Warm tones appear in the red, orange and yellow side of the spectrum, with the cool tones appearing on the opposite side of the color wheel. Red is the warmest and blue is the coolest color. The image above shows colors arranged in the order of the spectrum: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple (going anti-clockwise). When you combine each secondary color with its neighboring primary, you get the six tertiary colors: yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-purple, red-purple, red-orange. When you combine these you get the three secondary colors: orange, purple and green. The three traditional primary colors are red, blue and yellow. So how do you go about choosing the right colors for your design? There is no single hard and fast rule, but the color wheel is a good place to get started. Through history color has been used to indicate status, for example nobility and royalty is associated with purple, and color has been an important source of symbolism in many countries. In advertising and design, color is used to grab attention and stimulate interest in ways that would be difficult to create by any other means. Anyone who drives a car in a city follows traffic rules defined by red, green and amber, no text necessary. Nature uses color to warn off potential predators, to attract pollinators, to attract mates and to show fruit is ready for eating. Color in design is a huge topic in itself, and I will undoubtedly return to it in future blog posts, but for today let’s take a look at how you can use color schemes when creating a mood for your design.Ĭolor is an integral part of our lives.
In this final part of the series we’re looking at color. Over the past five weeks I’ve written about simple principles you can employ to improve your designs, namely Contrast, Proximity, Balance and Value.