The scenario. Zareen, a Middle-Eastern dancer and
dance instructor, needed a website. Dancer websites are
expected to have the same basic content (such as a bio, a photo
gallery, and a schedule of upcoming performances), so making
the site stand out would prove a challenge.
The strategy.
We wanted the website to be a natural extension of the dancer's
aesthetic. The dancer's slogan was "joyous Middle-Eastern dance", so
we knew it should be a little playful. Also, since this particular dancer
was known for her long golden hair (the name Zareen means "golden"),
we wanted gold to play a part in the final design.
The finished product.
We chose a purple night-sky theme: Zareen often wears purple costumes
to accentuate her gold hair, and she organizes a local dance event
called "Starlight Shimmy". Purple and gold are excellent complimentary
colors. We created all the backgrounds, logos, and buttons, and we
did all of the photo post-processing.
To give the site a friendly, casual feel,
we created a hand-drawn curvy logo with Middle-Eastern overtones
for the Home page.
The trailing exclamation point echoes the dancer's lively style.
A photo of the dancer was chosen in keeping with the mood and
color scheme. The overall tone is relaxed: the photo melts into
the background, and soft cloudlike edges separate menu from content.
For the Links
page, an additional logo was created to combine the themes
of starlight, "linking", and ancient tradition: a
constellation, depicting the dancer herself in a typical
pose. Notice how the current context is indicated subtly but
effectively by carrying the lighter sky color to the "Links" menu item.
Because the Starlight Shimmy
page is about a venue and not about the dancer herself, a slightly
different color scheme was used. Softly-glowing violet predominates,
suggesting cool starlight: the glowing dot of the "i" in the title
completes the picture. The logo for the café is shown, but
it too has been altered to match the theme. No detail has been ignored.
As a final flourish, the website has a "favorites" icon distilled from its
logo: 
You can browse the site itself at
ZareenDances.com.
