Thursday, September 24, 2009

Hmmm...much better?

Beware: My PhotoShop skills are not great.

Well, I couldn't stop myself from experimenting with the colors. I do think I make my point.

I feel the way to make this building more attractive is to paint out all of the blue on the top half of the building (since it only appears there and not below) and replacing it with the yellow from the first floor. Then I think the "sundial" detail would be more appealing if the stark black, gray, and white combination was dialed down to a more subtle 50% strength and the outline was changed from dark blue to a medium gray.

I think then the design would be more cohesive; not such a multitude of colors competing with each other. What do you think?

109 East Grace Street, Richmond, VA:

in real life

In PhotoShop

Here's where I tried my very first idea of replacing the blue with the orange outlining the "sundials".

Please forgive me. Very bad idea.

And here's the full monty:

Before IRL

After PhotoShop

So I got rid of all the blue. Didn't your heart palpitations slow down when you got to the After shots? Mine sure did.

3 comments:

Anne At Large said...

So I don't know if I would have chosen the same changes you did, but clearly any chance is better than this! We had an old Victorian in the neighborhood I grew up in that finally got a fantastic new paint job and the medallions (or whatever these things are called) were done in shades of darker and lighter sagey green with burgundy accents. And it was so well-thought out that the different tones of green worked beautifully with the burgundy. So I can see the point of people who like this stuff with interesting colors. But the colors really should be better thought out than these. It's too bad.

lsaspacey said...

So, what would you suggest? I can pull out the photoshop again.

A DC said...

Your version is definitely less garish that what they did. I have no clue as to what they're thinking with that color scheme. Perhaps they really don't want to rent/sell the building?
That band of aluminum foil across the center is the worst though...ick.