7 Techniques for Creating Bold & Colorful Websites with Divi

Using a bold and colorful design style for your website is a great way to make your website pop. It will help you bring a positive vibe to your website and although it doesn’t fit any kind of website, it definitely fits many of them.

In this post, we’ll show you 7 different Divi techniques on how to get to create bold and colorful web design using Divi’s built-in options only. First, we’ll go through the different techniques and afterwards we’ll recreate an example that matches the description.

This is the last post in the post series where we’ve handled 4 different website styles and how to achieve them using Divi:

Clean & Abstract
Minimal
Flat
Bold & Colorful

Let’s get to it!

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Table Of Contents

1 1. ‘Turn’ Rows into Sections With Columns
2 2. Gradients + Background Textures
3 3. Semitransparent Gradient Colors + Underneath Section Dividers
4 4. Horizontal Column Overlap of Modules
5 5. Split up Copy for Perfect Alignment
6 6. Combine Black and Semitransparent Text Colors
7 7. Avoid Box Shadow at Top or Bottom to Unite Sections
8 Preview
9 Let’s Start Creating: Add Standard Section #1
10 Add Standard Section #2
11 Preview
12 Final Thoughts

1. ‘Turn’ Rows into Sections With Columns

The first technique you can use to create bold and colorful web design is turning rows into sections. By removing all default padding between a section and row, you’ll leave no apparent difference between the two. This, in combination with removing the gutter width, allows you to have two columns that are pressed together.

2. Gradients + Background Textures

Using gradient backgrounds on your website can deliver stunning results. But what helps you empower these colors, even more, is combining them with a textured background. To keep the balance, use this combination for one column only. Keep the second column clean and light for a modern touch.

3. Semitransparent Gradient Colors + Underneath Section Dividers

After you’ve turned a row into a section, you can add section dividers to your column background as well. To make sure the dividers show through, without overlapping the content, use slightly transparent gradient colors for your column.

4. Horizontal Column Overlap of Modules

You often see websites use vertical overlapping. Horizontal overlapping, on the other hand, is less frequently used although it can bring absolutely stunning results. To achieve this kind of result, it’s important to know that elements in the right column have a hierarchical advantage to elements in the left column. You can’t achieve the same result if you place your elements in the left column.

5. Split up Copy for Perfect Alignment

There’s nothing more satisfying than having perfect alignment. It’s one of the primary design principles that distinguished good design from bad design. To make sure this alignment is perfect when overlapping two columns, try splitting up your copy into different Text Modules. This will allow you to create a perfect alignment by making the negative left margin match that word or sentence in particular.

6. Combine Black and Semitransparent Text Colors

To add the bold aspect to your website, use a big font size for the copy you’re sharing along with an ultra bold Text Font Weight. And to balance the boldness, you can switch between using a black text color and a semitransparent one. This will help you create enough depth and variation on your website.

7. Avoid Box Shadow at Top or Bottom to Unite Sections

You can easily unite two sections on your page by playing around with the box shadow options. First things first, use a very subtle box shadow. That means using sufficient blur strength, negative spread strength and a very light box shadow color. Once you create your subtle box shadow, play around with the vertical position. For the first section on your page, make sure you move the vertical position until the box shadow doesn’t appear at the bottom of your section. Same applies to the last section, but instead, make sure it doesn’t appear at the top.

Preview

Now that we’ve gone through all the different techniques, it’s time to put things into practice. We’re going to recreate the following design:

Let’s Start Creating: Add Standard Section #1

Section Settings

Top Divider

Add a new page with a standard section and open the section settings right away. The first thing we’ll need is a top divider:

Divider Style: Find in List
Divider Color: rgba(0,0,0,0.13)
Divider Height: 900px
Divider Flip: Vertical
Divider Arrangement: Underneath Section Content

Bottom Divider

Continue by adding a similar bottom divider as well.

Divider Style: Find in List
Divider Color: rgba(0,0,0,0.13)
Divider Height: 900px
Divider Arrangement: Underneath Section Content

Spacing

Next, give the section some margin and remove the default padding.

Top & Bottom Margin: 50px
Left & Right Margin: 50px
Top & Bottom Padding: 0px
Left & Right Padding: 0px

Rounded Corners

Then, open the Border settings and add some rounded corners.

Top Left: 20px
Top Right: 20px

Box Shadow

We’re using a subtle box shadow at the top of our section by making the following adjustments:

Box Shadow Vertical Position: -23px
Box Shadow Blur Strength: 37px
Box Shadow Spread Strength: -29px
Shadow Color: rgba(0,0,0,0.22)
Box Shadow Position: Outer Shadow

Add New Row

Column Structure

Not that we’re done modifying the section settings, we can continue by adding a row with two columns.

Column 1 Gradient Background

Without adding any modules yet, we’re going to open the row settings. The first thing we’ll need to do there is adding a gradient background to our first column.

Color 1: rgba(255,191,0,0.76)
Color 2: rgba(153,0,255,0.87)

Column 1 Texture Background Image

We’ll combine this gradient background with a textured background. The image I’m using is part of Divi’s Meetup Layout Pack. Save the following image to your desktop by right clicking and saving it (it’s a png file with white textures, you won’t be able to see the what it looks like until you open it on your computer and/or use it on your website):

After you upload the image to your Media Library, make sure you select ‘fit’ as the Column 1 Background Image Size as well.

Column 2 Background Color

Next, give your second column the ‘#F7F7F7’ background color.

Sizing

We’re going to ‘turn’ our row into a section by making it take up the entire width of the section.

Make This Row Fullwidth: Yes
Use Custom Gutter Width: Yes
Gutter Width: 1
Equalize Column Heights: Yes

Spacing

Along with making the row take up the entire width of the section, we’ll also need to remove the top and bottom padding of our section.

Top & Bottom Padding: 0px

Add Divider Module to Column 1

Hide Divider

Let’s start adding the modules! The first thing we’ll need is a Divider Module in the first column. We’re only using this module to create the space we need in the first column. We don’t actually want it to show up. Once you add the module, make sure you disable the ‘Show Divider’ option.

Spacing

Go to the Spacing settings next and add the following custom padding to the divider:

Top Padding: 200px (Desktop & Tablet), 150px (Phone)
Bottom Padding: 200px (Desktop & Tablet), 150px (Phone)

Add Text Module #1 to Column 2

Add Copy

We can now move on to the second column. Here, we’re going to drop our three different Text Modules and make them overlap both columns. If you want to make a module overlap two or more columns, you’ll always need to place it in the column that’s on the right. That’s just how the hierarchical structure works. Add your first Text Module and add some copy.

Text Settings

Open the text settings next and apply the following changes:

Text Font Weight: Ultra Bold
Text Font Style: Uppercase
Text Color: #000000
Text Size: 250px (Desktop), 200px (Tablet), 100px (Phone)
Text Line Height: 0.75em

Spacing

We’ll also need some margin. The negative left margin we’re using matches the copy we’ve chosen. If you want to make this work with other text as well, you’ll need to play around with this value. Change it until you see the beginning of a character align with the transition of the columns.

Top Margin: 200px (Desktop), -250px (Tablet), -120px (Phone)
Left Margin: -279px (Desktop), 5% (Tablet & Phone)

Clone Text Module Twice

Clone #1

Change Text

We’ve created our first Text Module and to save ourselves some time, we’ll clone it twice and make some changes. The first thing you’ll need to change about the second Text Module is the copy.

Change Spacing

The copy we’re using here is different, so that means we’ll need to change the left margin. Notice how we’re also using decimal numbers to make the Text Module align perfectly. Get rid of the top margin as well.

Left Margin: -360.7px (Desktop), 5% (Tablet & Phone)

Clone #2

Change Text

Change the copy of your third Text Module as well.

Change Text Color

And to make the design stand out even more, we’re going to change the text color of this module into ‘rgba(0,0,0,0.19)’.

Change Spacing

We’re removing the top margin for this module and adding some bottom margin instead. The negative left margin is different as well.

Bottom Margin: 200px
Left Margin: -410px (Desktop), 5% (Tablet & Phone)