Well, the black background is kinda a requirement. You see, the cool background thingies don't even show up on white. Why? I don't know, but they don't.
As for the red, if presented correctly, I've found that it produce's a nice contrast w/ black, even at the lower maroon levels. But if presented incorrectly (aka r-b dojo colors), it becomes quite an eye sore.
Now, there's a basic color breakdown. Let's dig deeper...
---CPA1.JPG---
On the lefthand side, we a have a CPA text logo, something we could put w/o having to say anything else. Notice the (seemless) text overlapping. Personally, I thought this looked really cool. This 'logo' uses a nice orange w/ red twist texture, followed by a bevel. Top it off w/ a white drop shadow for contrast. To me, I don't feel this part seems militant. It seems kinda soothing after looking at the bright centerpiece.
Ok, now look at the centerpiece. The bright background was used to make people look at it-as I said, a centerpiece. There are a lot of orange and whites, w/ a little bit of red. Trippy... The large black letters are black for contrast-kind of a cut away thing. As your eye scrolls over, looking at the smaller lettering, it changes from black, to red. Again, a contrast thing. I admit, I could have used orange, but I just like red more I guess. Add the white drop shadow for more contrast (cuz some points weren't too readable), and tada! We have this image. Oh, wait.. add the greater good line for Zadok--I mean as a mission statement.
Personally, I don't feel this is militant. I think the orange and whites pull away from the red/black darkness.
---CPA2.JPG---
Ok, I admit this one does appear a little darker. I re-read the REPLIES! thread and Ferret said something about a big C and smaller other stuff, so here we are. I took a large C, and extended the bottom, almost pointing to "Players". (As a matter of fact, the extention had an arrow on it. More on that a little later). Take another casual looking font and plop down the other words. I originally had this (w/o the background thingie) w/ white words on a black background. Incredibly bland. What color do I think of...RED! I started looking thru the library of backgrounds and I saw a cool blue one, but it was kinda geometric, so I kept looking and found this one. I tried to use this as a focal point w/ the yellow, but the edges still look a little dark. Not that I noticed this as I was working. Anyway, a gradient, drop shadow, text distortion, and motion blur later, here we are. I guess is this one is a little dark.
Anyway, my vote is for the 1st one. I didn't like the 2nd one anyway.
-mike
NOTE: this is just to help you guys understand my reasoning. Please feel free to give me more suggestions. Oh, and have a nice day.
