Today’s post highlights the design of SaraWhite.com (@Sara_, as an aside, Sara works as the creative director at MetaLab which is responsible for entry #3 on this series). This soothing tone of this single-page site is set by the creased paper texture and the beautiful watercolor illustration of a blooming lilac tree. Note how some of the rougher brush strokes emulate the physical appearance of a watercolor painting, defined by the paper creases and uneven travel of pigment through the paper pores. This muted lilac color also defines the color palette that adds a darker shade of lilac for section headers, link rollovers and a few tongue-in-cheek illustrations in the second section.

A relaxed tone set by the header illustration is mirrored in simple, human and soft tone of the text sections. Attractively styled thumbnails of Sara’s portfolio and her Flickr stream follow the precise four-column grid of the main content that switches effortlessly to one or two columns as needed. Note that while the thumbnails are not styled with the site’s color palette, they don’t appear to overload the eye with too much color; this can be attributed to subdued tones and a great color balance across the bottom row that stays within a rather narrow hue segment of soft natural colors.