A color scheme refers to the set of colors chosen to be used together in a design project. The colors are picked in a way that creates an appealing combination and helps convey a certain mood or style. Defining an effective color scheme involves carefully selecting the right colors based on visual impact, meaning, and functionality.
When designing anything visual, from a simple presentation slide to a complex website, using a cohesive color scheme is essential for creating a professional, polished look. However, picking colors can be tricky if you don’t understand the basic principles of color theory and design. This article will explain the process step-by-step to help you define color schemes like a pro.
Understand the Purpose of Your Design Project
The first thing to keep in mind when choosing a color scheme is the purpose and goals of your particular project. Consider the overall style, mood, audience, and message you want to convey. This will inform which direction you take the color palette in.
For example, a fun and youthful brand should stick to bright, energetic hues. Meanwhile, law or finance companies tend to use conservative, muted shades. If your website promotes eco-friendly products, you might want to focus on natural, earthy tones. Think about the emotional response you want to evoke in viewers with the colors.
Defining this strategic objective from the start allows you to hone in on colors that align with the brand identity and goals of your design. Don’t just pick hues you think look nice together randomly. Make intentional choices that reinforce your core message.
Learn the Basics of Color Theory
Once you know the general direction you want to take the color scheme, it’s important to understand some key principles of color theory. This refers to how colors relate to each other and the visual effects they create. Learning the basics will give you the knowledge to put together palettes confidently. Some key elements to understand include:
Primary colors – The main colors are red, blue, and yellow. They can’t be created by mixing other shades. All other colors stem from these three hues.
Secondary colors – These are created by mixing two primary colors together in even amounts. For example, red and yellow make orange, blue and red make purple, and blue and yellow make green.
Tertiary colors – Also known as intermediate colors, these are made by mixing a primary with a secondary color adjacent to it on the color wheel. For instance, red and purple make red-purple.
Complementary colors – These are colors opposite each other on the color wheel. Common complementary pairs are red/green, purple/yellow, and blue/orange. These create strong contrast when used together.
Analogous colors – Analogous colors sit next to each other on the color wheel, usually in groups of three to five hues. This type of scheme creates harmony through tones in the same color family.
Color temperature – Some colors give off a “warm” or “cool” vibe. Warm shades like red, yellow and orange feel energetic and bright. Cool shades like blue, green and purple feel more soothing and calm.
Using these concepts as a guide, you can start experimenting with color combinations that align with the overall style you want for your project. Don’t be afraid to tweak and adjust as you go until you land on the perfect palette.
Choose a Base Color
When developing your color scheme, it’s helpful to pick one base or dominant color that sets the tone for the palette. This will typically be the color used most prominently throughout the design.
For example, many brands have signature colors that represent them. Tiffany’s robin egg blue, Netflix’s red, or John Deere’s green. This central shade should complement the style and message you want to accentuate. Once you have your base color, you can build out supporting colors from there.
Make sure to choose a versatile enough hue that functions well on backgrounds both light (like white) and dark (like black). Some universally flattering base colors include different shades of blue, green, purple, orange, red, and even neutrals like gray. Stay away from difficult colors like yellow, brown or neon tones.
When working digitally, it can be helpful to plug your base color into a color palette generator tool. This will pull complementary shades and show you palette ideas built around that central hue.
Add Supporting Colors
The supporting colors will round out your palette and add visual interest through contrast and variety. But these hues still need to work cohesively with your base color and enhance the overall scheme. There are a few approaches you can take:
Use the 60-30-10 rule – This guideline recommends using your dominant color for 60% of the design, secondary colors for 30%, and accent colors for 10%. This creates plenty of contrast without overwhelming the base tone.
Include complementary colors – Choose shades opposite your base on the color wheel to add striking yet harmonious contrast. Just don’t use your complements in equal amounts or the clash will be too jarring.
Try triadic or tetradic harmony – Pick either two or three additional colors spaced equally around the color wheel from your base for visual balance.
Add neutrals – Shades of gray, beige, black and white give your eyes a rest from vibrant colors and let other tones pop. Use neutrals for backgrounds, dividers, and text.
Adjust saturation and brightness – Tweak your colors by making some tones lighter, darker, duller or more saturated to expand the palette.
However you approach it, choose supporting hues that have enough contrast from your base color without fighting against it. The goal is for all the colors to enrich each other when used in combination.
Consider Color Psychology and Meaning
Beyond just aesthetics, colors also evoke psychological and emotional responses. It’s worth factoring in some of the symbolic associations and meanings of your hues when defining a palette with purpose.
For example, blue is linked with calmness, trust, and professionalism. Red signifies energy, passion, and urgency. Green represents growth, health, and environment. Purple conveys luxury, creativity, and spirituality. Certain audiences will already have existing perceptions of common colors to tap into.
You can use sites like Bourn Creative or Canva for a quick reference on what different colors represent. Just remember these are not hard and fast rules, as context also shapes reactions. But keeping connotations in mind when planning your color scheme can help strengthen your messaging.
Test Your Colors in the Context of Your Design
The colors may look nice together as solid swatches. But you won’t know if they truly work until you test them out in your actual design. This will account for other elements like photos, backgrounds, text, and graphics.
Some tips for trying out your palette:
– Create a mockup or rough draft of your design
– Sample the colors on different backgrounds
– Check whether text/graphics stand out against each color
– View your design on different devices and screens
– Make sure colors meet accessibility standards for contrast
– Ask others to look at your palette in context for feedback
You may need to rework your colors several times to find the optimum combination. Adjustments to make:
– Change the dominant color if it fights against the design
– Substitute secondary colors that clash or get lost
– Modify tones that strain the eyes against backgrounds
– Simplify an overly busy palette
– Punch up a flat scheme with brighter or deeper shades
Keep refining until all the colors complement each other and the overall look you’re going for. This hands-on testing is key for creating a functional, impactful color scheme.
Select Colors for Specific Design Elements
As you work on your design, you will need to assign colors from your palette to specific elements. Some examples:
– Pick colored text that contrasts well against various backgrounds
– Use accent colors for headers, buttons, logos and call-to-action items
– Choose colors to represent different data in charts or graphs
– Assign colors to navigation menus, icons, boxes and dividers
– Select colors for interactive elements like hover states and alerts
– Establish a consistent link color that stands out clearly
Think about which colors will make the most visual impact in certain roles. For instance, brighter complementary colors work well for drawing attention to clickable buttons and links. Darker neutral tones tend to function best for body text.
Make sure you use each color purposefully, not just for the sake of including every hue in your palette. The roles you assign colors should align with your overall brand style and look.
Define Variations to Expand Your Palette
With just the base colors you’ve chosen so far, you may find your options start feeling limited when designing. That’s why it’s useful to define variations that give you more shades to work with.
Some easy ways to vary your core colors include:
– Tint: Add white to lighten a hue.
– Shade: Add black to darken a hue.
– Tone: Add gray to mute a hue.
– Accent: Boost color saturation or brightness.
You can also plug your colors into an editing tool like Adobe Color to automatically generate different variations. Experiment with changing saturation, brightness, and hue/temperature for more possibilities.
Expand your palette thoughtfully by sticking with variations that enhance rather than compete with your base colors. Even small tweaks can make a big difference in expanding your options.
Limit Your Palette
As a general rule of thumb, try to limit your total color palette to around 5 core colors plus any variations you create from them. While a huge spectrum might sound more exciting, too many competing colors can make designs look messy and disjointed.
Stick to a tight palette that focuses on:
– One dominant base color
– Two to three secondary colors
– One or two accent colors
– Neutral tones (black, white, gray, beige)
This allows enough variety and contrast without overwhelming viewers. You can always expand your palette over time for future projects. But start clean and simple.
Too many colors essentially nullify each other. So carefully edit down to hues that truly enhance your brand vision and create visual synergy. Quality over quantity when it comes to your palette.
Check Accessibility Standards
To ensure your color combinations are usable by all audiences, it’s important to check that they meet accessibility standards. Review options like color contrast ratio, color blindness simulators, and other tools to identify any issues.
Some key accessibility considerations around color:
– Text should have a minimum 4.5:1 contrast ratio against the background.
– Confirm combos work for common types of color blindness.
– Don’t convey meaning through color alone. Also use text labels or patterns.
– Make sure interactive elements have visible states like hover and focus.
– Allow users to customize colors as needed.
With a few tweaks, you can create color schemes that don’t sacrifice aesthetics for inclusiveness. Evaluate accessibility from the start to maximize your design’s effectiveness.
Test Colors on Target Display Devices
Colors can appear very different depending on the device and screen they are viewed on. A palette that looks great on your computer may show up washed out on a phone. That’s why testing your colors across relevant devices is so important.
Some display factors that can shift color perception include:
– Screen resolution and pixel density
– Screen size and viewing distance
– Display quality and calibration
– Default color profiles and settings
– Surrounding room lighting conditions
– Screen surface (matte vs. glossy)
– Operating system and software
The best way to test? View your color scheme in actual context on:
– Desktop/laptop screens
– Mobile devices of varying sizes
– Tablets, e-readers, and wearable tech
– Printed marketing materials
– Projectors and presentations
– App dashboards and digital displays
Evaluating your palette under realistic conditions allows you to optimize colors for your core platforms and audiences. You may need to make adjustments for certain mediums. But take a device-agnostic approach whenever possible.
Create Color Swatches for Consistent Use
After finalizing your color palette, the last step is to create swatches of each hue to use as ongoing references. This helps ensure you apply colors consistently across all materials, platforms, and projects.
Ways to produce color swatches include:
– Digital color picker tools to sample from your designs
– Saving swatches within software programs like Photoshop
– Physical color card decks from paint brands
– Online swatch generators
– Color specification systems like Pantone Matching System
– Custom swatch sheets
Provide these palettes to all team members who need to apply your brand colors. Stick to these swatches rather than picking new shades arbitrarily. Consistency is key for brand recognition.
Carefully following your color scheme every time will make your design look polished and purposeful. Don’t shortcut the process once you’ve defined the perfect palette.
Conclusion
Defining a color scheme takes thoughtfulness, strategy, and care. By considering usage goals, design context, color meanings, accessibility, and real-world conditions, you can develop palettes that truly enhance visuals rather than just decorating. Test colors thoroughly across applications to optimize.
Remember that color choice leaves a strong impression on viewers. Make sure yours align with your brand vision. When carefully chosen, even a simple color scheme has tremendous power to communicate style, set moods, and engage audiences. Use these steps to wield the persuasive potential of color effectively in any design or medium.