lets dive into the world of colors and how they make web design come to life.
Colors Are So Significant
Paul Gauguin knew the significance of color, so he quoted it. Just imagine entering a room with plain white walls, floors, and even ceilings. How would that make you feel? Depressed? Sad? Or just bored? we mean, we haven’t done anything to make you feel that way except for the white surroundings.
Imagine stepping into a room with vibrant shades of blue and orange, where these two come together to make you excited and give you warmth. Do you feel the same way you felt when you were in the white? We will assume no. Now, think about how just choosing the right colors can literally change your entire mood and emotions.
Just like in physical spaces, colors are equally significant on the web. They reflect emotions and build feelings for visitors. A colorful website can really enhance user experience, trigger good emotions, and portray a positive brand image.
Let me welcome you to the world of color theory, which helps you craft a gorgeous web design that lures users. Understanding color theory is essential because it significantly changes your work. Whether you are an expert web designer or just entering the world of website design, you need to learn all about color theory.
Here is a compilation of our knowledge regarding color theory and color schemes to help you make the right color choices for your next web design project.
How To Usefully Utilize Colors In Web Design?
In website design, color selection is more than just about aesthetics. Colors play a vital role. You need to be very curated while selecting color palettes and themes for your website.
“Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet.”
– Paul Klee
When Paul Klee describes something like that, you know it’s vital. Let me tell you more about how to use colors and create impactful websites.
The Color Wheel
The color wheel is a wonderful tool to understand the fundamentals of color theory. We all must have seen a color wheel once in our lives of some variation. Let’s break the color wheel down further to help you get a deeper understanding.
- Primary Colors: There are 3 primary colors: blue, yellow, and red. When combined, they create secondary colors.
- Secondary Colors: There are three secondary colors: purple, made with a combination of red and blue; orange, made with a combination of red and yellow; and green, made with a combination of blue and yellow.
- Tertiary Colors: The blends of primary and secondary colors are tertiary colors, such as red-purple, yellow-orange, blue-green, etc.
- Tints, Shades, and Tones: All of the above colors are considered pure colors. They are cheerful, saturated, and vivid. Tints are the insertion of whites into pure colors. If you add a bit of black to pure colors, it will be called shades. If you add white and black to pure colors, it will create tones.
Using Contrast
Color wheel, got it? Now, let’s talk about another rule that denotes the use of contrast. The higher the use of comparison, the more two colors will outshine each other. It is essential to look at colors as well as their tones because two varied colors with an even tone won’t make high contrast. You would prefer opening sites with proper contrast alignment than sites with poor contrast. Balance it accurately because too much contrast can wear out the eyes.
Colors Spark Emotions
It is no secret that colors ignite memories, good and bad. Even we have certain memories and emotions attached to some colors that we can’t shake. Some colors provoke a gut reaction resulting in avoiding some colors. So whatever color theory you think of, it needs to be well thought out so it doesn’t provoke any user negatively. The color you use in the website needs to be incorporated seamlessly, among other things like imagery, typography, and copy.
Common Color Associations
You don’t want your visitors to run away from your website, right? You need to coordinate the right colors to make the right impression on the user. With everything aligned and the right color associations, you turn an uninterested visitor into a potential client. Following are some colors that provoke relatable emotions, so choose wisely.
- Red: power, excitement, love, passion, danger
- Yellow: optimism, happiness, friendliness, creativity
- Green: health, abundance, nature, prosperity
- Blue: calm, competence, trust, reliability, peace, logic
- Orange: fun, playfulness, freedom, comfort, warmth
- Brown: security, nature, support, protection
- Purple: creativity, luxury, sophistication, mystery, loyalty
- Pink: gentleness, nurturing, warmth, sincerity
- Black: power, elegance, sophistication, depression
- Brown: protection, nature, support, security
- White: peace, cleanliness, purity, clarity,
Colors are really something because by writing about all their attributes, we can feel surrounded by them.
That’s why John Ruskin said,
“Of all God’s gifts to the sighted man, color is holiest, the most divine, the most solemn.”
Create a Color Palette
Since you are here, we are assuming you are getting everything we explained up till now. Good, then let me guide you more on how to create a good color palette that saves you from a disastrous color combination website. Begin with the selection of the brand’s primary color (primary color here doesn’t mean the color wheel’s primary color, it means the main color of the brand). To accompany that fact, let’s take an example of a famous brand, Pepsi. They took their primary color (main color), which is blue & bit of black as well, and ran with it. The blue and black are all over their website. Pepsi chose blue to represent calmness, competence, and trust throughout its brand.
Color palette types
When colors have so many types, why not color palettes? We are listing down 5 main color palette types.
- Analogous: These are the colors that sit right next to each other in the color wheel. This type of color palette looks extremely gorgeous.
- Monochromatic: Such color palettes are made up of a single color combined with multiple shades and tints because mono itself means one. Monochromatic color palettes are so eye-pleasing to look at.
- Triad: With the name suggesting Tri, which means three, these palettes are made up of three colors accurately spaced away from each other on the color wheel. This can be a tricky choice unless the colors positively match the context.
- Complementary: These palettes are made up of colors that are on the opposite end of each other. Such palettes are quite effective and create visual tension and balance in the website design.
- Split complementary: These color palettes are almost the same as complementary palettes; the only difference is that there is another color inserted. It is usually the color next to complementary colors on the wheel. These palettes are not too noisy and create an effective web design.
Hue, Saturation, and Lightness
Hue is known as the point of similarity among the colors. The level of reference is mostly a color like blue, yellow or green. For e.g. whenever you define a color as red-yellow, you are thinking of it as 2 hues.
Meanwhile, Saturation means color intensity. If you increase the Saturation, you will create darker and more vibrant colors, but if you decrease the Saturation, the color will become dim, pale, and fade.
But Lightness describes the brightness of a color in contrast to pure white. In any graphic design software, if you alter only the lightness, it will create various shades and tints.
Things To Ponder While Using Color Psychology
We hope all of your confusions regarding colors, color palettes, and everything associated with them are sorted. But that’s not it. Mind plays an important role while looking at colors. You need to study the minds and preferences of your target audience while selecting colors for your website.
Each color has several meanings associated with it; now it’s your job to dive deep into your targeted audience and look at how that color makes them feel. A visitor’s perspective of color is based on many reasons, such as age, culture, gender, and sometimes religious beliefs as well. The same color can hold different opinions and feelings in different areas of the world. E.g., white is considered a positive and pure color in Western Europe and the U.S.; meanwhile, white is a symbol of sadness and death in Asian cultures.
To understand color psychology accurately, you need to conduct a well-researched study of your target audience and their preferences.
How to use color theory on your website
Since we have covered almost everything up till now, let’s rewind a bit so you get a recap.
- A smart color scheme can create a big difference for your customers and contribute to the success of your website, so choose your colors wisely.
- Understand the color theory to make gorgeous color palettes and make accurate color combinations.
- A good color psychology is a strong way to deliver a positive brand image and message.
- Always do a thorough research and know the color preferences of your targeted audience.
- Always do additional testing to know if your color arrangement is ideal for all devices.
Final Words
This guide extensively describes colors and their associations so you can work on your website with a clear understanding of colors and color palettes. With the help of our guide, you can make more effective and eye-catching designs to lure visitors. Whether you are an expert or just starting, learning about color schemes is significant for catching people’s eye and portraying a design that communicates your brand’s worth. Elevate your brand with our custom Web Design Services that captivate, convert, and drive success.
