{ The Art of Using Color}

Colors affect us in countless ways, mentally and physically, consciously and subconsciously.  Psychologists have suggested that color impression can account for 60% of the acceptance or rejection of product or service. Good color choices should never be neglected in web design. A bad color combination can have the same negative effects as a poor copy and slow load times. In this blog I will briefly discuss color coordination and how you can use this to your advantage when designing with colors.

{1} The Color Wheel

The Color Wheel is a simple tool that's used to discover and coordinate color harmonies, especially in web design. The first circular color diagram was designed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666

Warm and Cool Colors - The color circle can be divided into warm and cool colors. As a general rule, designing a website with an excessive combination of warm and cool colors can confuse the viewer. It can often make the site or design look busy, dirty, and untrustworthy

The warm colors are Red, Red Orange, Orange, Yellow Orange, Yellow and in some cases Yellow Green. Use warm colors in your design to reflect passion, happiness, enthusiasm and energy.

The cool colors are Green, Blue Green, Blue, Blue Purple, Purple and Red Purple. Use cool colors in your design to give a sense of calm or professionalism

{2} Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Colors

The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. The secondary colors are green, orange, and purple and are created by mixing two primary colors. The six tertiary colors are created by mixing primary and secondary colors.

{3} Color Harmonies and Schemes

Certain color combination look very pleasing, while other are painful and abrasive to look at. Why is that? It's more objective than you think, it's based in the color wheel. Color harmonies or color scheme consist of two or more colors with a fixed relation  on the wheel.

Complementary Colors are those which are directly opposite each other on the color wheel. Due to the powerful contrast of complementary colors

Analogous Colors are those which lie on either side of any given color. Analogous color scheme are often found in nature and are harmonious and pleasing to the eye

Triadic Colors use the power of three colors which are situated at 120 degrees from each other on the color wheel. Triadic colors harmony is considered by some to be the best color scheme. You could use one color for a background and the two remaining for content and highlighted areas.

In conclusion color can be your most powerful design element if you learn to use it effectively. Coordinating color between layout elements and photographs is a great way to create unity. Coordination makes everything look as thought they belong. Keep this in mind when designing.