Here are 6 design scheme directions. There are 2 basic design problems
we are trying to solve.

1) How do you use harsh existing HLW colors and still make a warm
inviting web presence?

I used a softening blending color that acted as a unifying force between
the cold blue and the red hot red (while also taking into consideration
of your new logo design firms input). The solution is very similar to a
Mondrian painting, becoming a study of color balance in a spatial
context.

http://liquidcommotion.com/1118_hlw_prelim/Mondrian.png

2) How do you convey the main message of "Trust, Strength, and
Integrity"?

Combine a subliminal message with strong pictures with a simple powerful
word message. Even though I am not being hired per-say for my
word-smithing, it is important to explore the potential relation between
word meaning, color and pictures. So I used rough placeholder text as a
rough test.

Here are the rough design directions. We need to pick just one, and move
onto the secondary template designs as quickly as we can.

Let me know your thoughts. Scheme #6 to me is very powerful yet simple.
Scheme #1 is also appealing.

Here are 6 color studies. I like the team (you, Kathy, Tamara, Whit) to evaluate mainly color in this exercise. Picture selection will come in a future date, right now just color. To replace the "too loud bright orange" of the last scheme, I have replaced it with 6 new toned down colors: Burnt Orange, Cinnamon, Clay, Olive, Ruby, and Scarlet. First, please pick one of the color schemes.

Secondly, comment on the typical secondary page layout. Once those decisions are in place we will be ready for the last set of decisions which will be the picture themes and the 3 remaining secondary
page template designs.

The colors were in part based on the color palette that Story Hat designed for you with a few colors I threw in too. The words that say "HLW Fund Services" in the main color field are meant to be a kind of a watermark, to be subtle, to evoke trust and strength. In some of the cases the color of the letters worked very well. In others, not as good. The thing to evaluate is the main color selections. The actual colors of the HLW letters can be tweaked once we establish the main color tone of the design.

Based on the teams selection of the "Custom palette", and the comments on the winning design scheme, I created 4 main templates that are warm and simple. They reflect the beauty of the office materials and the colors are literally taken from the materials themselves.

The people page uses all the materials in the background of the portraits in the HLW office itself. These materials pick up the colors of the approved HLW color palette and make the statement more deeply "we are HLW".

The typical third level template and the people page blend with the other new template designs but are consistent with the existing HLW site too. This can be seen in the watermark and layout of both.

If we could get the final design approval today of all these designs we would only be 7 days behind schedule. Please send your feedback or approval so I can begin site construction as soon as possible.
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