Crescent Events is a blog which provides information to users about the state of affairs of children living in wartorn countries. The site is very minimal in design with a polka dot background and central text. However there are graphics accenting the information provided which are visually engaging and provide a great deal of emphasis and emotional context to the stories. Emphasis was created primarily nby manipulating scale, color contrast, and content of the graphics. crescentevents.wordpress.com
Pitney Bowes is a shipping and financial services company that uses gradation heavily throughout their website. Some of the gradients the designers utilized range from 3 to 5 colors with a white font layered over top. Another interesting gradient-based graphic the website hosts involves an image fading into a solid color gradient. There's some nice visual balance on the website as you engage with it from the top to bottom, the top being primarily gradients and graphics, and the bottom hosting more white space and footer information. pitneybowes.com/us
Moving around the site, the visual balance is wonderful. Large blocks of color separate sections but it doesn’t feel tacky or over-saturated. There is a unity among all the graphics, the type, and all the colors that makes it all feel very cohesive. I really enjoyed this site’s experience, and I thought it seemed like high-echelon design for a gas station brand. I love the emphasis created through the colors and large bright text and sans-serif font. The nuanced movement of the motion graphic really adds a bit of umph to the experience. buc-ees.com
The Octopus design blog is an example of such a site. The illustrative hero image actually has motion worked into the graphic and hovers slightly, contrasting beautifully with the brush stroke background as it bobs up and down. The sleek modern design of the page below also contrasts nicely with the choice of hero image as it splits up into clean organized columns. The website also feels nicely balanced as you move downwards to the various blog posts. I really like the emphasis created through the yellow subheadings. ideo.com/blog