Colour is the one of the most essential parts of design. Color, or lack thereof, is used to help communicate a message, it is important to choose colour wisley. You might remember learning about primary, secondary and tertiary colours back in school. Primary colours red, yellow and blue. Secondary colors are created by mixing two primary colours to create a new color (e.g. red + yellow = orange) and tertiary colors are created by mixing one primary colour with a secondary colour. The colours of the colour wheel can also be described as being made up of cool and warm colours.
The Meaning of Colour
Green and brown represent nature, with trees, green foliage and brown barks. The grass in the field is also green while the soil is often a rich, dark brown. It should come as no surprise that a company selling a natural brand of shampoo would choose the colours brown and green for their packaging. The reason being that those colors can easily be associated to nature and growth.
Dark blue represents knowledge, power and integrity. This is why you will often see large corporate businesses such as banks integrating this colour into their brand. Hospitals often use blue, green, turquoise, and silver. These colours categorized in the cool colour group are considered to have a calming effect. On the other hand, warm colours such as red, pink, yellow, gold, and orange use them to promote excitement. These colours can usually geared towards children because their bright, eye catching and fun. You will also see all school buses painted yellow and fire trucks painted red. These colors raise alertness and grab attention quickly and effectively.
While designing, it is also helpful to keep in mind what colours mean in different cultures. While white is used during weddings in western cultures, it takes on a whole different meaning in other countries across the world.
Colours sway the way people think so it is important to know which colours work well with each other. Imagine you are designing a logo for a store that sells balloons. Your first choice might be to use blue and green because it relates to strength, dependability and prosperity, three traits that you want associated with the store’s brand. While those colours are great choices, a better application would be to use red instead of green. Red is more effective here because it causes excitement about your product and is blue’s complementary colour on the colour wheel so it creates a very eye catching effect.
There is so much to know and learn about colour and how it can affect design. It’s important to consider all factors of your design, the brand you are trying to portray and the target your trying to reach. Although this article only talks about the basic fundamentals, this is only where colour begins. From a graphic design, print and web perspective there is much more to learn about colour and colour models (CMYK, RGB, LAB, etc…). Check back soon for more info on colour models!
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