I’ve worked with two delightful women on their site creations recently. Both are compelling. Both are musicians.

Their site designs couldn’t be more different.

Yes, a good thing. I first came up with the color schemes. The photos they sent showed the way. That was after picking movie palettes they liked, and (maybe!) telling me the main colors in their closets and homes. Along with colors they wanted to avoid. Font choice? A separate article.

Something else is nearly as important as I bring the site together: straight lines vs. curves. Yang vs. yin. Who is this person? (Want to go down a rabbit hole in regard to style essences? Try this.)

Anyway, back to curve and line. Squarespace Fluid Engine offers a wealth of options. Not the dizzying array of Elementor, but I’ll take it. Straights, shapes, flow. One woman’s site lent itself to a fair amount of curve. Intensity, but waves came naturally.

The other required something else entirely—though I didn’t see it at first.

I usually know a site’s finished when it finally “settles.” The second site originally combined lines and curves, as my client seems to. At first glance. But underneath her balanced presentation, there’s a powerful linear undertow.

But I didn’t grasp it, initially. Instead, I kept moving the curved and linear shapes around, doing my best to harmonize them.

As it turned out, all I had to do was go totally angular. Curves were diluting her essence. Once I straightened out the lines, everything locked into place. She settled inside it.

If I’m designing for an organization, the key word is organization. I’ll be much more likely to put together a grid-like design, at least at first. Then, according to the ethos of the organization, bring in peaks and valleys.

I remember when Squarespace first came out. Its appeal was its rectangular simplicity—minimalism. Restful to the eye. If you wanted to put in curves, you had to wrangle with custom CSS. Now, choices abound. And it’s tempting to throw everything at a design at once.

It takes care to strip away the extraneous to reveal the best choice, but it’s worth it.