How to use ColoradoGives.org's design tools to make your event page look customized, professional and true to your brand.
Getting Started
If you haven't already done so, you'll want to first create your event page. Please follow the step by step guide here.
Your event page will be a blank canvas at first. On the left side of your screen, you’ll see your dashboard that you can use to begin customizing your page. The rest of your screen is your event page, and you’ll be able to see changes to your page as you make them so you can decide what looks best.
In this article, we’ll be focusing on the tools that will help you design your page and best practices to make your page as attractive as it can be. For step-by-step guides to using all of the tools on your event page, check out How to Make Your Event Page Awesome and Managing Your Event on ColoradoGives.org.
Design Tools
Logo
Your logo is front-and-center on your event page, so it’s important to make sure you choose your logo wisely and follow our guidelines so your page will look its best.
Your logo will display right above your event page’s title:
Your logo will also display on your event page’s tile when people browse ColoradoGives.org. So, your logo choice will represent your event in multiple places.
Choosing Your Logo
If your event is fundraising for a nonprofit organization, choosing your logo is easy: You’ll most likely want to use the nonprofit’s logo. You can create a logo specifically for your event if you’re savvy in Photoshop or Illustrator, or even use free tools like Canva to create a logo
Photos work as well — but you will need to make sure your logo doesn’t clash with your background image (which we’ll discuss more later on).
Logo best practices
- Logo shape: Because space is precious on your ColoradoGives.org event page, a square or circle image works best in this space.
- Logo size: The container for your logo is 570 x 300, so your image should have a height no more than 300 pixels and should be no wider than 570 pixels. If you upload a logo that is too large, it may be distorted in the image container. Smaller images will be centered within the container.
- File type: It’s ideal to upload a .PNG for your logo. Other image files will work, but a .PNG with a transparent background is best.
- Transparent background: A logo with a transparent background will look best against your background image on your event page. What we mean by “transparent” is that there is no white filling in the parts around your logo — it’s invisible.
Background Image
A background image is highly encouraged to add custom flair and a sense of polish and professionalism to your page. You can upload a background image by clicking on the “Edit Theme” button on your page and the clicking “Background Image.”
Choosing Your Background Image
When choosing which photo to use as your background image, you’ll want to keep in mind that you’ll have your logo, event page title, amount raised, and how many days are left in your fundraiser displayed over your background image. For that reason, darker or more muted images work best. You also want to avoid “busy” images, and images with any text (since there will be text over your background image).
Your background photo should be relevant to your fundraiser, but beyond that, the choice is up to you! If you’re organizing an event for a charity walk, images from the previous year’s walk would be great to use as a background image, for instance.
Stock photos can work extremely well too. Google Image Search and sites like Unsplash are a great resource for free images.
Adding a Filter to Your Background Image
You can maximize the legibility of your background image by putting filter color and strength to good use. Like applying a wash of Amaro or Inkwell to a selfie, you can add even more character to your background image with a filter color. By subduing your background image with a deep filter color at partial strength, you can make your page content really pop. If you don’t have a nice background image, you can use the filter color by itself.
Here’s how to do it.
Filter color: If you have a color you know you want to use, you can enter it in the box with the hex code. (Hex codes are 6-digit numbers that basically tell a website what colors to display, and start with a #.)
However, we have a color picker you can play around with that will help you choose a filter color that looks best on your page. You’ll be able to see what you do in real-time, so if something looks awful, no worries! You’ll be able to see what’s happening and change it — nothing is permanent, so feel free to experiment with the filter color.
To pick your filter color, use the hue selector (the vertical rainbow bar) on the right side to choose what general color you want. Just slide it up and down to choose what color family you want — slide it down to blue if you want a blue filter, slide it up to yellow if you want to add a yellow filter, and so on.
Once you’ve got the hue chosen, you can refine your color choice even further using the box to the left of the hue selector. By pointing and clicking in the box, you can control the brightness and saturation of your color. As you move up and down the box, you will be controlling the brightness (with brighter colors at the top, dark colors on the bottom). As you move left to right, you can control the saturation, which means how intense your color is (i.e., the difference between super intrusive in-your-face red and a more subtle red.) You’ll be able to see the change as you pick different colors, so you can experiment to find what color looks best.
Filter strength: You can change the opacity of the filter over your background image by using the slider at the bottom of the tool. The opacity will change how strong the filter is. So, if you want the color you picked to be very prominent, you would want to crank up the opacity. If you want just a hint of color (or no filter at all), you’d reduce the opacity to make your filter more translucent. You’ll be able to see the change live as you use the slider, so you can play around to find the filter strength that makes your background image look best.
Background image best practices
- Image resolution: You will want to use a high-resolution image for your background image — if you upload a lower quality image, it may be pixelated or distorted, which doesn’t enhance your page’s overall look! Images should be at least 1920 x 1080 pixels (which is also a common size for desktop wallpaper). This will also ensure that your event page is optimized for larger screens.
- Simple graphics: Since your background image will have a lot of fields displaying on top of it, you’ll want to keep it simple with your background image. Avoid images with text, patterns, or lots going on.
- Works with logo: You’ll want to make sure your logo and your background image play nice and don’t clash on the page. Even if you’re set on using a certain background image and logo, don’t feel locked into them — make changes based on how they look together.
- Stay relevant: Your background image should tie into your fundraiser. This may be obvious based on your cause or event, but you can always ask ColoradoGives.org for help if you’re stumped about what kind of image you should use for your background. Contact us here and we’ll help you out!
Theme color
The theme color affects your page’s heading, activity feed icons, and most importantly, your “Donate” button. Choose a bright, saturated and fun color that complements the colors in your logo. For nonprofits that have brand colors, you can simply enter the hex code for your color into the theme color field. Be sure to scroll through your entire page to make sure the color you chose looks good everywhere on your page. (For instance, white might look amazing against a dark background image, but it will also make other parts of your page disappear further down!)
If you’re not sure what colors work together, this color wheel is a great resource that can help you pick complementary colors.
Members
Encourage your members to add their own logos and profile pictures. These are displayed in the leaderboard, the activity feed, and are featured in the team tile based on your leaderboard rank. Seeing your event members’ logos or faces on your leaderboard will add interest to your page and help with engagement in your campaign!
If you need help with your event page’s design, don’t be shy about asking the ColoradoGives.org team to help! We’re happy to help you choose an image and colors, or even just look over your page and share our feedback. Contact us at here.