The right colors can captivate our attention, elicit a variety of emotions, increase conversion rates, increase memory, improve readership, and increase brand recognition. In fact, A study by the University of Loyola, Maryland found that color increases brand recognition by up to 80 percent. Lots of research has gone into the art and combination of colors. Here are the basics. The color wheel is the foundation for combining colors. It was first invented by Isaac Newton in 1666 to show the relations of colors. The color wheel is composed of three different types of colors: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary colors include Red, Green, Blue . All other colors are derived by combinations of these colors. Secondary colors include Yellow, Magenta"]Cyan, White, Magenta Tertiary colors are created by mixing primary and secondary colors. They include red-orange, red-violet, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-violet and blue-green. Today’s most common version of the color wheel contains all 12 of the preceding colors. color-wheel As a designer, color is one of the most important elements of anything you create. It doesn’t matter whether you’re designing a logo or an entire website. Using the color wheel, you can arrange color schemes that complement your design. Color schemes come in many forms. We will be covering some of the most common ones, including Analogous, Complimentary, Triad, and Monochromatic. Analogous colors are those that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel. You can pick any range of colors between two points of either triangle on the color wheel (ie yellow to red, red to orange, orange to violet, red to blue, etc) and you will have an analogous color scheme. Using an analogous color scheme can help you to create vibrant designs that are pleasing to the eye. Some websites that use an Analogous color scheme include: www.thinkvitamin.com www.jasonsantamaria.com www.orbitz.com Complementary color schemes are those that are located opposite each other on the color wheel. Some examples are green and red, yellow and violet, and orange and blue. These colors always go well together, hence the term complimentary. complementary These combinations make each color look more vibrant. In fact, when placed next to each other, a phenomenon known as simultaneous contrast occurs. Some websites that use Complementary color schemes include: http://www.ufl.edu/ (University of Florida) http://www.federatedmedia.net/ (Red and green are complementary colors.) Triad colors are those that are three hues equidistant on the color wheel. They are evenly spaced around the color wheel to form a triangle. This combination will give you a design that is colorful but balanced at the same time. triad A monochromatic color scheme is composed of one single hue and a number of variations in terms of tints, shades, and saturation. monochromatic A monochromatic color scheme is almost always visually appealing, but lacks color contrast. While using a purely monontone chromatic color scheme can get a bit boring, using it with white or black, white, or gray can create a very attractive design. You can see an example of this color scheme at Neatorama.com, which sports a variety of shades of gray. Another good example can be found at ColourLovers. Fortuanately, in today’s high technology world, you don’t have to create color schemes all by yourself. There are a number of excellent online resources available to help you pick the perfect color scheme for your next design. http://kuler.adobe.com/ - This color scheme tool will allow you to quickly create analogous, complementary, monochromatic, and triad color schemes. Color Schemer Online is an application that will quickly and easily create perfectly matching color schemes. All you do is select a color to start with, and it will immediately output an attractive color scheme. It also allows you to lighten or darken the scheme simply by pressing a button….one of my favorite features ColorBlender is an online tool that will help you to create matching colors and palette designs. Once you’ve have created a color scheme that you like, you can then save it to your computer. To check out a large gallery of color schemes, go to http://www.colourlovers.com/. Additional Resource http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_theory
well, for such an educated and intellectual article that's been cross-posted here, you fail at pretty much the start. You state that the primaryu colours are Red, Yellow and Blue. This is false and any person trained in even the most simple colour theory would know that to be false. Subtractive colour theory (using pigments) has these three as the primaries, through which all other colours are created: Magenta, Yellow, Cyan. Think of how a colour printer uses only these colours to mix all of the colours in full-colour photography. Alternatively, additive colour theory (using light) uses Red, Green and Blue to create colours. Think of how your computer or TV screen uses only these three colours to create all of the range of colours you see on your monitor. So as well-intentioned as your post may have been, I can't see how anybody with any training in this industry could have made such a serious and elementary mistake. For those interested in REAL colour theory, check out the wonderfully written free resources available quite literally ALL OVER THE INTERNET, starting here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_theory And, if you're a designer, do check out colourlovers.com and kuler, as well as colourjack
Thank You innovati and mortgageloan for fixing my mistake. I edit my thread already. Luckily I'm not a designer.
now it's worse. When dealing with anything print related, where the colour is made from physical pigment. This colour model is called 'subtractive' because when you mix all of the different colours together, you lose colour, and eventually once you mix them all you end up with black. Paints, inks and stuff like that, the primary colours are Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. Cyan and Magenta produce Blue Magenta and Yellow produce Red Yellow and Cyan produce Green This colour system, as it's used for print is commonly called the CMYK process, where black (K in CMYK, standing for 'key') is used to augment the darker colours and reduce the amount of ink used - as well as for all-black objects such as text where mixing multiple colours is undesirable. It takes professional software to be able to workin CMYK colour mode - and Adobe's suite does it very well. If you are designing anything for print (brochure, poster, catalog, etc), instead of for screen viewing (like a website would be), you need to be creating your documents in CMYK ----- Now, for screen graphics, we are not using inks or paints, we are using light to create the colours. Because light is opposite of pigment, when you mix different shades of light you get lighter and lighter, and eventually if you mix them all you end up with white light. Think of how a prism is able to focus a rainbow of colours into one pure white beam when they all overlap. This system is called the Additive Colour model, and it's primary colours are Red, Green and Blue. now, anything you design for being viewed on a screen, whether for web design, or desktop use - made for mobile phone screens - anything, should be created in RGB colour mode, meaning it is thinking about how the colours mix in light, instead of in pigment. So please, before you mislead more people with a still error-laden post, please get your facts straight. Although you may be just learning this, some of us here have actually studied design and taken Colour Theory and Perception classes where we not only studied the different colour models, and the history of their development, but also did in-depth study of the different colour harmonies you've mentioned here, as well as studied the perception of colour from the biological perspective in humans and learned about how the eye and optics work. I don't want to come off as a snobbish 'I'm better than you' sort of guy, but it's not like the information I am telling you isn't available for free online for all to see - I even linked you to a solidly written article that goes into MUCH greater depth than I did. Please at least read the resources you have freely available to you before you take it upon yourself to 'educate' others with misleading and non-factual information. And to anybody who is interested in colours and how to choose the right colour - luckily there are WONDERFUL books or simply great colour palettes, with the values in both CMYK and RGB so once you choose colours you like you're able to use the same colours in both print and screen work. It does take a lot of skill and practice to hand-pick colours that work really wel together, it's an art and I won't even say I'm the greatest at it yet. Luckily for us, there are wonderful websites full of people more skilled at choosing colour than you or I like Colourlovers where you can go, browse until you like something, and then download the palette in a format that works with the software you use. Please correct or remove this first post here before you mislead more people! It's nothing against you, I just cringe seeing it up here with such glaring and unnecessary errors in it.
To be fair if you are not a designer why are you giving advice on design, i think that design is a personal thing and everyone designs differently, you do not need to use certain colours in combination to make a strong visual piece of art. There are no rules in design
@rysdesigns, although there are no RULES, there are guidelines, and there is also science. Different cultures treat colours different ways. Red stimulates apetite in humans, that's why so many kitchens use red&white. It's not just personal æsthetic taste, the colour serves a purpose. Red in China means good luck. Hospitals and schools use certain shades of colour for their calming or soothing effect, that musty minty green in hospitals, and 'passive pink' are chosen specifically to ease the pain and not draw the eye. Can you imagine how wrong it would feel if a hospital had bright red walls? how alarming, or unnerving that might be? While there are no rules in design that cannot be broken by a skilled designer with a direct purpose - centuries of study, practice and exploration have provided us with a thorough understanding of layout, colour and design principles and how they work. If the goal of design is to communicate, the use of colour can work for, or against that goal depending on how it is used. Design is science and art mixed together, design is not a free-for-all.
what innovati is saying is the absolute truth, design is science, you need to know how work with colors, as another example, McDonalds have so many bright colors that after you eat all you want to do is get the heck out, that way more people can sit and eat, that doesn't happen on restaurants, where you stay for coffee , and talk after dinner.