How to Create a Web DesignTemplate

 
Here are some thoughts on how to
design a web template and how to
get an artistic result.

First, you want to be a minimalist.
Don't add something to your template
unless it is absolutely necessary.
Too many web pages and too many
web templates out there are
way too busy.

Here's are some steps to creating a
minimalist web design template:

1. Only add one thing at a
   time to your web design template
2. Only add it if it is absolutely
   necessary
3. Make sure that what you've
   added actually means something;
   otherwise, you should immediately
   remove it

Perhaps the hardest part to creating
a web template is making it look good.
Yet, a good looking web design template
is more a by-product than something you
aim for directly. A good looking web
design is one that looks good because it
makes sense to the heart, the mind, and
the emotions.

Here are some steps to a good-looking
web design template:

1. Pay attention to shape and proportion
2. Pay attention to color and mood
3. Pay attention to perspective and
   point-of view
4. Pay attention to harmony

Of all of the things you need to pay attention
to, harmony is the most important. Harmony
makes for a web design template that is going
all in the same direction.

What direction do you want your web design
template going in? You want it to go in
the same direction as your advertising copy.
Whatever mood or attitude your advertising
copy creates when visitors read your web
page, your web design template should
reinforce. Both your web design and your
advertising copy need to be going in the
same direction.

The same direction. This is important!
The shapes and proportions you choose
should reinforce what you are trying to
say. The color scheme you choose should
help you say what you are trying to say.
The point of view from which the template
has the viewer view the template should
be one that directly relates to the message
you are delivering. All of this needs to
go in the same direction and that direction
is the direction the viewer is taken in when
your message is delivered.

Your web design template is a message-delivery
mechanism. If everything you do lines up and
goes in the same direction, your web visitors
are given a harmonizing and reinforcing message
and they receive your message on many different
levels.

It all starts with minimalism. Add nothing to
your web design template unless it makes total
sense and adds to what you want to say.

Ed Abbott