Color Theory, 5 Colors for Understanding Colors and Easy Color Selection
Most of the people match the colors according to the intuitions that they developed as a child. Colors are one of the most important elements of a professional design. Because each color affects the balance of other components, the wrong color selection can trigger an emotion that you do not want to appear in your audience.
Choosing the right color combination can sometimes be challenging. In this article (video), I'll share 5 tips on how to choose the right colors for design, but let's make the introduction with color theory.
Color Theory
Color theory, which plays a vital role in design, has been used by artists and designers for decades. Do not be intimidated by the word theory, the basic color theory is an information that anyone can easily learn and apply.
Above all, you can use it in every area of your life, not only for design, but also for creating the perfect combinations of clothes, decorating a room in your home or choosing the most harmonious colors in Instagram roller blinds. A good understanding of color theory will be of great help in discovering the magical world of colors.
Primary Colors
As you can remember from school, all colors come from a mixture of red, yellow and blue, the primary colors.
Secondary Colors
When primary colors are mixed together, secondary colors appear.
So, from red and yellow to orange
Yellow and green from blue
Purple emerges from a mixture of blue and red
Tertiary Colors
When six secondary colors blend and tertiary colors emerge, your color world will expand and ultimately you will have a color circle.
Color Circle
Throughout history, civilizations have developed color theories to define the world around them and to understand how we see colors. However, for the first time, Aristotle's ideas attracted more attention among color theorists and influenced subsequent theories.
The main foundations of color science were laid in the 17th century by lsaac Newton's glass prism experiments.
Newton experimented with glass prism and laid the foundations of color science, and saw that each color had different wavelengths as it passed through the prism.
In addition, Newton obtained white light by mixing all colors in the light.
The first color diagram was also developed by Newton by placing all colors on a circle with the white center.
Color Harmony
You may be wondering why information about colors is so important.
Music notes are used to write songs
Photo Credit: unsplash.com
colors are also the building blocks for pictures, designs and photographs.
Photo Credit: unsplash.com
Color harmonies help us find out which colors to blend to create the best combinations.
The idea of color harmonies is based on the perfect balance of your combination with the right amount of contrast. The goal is to make a design that is not very modest but also balanced.
Analog Colors
One way to achieve a harmonious color harmony is to use similar colors, such as yellow, yellow-orange and clasps, or blue, navy and purple, which are adjacent to the color wheel.
Analogue colors are similar to each other, creating a calming and serene feeling. However, you can add black, white, or gray to your designs to create a balanced contrast so that your design doesn't put the audience to sleep.
Complementary Colors
Another way to achieve color harmony is to combine contrasting colors on the color circle, such as orange and blue, or complementary colors such as yellow and purple. Feel free to use complementary colors for maximum contrast, exciting and vibrant design. But be sure to use these colors evenly, otherwise your design may become incompatible.
Three Color Harmony
The three-color harmony is appropriately named because it consists of three colors arranged at equal intervals around the color circle; When the colors are connected by a straight line, they form a triangle.
Using the three colors in this chart, you can create a beautiful harmony and get a very harmonious result. But be sure to use one color more dominant and the remaining 2 colors less to achieve an acceptable balance. Movies are great resources if you want to improve your color skills. You can start with Wes Anderson.
Cross Complementary Colors
The diagonal complementary colors are slightly similar to normal complementary colors. In this combination, a primary color is selected and then the two colors opposite the color circle are used as complementary.
As opposed to the normal complementary colors, 2 harmonic colors are used, so I can say that this harmony is more suitable for softer and less risky designs.
Four Color Harmony
We can call the four color harmonies double complementary colors. It is the richest of all harmonies because it has two complementary colors, four colors.
The harmony of this harmony is somewhat difficult; If all four colors are used in equal amounts, the design may appear unstable, so it is useful to select only one color as dominant to make the colors dominant or passive.
Monochromatic Colors
Monochromatic colors consist of light and saturated shades of a single color. When used together, they fit well and create a clean and elegant effect in your design. Monochromatic colors look more beautiful to the eye, especially in blue, green and yellow tones.
You can use it to capture a general mood. The primary color can be integrated with neutral colors such as black, white or gray. However, when using this color harmony, it can be difficult to emphasize the most important elements in the design.
Image credit: freepik.com
Warm and Cold Colors
If you divide the color circle by a line in the middle, you will see warm colors on one side and cool colors on the other. Cool colors; calmness, peace and tranquility, vivid colors; use it to evoke a feeling of energy, vitality and excitement.
Warm Colors
Cool Colors
1- Choose the right color palette
When choosing the right color palette, consider your design target and audience. Choosing a color palette suitable for young people for an institutional audience or a specific sector can affect the design's message.
You have an unlimited choice of colors to choose from, just make sure you're taking the time and which color is right for your target audience.
There are many color palette websites that you can find on the Internet. Below you will find links to my favorite color palette websites.
2- Use Color Psychology
Did you notice that many technology brands have blue logos? Think of Facebook, IBM, Intel, Twitter and others that use this passive color to symbolize intelligence, freedom, trust, and progress.
Understanding color psychology will help you more easily reflect the emotions you want to convey in design and life.
For example, if you want the user to feel excited or energetic when browsing your website design, consider using bold colors such as red, yellow, or orange. Or you can try pastels or nature inspired blue and green colors for a calming effect.
3- Do not be afraid to use experimental colors
When Heinz released the green ketchup bottle, he sold more than 10 million bottles in the first seven months and reached the highest sales rate in the brand's history with $ 23 million in revenue.
It is a known fact that different colors can have very different effects on consumers. Be sure to try at least three options to help you find a powerful color palette that is most relevant to your brand.
4- Prepare mood board
To try different color palettes, I recommend creating a mood board consisting of pictures, photographs or color palettes of other brands.
Seeing how colors are used by other creators will give you ideas about the emotions your brand associates. Many designers rule 60–30–10 for the color palette except in special cases; that is, it will recommend that you select, for example, a color palette of 60% orange, 30% blue, and 10% green.
Creating a new brand image is an exciting process. Finding the right color palette can sometimes be difficult, but it can also be a lot of fun.
5- Everything is about balance
Colors can have a profound effect on the way the viewer perceives your designs.
Since choosing the right color palette will cover most of your work, start by asking yourself the following questions to understand the relationship between the colors you choose and create the right balance;
Is there enough contrast between them?
Is everything clearly defined?
What emotion does the color palette I choose trigger?
How does one color affect other colors?
Does the color palette match the content?
I hope this information I share with you will help you choose fascinating and impressive colors.
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