Arcade.nick.com: Color & Typograpy
Figure 3.A
Nothing screams louder than orange and a neon green-yellow gradient (Fig 3.A). In Curtis' book feature author and color specialist, Leatrice Eiseman, identifies oranges as warm colors and greens as cool colors. Orange and green work as complimentary colors and for Arcade.nick.com, they work very well. The sites' color is a combination of Nickelodeon's signature orange and their signature green slime. White is useful in the site as well. As if orange and green doesn't pop enough, white makes menu titles pop (Fig 3.B). Centered graphics in white stand out against the green-yellow gradient background. The contrasts in colors make certain information and graphics stand out on the page. This is essential because as Eiseman says "color adds value and meaning to communication, giving life to the visual message, intensifying it, making it more identifiable and important" (147).
Figure 3.B
What do over a hundred font faces and a few font styles do for website? Typography clarifies the sites' theme and message. Arcade.nick.com uses sans serifs typefaces such as Arial, Helvetica, or Optima for example. Katherine Green, feature author in Curtis' book and a highly experienced web designer recommends avoiding combinations of serif typefaces in both heading and body text (153). The font face in Arcade.nick.com is consistent throughout the site and subsites. Menu titles and other titles capitalized in the site highlight their significance. The titles are also in bold font style. Due to the small font and bold font style, games by Nick and Nick Jr. menus display the kerning technique. Font type, font style and kerning contribute to the site's accessibility theme, emphasizing clarity and consistency.
Rasia Middleton
CMS 3710
Updated: November 12, 2008