I’ve recently been working on something a little different, something… Dark. So when diving into this project where the product is Monsters, Trolls, Goblins, Underground worlds, deep lore and more, it wouldn’t be right to create something run of the mill. But we wanted to stand out. Early on I wanted to go dark, I haven’t done many dark websites really because it wont always work. There is a time and a place for a dark website design and there has to be reason or thought behind it.

This website felt like the perfect fit for a dark design, but I didn’t want to stop there. I took some inspiration from the matte (digital) painting drawings and concept art when working on the website. You’ll notice on the website there are no solid straight lines, I used a brush effect to break up all the sections which really immerse you into the dark and gritty world. Even most of the images them selves have brushed edges and sides so they blend in with the theme. This gives you a real feel of something deep, dark and gritty. Just like the story and being who live in the lore and world Minion Miniatures are creating.

Making a dark website is quite a bit different from a light/white website, here are a few tips for crafting a nice dark website that users will love.

• Whitespace: you need more of it. Font are harder to read on a darker background, so stay away from weird colors, keep it light but also add a bit more space or line height that you normally would for a dark website. This improves the readability a lot more and will ensure the user has a positive experience.
• Color: You will need to think about this a lot more, on a white website I feel you can get away with a lot more color variations, on a darker website i think its best to strip it down and keep the color of text and buttons simple.
• Images: when working on a darker website its the same as painting on a black canvas, you can make your colors pop and look very vibrant. keep this in mind and make your images crisp and vibrant.

You can checkout the live website here: http://minionminiatures.co.uk/
If you have any comments or feedback, feel free to leave a comment below. 🙂