The question I want to answer in this blog is this: why should you invest in a custom build website and not just get a theme or template? It’s a hard concept to go around but the main objective in all web design is the purpose it serves to your business. In most cases a template doesn’t cut it.
The color wheel.
The color wheel for digital design is a circle with different colored sections used to show the relationship between colors.
The typical RGB color wheel includes the red, green, and blue primary colors.
Secondary colors are colors that are created by mixing two primary colors.
There are three secondary colors. In RGB (the color spectrum for digital design), the secondary colors are cyan, blue mixed with green, magenta, red mixed with blue and yellow, green mixed with red.
When you mix a primary color with a secondary color you get tertiary colors. There are six tertiary colors. In the RGB color wheel these are orange, chartreuse green, spring green, azure, violet and rose.
Use color schemes to create a harmonious color palette.
Color schemes are an important aspect of color theory and can help you create harmonious color palettes. As a designer, it’s up to you to decide what color scheme fits your project best based on intent, strategy and discovery. Let’s break down a few of the main color schemes.
Monochromatic is a perfect color palette to start experimenting, it exists of a single base hue.
In most cases monochromatic is used with multiple shades in the same hue with varying saturation and brightness.
The reason for this is to maintain contrast on the main color shade and create harmony with background colors and accent colors.
Complementary color schemes use two hue’s that are directly across from each other on the color wheel.
They provide high contrast while also appearing more bright and vibrant.
Complimentary colors are like visual opposites, they combine very well because of the contrast, but you have to be careful when you use these colors to maintain balance.
A split complementary color scheme is a variation of the standard complimentary one. There is one base color but instead of the opposite color in the color wheel, you pick the colors that surround it.
Analogous color schemes use colors that are all right next to each other on the color wheel. Think of them as color neighbors.
Pick any color on the color wheel as your main color and look directly at the three colors to the left or right of the main color.
These four colors together create an analogous color palette.
They usually match really well and together they create a serene and comforting design.
The triadic color scheme is a lot like split complementary except each color is equal distance on the color wheel. It's a way to add vibrance in your design, but there should be focus on one color. In this use case you can apply the 60/30/10 rule.
Tetradic & Square
Tetradic & square color palettes use four colors creating a rectangle or square shape on the color wheel.
Think of it as two sets of complementary colors all being used together.
Picking a palette with intent.
When creating a color palette, having a concept in mind for it is important. But, what does that mean exactly?
Well, like music, color is a storytelling tool that relies heavily on emotion. Usually it's to evoke a specific, heavy emotional response.
Color is used to communicate and in communication with color, every color is picked for a reason.
However, as digital designers color palettes are mostly designed to create brand recognition and guidance.
So, with that in mind we should always have a goal with our color choices. And the palette we build should support that goal, or at least connect it.
Let’s talk about how we do that. I like starting with prompts, just some keywords that get ideas flowing.
Words, phrases, moods, anything I think would help capture the essence I have in mind.
Some questions you may ask yourself to come up with these specifics:
What do I want to achieve with this design?
What feeling do I want to stimulate?
Do I want to create chaos or ease?
Who am I targeting?
Don't worry about the specifics, don't judge what comes out, you can filter it later.
If you had a discovery session with a client, it should already be clear what the goal is. In that case you can fall back on the psychology of color.
If you need inspiration for a color palette you can also research photography, settings, illustrations and other designers. Anything that comes up when you think of the topic at hand.
You can also take a walk in the forest or the city, whatever inspires you.
It’s not about stealing a color palette, but creating one based on the emotional feeling you want to produce.
There are reasons for everything we do, including the color palettes we choose.
They have to fit our personal style but on the other hand it has to amplify the power it can bring to our clients, creating results over time.
Picking color palettes the right way is combining the want of our client, with our style of design and the goal we want to achieve.
This is the case in all things design and so, it also counts for the color palettes we choose. It makes sense right?