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Colour Theory
Colour Theory
Colour theory
One of the most important aspects of your design is the colour choices. While personally you may have a favourite or a pre conceived idea as to the best choice, it is a good idea to keep in mind that colours have a sub-conscious effect on the user/viewer of your designs.
The basic principles or colour theory revolve around your old primary school friend, the colour wheel (you see, that art class was important!) the basic idea is that the wheel has several levels, the first being the primary colours, which are red, blue and yellow.
These 3 are called primary colours because they cannot be made up by mixing any other colours together, it is colour at its base level.
These are followed by your secondary colours, which are orange, green and purple. These are the colours that occur when two touching primary colours mix, i.e. red and yellow is orange, yellow and blue is green, blue and red is purple.
You may see the pattern that is going to occur here, the next layer, your tertiary colours, are made by mixing the touching primary and secondary colours together, and here you start getting more into shades than new colours, for instance starting at the top (with in this case red) and going clockwise red, dark orange, orange, light orange, yellow, light green, green, dark green, aqua, blue, dark purple, purple, violet, red.
Another facet of the colour wheel is the use of complimentary and analogous colours, these are important in choosing what colours go with what, put simply:
-Complimentary colours are opposite each other on the colour wheel, and as such they form maximum contrast and go well together for impact or readability, for instance, blue/orange, red/green, purple/yellow.
- Analogous colours are colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel, they have very little contrast, but looks nice together, for instance green and dark green.
The reason I’m going through all this is because an understanding of the colour wheel and its principles helps to understand what you want to achieve in your designs.
The emotions that colours evoke in people vary from person to person and culture to culture, what means happiness to one person may symbolise mourning to another, but as a generally accepted idea they go as such:
Reds.
Reds symbolise energy, fire and power, they are used by many fast food places as they make people feel think of being hungry. They also symbolise passion which is both a good and bad trait as it can also symbolise anger and aggression... passion walks a fine line between romance and rage.
Oranges.
Oranges symbolise happiness and playful childlike excitement, they can make your business look friendly and approachable, but depending on your business, these traits may not be the most beneficial factor in your clients decision making.
Yellows.
Yellows symbolise happiness and intelligence, they evoke feelings of optimism and openness and can make your company appear very approachable and friendly.
They downside is they are very hard to use well, readability can be a big issue, and the wrong shade of yellow can look sickly.
Greens.
Green is the colour of nature and growth, its good if you have an environmental aspect to your company image, it also symbolises safety and healing, which is why you will often find greens in hospitals or medical centres.
Green is right on the line of being a warm or cool colour, go to the yellow side of the colour wheel and its warm, go to the blue side and its cool, which means it has to be used carefully or it could change the whole look of your design.
Blues.
Blues evoke feelings of peacefulness and calm, but also show dependability, expertise and strength, which is why you will often find blues on companies that need clients trust, for instance, banks, finance companies etc.
Used poorly blue can evoke feelings of depression, inapproachability and coldness.
Purples.
Purple is the colour of royalty, sophistication and luxury, but also symbolises femininity, creativity and spirituality.
Blacks.
Black is good to give an impression of professionalism and a technical or sophisticated look, it can look very shiny and clean, but should be used carefully as it also is the colour of death and can look very cold and gloomy or soulless.
Whites.
White is pure and honest, it looks approachable and clean and gives the impression of a clean or empty canvas to the viewer.
The sterility comes at a cost; it can look cold and bare, and if not used properly can look unfinished or lazy.
I hope that gives you some idea about the importance of colour choice, its not just about what looks nice, although that is an important part, its also about thinking about the purpose of the design, the target market, how it will be used and what message you are trying to communicate.
