church's website looks very nice -- it has a feel of history to it.

I like the blues and greys and cream colors too -- is it too cold, though?


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## Weston Stoler (Oct 24, 2011)

i choose hot pink


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## Zach (Oct 24, 2011)

Weston Stoler said:


> i choose hot pink



I second.


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## jwithnell (Oct 24, 2011)

OK, so we're presenting ourselves as pinko commies


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## Frosty (Oct 24, 2011)

What's wrong with good ole black font on a white background?


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## Jack K (Oct 24, 2011)

What makes your church distinctive? And don't anyone say all churches should be the same. That's just not true.

How does your particular church meet the particular needs of its particular community? Is it home to great scholars and teachers? Or is it a shelter for struggling people? Or is it something else? The color scheme for a professor's study will be different from that of an oasis. Any good church is some of both, but for the whole website project (not just picking colors) you need to figure out which of the many good models for a church most strongly fits the situation God has given to your particular church. Then select colors that fit, knowing you've done it purposefully and not just based on taste preferences.


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## Weston Stoler (Oct 24, 2011)

Jack K said:


> What makes your church distinctive? And don't anyone say all churches should be the same. That's just not true.
> 
> How does your particular church meet the particular needs of its particular community? Is it home to great scholars and teachers? Or is it a shelter for struggling people? Or is it something else? The color scheme for a professor's study will be different from that of an oasis. Any good church is some of both, but for the whole website project (not just picking colors) you need to figure out which of the many good models for a church most strongly fits the situation God has given to your particular church. Then select colors that fit, knowing you've done it purposefully and not just based on taste preferences.



Hot Pink will solve all of those problems......


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## jwithnell (Oct 24, 2011)

Jack I appreciate your thoughts, and I entirely agree that individual churches are distinctive. We _are_ a fairly egg-headed bunch  

Worship has been a tremendous emphasis for us and we've had guest pastors comment on the palpable energy that comes from our vigorous participation. I've thought along the lines of using links in one of the dominant positions on the intro page labeled: Who we worship, Why we worship and so forth. This logically might suggest a warm color scheme, but I just can't "see" it.

The session wants the page to raise our visibility in the community -- from the road, it is very difficult to tell that anything is going on. We had someone visit last week who said the church was much different than they had envisioned from the current web page (very disorganized and static), and that they had just about given up on finding a church that sang hymns and had children in the services. In our community, we have very old main-line congregations and a lot of mega-churches and variations on emergent, me-centered, etc. start ups. (For what its worth, demographically we have a lot educated techies.)


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## MarieP (Oct 24, 2011)

Rev 21
The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.


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## Skyler (Oct 24, 2011)

MarieP has it. Color wheel it is!


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## Weston Stoler (Oct 24, 2011)

When I think of worship I think or red's oranges and yellows.


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## rpeters (Oct 24, 2011)

Jack,
You nailed it! As a web developer I do not deal much with the graphic side of the house. But when I do both graphic design and web development I ask myself what will communicate the mission and vision of the church effectively.


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## jwithnell (Oct 25, 2011)

So, if I'm following Marie's thinking, the color itself is not the issue as long as it is beautiful? Although the idea of "light" comes across very strongly and gives me a few ideas.

Robert, my background is mostly in print design which definitely has a relationship to web design when it comes to concepts for a communication medium. That's why I don't want to just snatch a color out of the air -- it needs to support the overall communication of the site.


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## J. Dean (Oct 25, 2011)

chartreusse?


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## Jack K (Oct 25, 2011)

jwithnell said:


> Jack I appreciate your thoughts, and I entirely agree that individual churches are distinctive. We _are_ a fairly egg-headed bunch
> 
> Worship has been a tremendous emphasis for us and we've had guest pastors comment on the palpable energy that comes from our vigorous participation. I've thought along the lines of using links in one of the dominant positions on the intro page labeled: Who we worship, Why we worship and so forth. This logically might suggest a warm color scheme, but I just can't "see" it.
> 
> The session wants the page to raise our visibility in the community -- from the road, it is very difficult to tell that anything is going on. We had someone visit last week who said the church was much different than they had envisioned from the current web page (very disorganized and static), and that they had just about given up on finding a church that sang hymns and had children in the services. In our community, we have very old main-line congregations and a lot of mega-churches and variations on emergent, me-centered, etc. start ups. (For what its worth, demographically we have a lot educated techies.)



Based on those tidbits of info, I'd love to play. Let's suppose you are a group than can come across as stuffy, but inside you are alive and eager to worship. So you want to capture that liveliness for worship while counteracting the impressions of stuffiness.

How about this scheme? It has deep, royal colors suggesting the King whom we worship. It is also colorful and varied, clearly alive, not what one would expect from a stuffy bunch. And if you want it to be even more lively, take that greenish yellow and make it more of a gold.

View attachment 2417

Thanks for letting me play.


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## Rich Koster (Oct 25, 2011)

Avoid the spinning gold pushbuttons, on a black background, with flames coming off of them. It looks like some of the "extremist" sites I remember viewing.


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## Edward (Oct 28, 2011)

Color itself is less important than a high contrast between the background and the type.


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