Alright, let me walk you through how I put together these ‘shalom styles’ I was messing with the other day. It wasn’t for any big project, really, just something I wanted to try for myself, kind of a personal exploration.
It all started because I felt like so much stuff online, and even in design generally, is just loud. Aggressive colors, sharp corners, everything yelling for attention. I wanted the opposite. Something calm, something that felt, you know, peaceful. That’s where the ‘shalom’ idea came from.
Getting Started – Just Thinking
First off, I didn’t jump straight into software. I just sat with a notepad, actually. Scribbled down words that came to mind when I thought about ‘shalom’ or peace:
- Quiet
- Soft
- Simple
- Natural
- Calm
- Maybe light blues, greens, earthy tones
Wasn’t really about a specific look yet, more about the feeling I wanted to capture.
Playing with Colors and Shapes
Then I opened up a super basic graphics tool. Nothing fancy, maybe like Paint or something similar. Started mixing colors. I knew I wanted muted stuff. Avoided bright reds or oranges like the plague. Found some nice soft blues, a kind of sandy beige, a gentle olive green, and a simple off-white. Just put swatches next to each other to see how they felt together.
For shapes, I leaned towards curves. Rounded rectangles instead of sharp ones. Maybe some simple, flowing lines. Tried sketching out really basic icons – thought about an olive branch or a simple dove, but kept them super minimal, almost abstract. Simplicity was key.
Fonts and Putting Things Together
Typography was next. Needed a font that was easy to read but also felt gentle. No heavy, blocky letters. No overly complicated scripts either. Found a couple of clean sans-serif fonts that felt airy and calm. Tested them with the colors.
Then came the part of actually trying to combine these things. I mocked up a really simple layout – imagine a blog post or a note page. Header, text area, maybe a small sidebar space.
- Put the chosen color palette to use. Maybe the soft blue for the header, beige for the background.
- Used the selected font for the text.
- Tried placing one of the simple icons somewhere, subtly.
My first attempt felt… okay, but maybe a bit too plain. Peaceful, yes, but also a little boring.
Tweaking and Refining
So, I went back. Realized ‘simple’ doesn’t mean ’empty’. Added a very faint texture to the background, almost like a soft paper grain. Just to give it a tiny bit of depth without being distracting. Played with the spacing between elements – gave things more room to breathe. Maybe made the header text slightly bolder, but kept the soft color.
I kept looking at it, asking myself, does this feel peaceful? Does it have that ‘shalom’ vibe? It started to get closer. It wasn’t about some groundbreaking design, it was about hitting that specific quiet mood.
Where It Ended Up
In the end, I didn’t build a whole website or anything huge with it. It was more the process, you know? Exploring that idea of ‘shalom’ visually. What I got was a nice little set: a color palette, a couple of font choices, and some super simple graphic elements. I might use them for my own personal stuff, maybe theme my notes app or something small.
It was just a good exercise, really. Cleared my head a bit, creating something intentionally quiet in a noisy world. That was the whole point of the ‘shalom styles’ experiment for me.
