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Free Website Content - Basic Color Theory for Designers
Basic Color Theory for Designers
By Sharon Housley
The first box of crayons you ever got probably
had the basic eight: black, white, red, yellow, blue, purple,
brown and orange. And at that time, this was all you needed—every
shade in the world fit into one of these categories. And
then you discovered pink and you had to get the new box
with sixteen colors. Your palette expanded. Gray, peach,
silver…before long, you asked for the big one. The mother
of all crayons. The 64 count set with the sharpener on the
box. Surely now you had them all; every color was in your
grasp.
Color is an important form of nonverbal communication.
From the clothes we wear to the food we eat, color influences
our choices. Our perception of the world is affected by
color. Likewise, the way the world perceives us is also
affected by color. In fact, color, many times, is the most
significant feature of an item. Designers, therefore, cannot
afford to treat color lightly.
When mixing and matching, it helps to know
a little color theory. Back to kindergarten and that box
of eight crayons. One exercise you likely completed was
a color wheel. The wheel is made by placing the three primary
colors (red, yellow, and blue, if you are working with ink)
equidistant from each other on a circle. By blending the
primaries you get the secondary colors: red and yellow produce
orange; yellow and blue produce green; blue and red produce
purple. Further blends of adjacent colors produce tertiary
colors, and so on.
You don’t need a Ph.D. in color theory to
know that relationships exist between adjacent, complementary,
clashing colors. Our perception of color is affected by
the surrounding colors as well as the proximity of other
colors, and the amount of light. Furthermore, certain colors
and combinations evoke emotional responses, which, depending
on your background, you probably already intuitively know.
It is the designer’s business to create a
visual experience which is pleasing to the eye. The elements
of visual harmony are simple to explain, yet much more difficult
to practice. Harmony engages the viewer and creates an inner
sense of order, a balance. Combinations fail to harmonize
if they are so bland as to bore the viewer. At the other
extreme, chaotic, overdone combinations will be rejected
as something which the mind cannot organize or understand.
Simply put, the designer must strive to achieve the balance
between under-stimulation and over-stimulation. This is
harmony, a dynamic equilibrium.
Adjacent or analogous colors are those next
to each other on the color wheel. These are harmonizing
hues, since they each contain of a little of each other
in themselves. They work well together, although they can
appear washed out if they are too close to each other on
the wheel. Adding black or white to one or both colors (creating
tints or shades) can create higher contrast, solving this
problem.
Complementary colors are separated by one
color on a twelve part color wheel. While this combination
of colors creates higher contrast, it also causes undesirable
visual vibrations which puts physical strain on the eyes.
This effect can be alleviated if complementary colors are
separated on the page by at least one other color.
Direct opposites on the color wheel are called
contrasting colors. (Sometimes direct opposites are also
called complements.) When used carefully in designs, these
combinations have high contrast and visibility along with
a sense of harmony.
In choosing color combinations, designers
often look to nature as a reference. This exercise delivers
interesting and unusual combinations that can evoke similar
responses to the actual experiences. While all colors have
dual symbolism and have both positive and negative associations
which change over time, their meaning in nature is constant
and universal. Blue, as it is related to the sky on a clear
day, will always create calm. Green, as the color of plants,
will always bring new life to mind. Yellow is associated
with the radiant brilliance of the sun, and so on. Designers
are smart to take advantage of a color’s association with
nature.
In addition to these basic formulas, designers
must be aware of associations to colors due to cultural
references, gender, age, and class differences. It is important
to understand how the color has been used in a political
and historical context as well as how it has been used in
past and current trends. Religious and mythical implications
can also effect the use of a color. Even linguistic usage
(i.e. phrases like “in the red,” and “moody blues”) will
affect how people view a color.
Sample Design Sites that Use Color Effectively:
Webmaster Templates - http://www.webmaster-templates.net
Logo Search - http://www.logo-search.com
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com
software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and
podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for RecordForAll
http://www.recordforall.com
audio recording and editing software.
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This article may be used freely in opt-in
publications and websites, provided that the resource box
is included and the links are active. A courtesy copy of
the issue or a link to any online posting would be greatly
appreciated send an email to sharon@notepage.net
.
Additional articles available for publication available
at http://www.small-business-software.net/free-website-content.htm
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