Design 101: Color It In

It’s the final day of the month, so we’re just barely hitting our deadline for two blogs per month. However, we’re happy to be back this week because last week was the first entry in a new blog series. We shared in that entry how graphic design has always been at the heart of The Digital Shore, and while the details of those services have changed, design is still a passion of ours. Last week we focused on how to use layers and the ultimate importance of them. This week, though, we’ll be moving on to one of the most recognizable aspects of any design: color. 

Why focus on color? 

Well, first of all, color (or the lack of it) in a design is important. Colors can be used to elicit certain emotions or reactions, and as we all should know from experience, not every color is meant to be paired together. Color can make or break a design. 

For example, using bright colors for a fall promotion doesn’t exactly make sense, or if you want to bring a sense of urgency into a design, maybe don’t use dark, dreary colors.  

What is there to know about color theory? 

Honestly, color theory has several layers, and some of it focuses on what emotions certain colors bring forth in an individual. Most of those emotions are as you would expect. Yellow can be energizing. Red is associated with power and love and hate. Blues and greens are typically viewed as calming colors. You get the picture. 

We’re not going to go into a lot of detail about that here because there are other aspects of color that we’d rather bring into focus. When we talk about colors, you’ll often hear words like hue, saturation, or lightness. So, let’s go into more detail on that spectrum. 

HUE

All color is determined by light, but to keep things simple, we’re going to define a hue as essentially the dominant color family of the color you’re looking at. It’s pretty simple to think of a hue as one of the primary or secondary colors: yellow, orange, red, violet, blue, or green. 

So, for example, green is a hue, and turquoise would be a hue of both blue and green. 

SATURATION

Saturation is in relation to the intensity or purity of the color. A fully saturated color means that there’s no addition of gray to the hue, meaning it is bright and pure. As the saturation decreases, the colors will appear more muted or even pastel. 

LIGHTNESS

Lightness revolves around the degree of black or white that’s been mixed with a hue. White additions make a color lighter (creating tints) while adding black makes a hue darker (creating shades). Lightness is an easy way to show contrast among elements and even create a hierarchy among the design.

All of these elements of color are essential to design, and it is useful to know the differences between each. You can use all of these tools to evoke emotions in a design or bring certain elements of the design into the forefront.

What types of color relationships should you know? 

We’re going to hit seven combinations for our purposes, and we’re also including a graphic to help with the visual explanation of each. 

-Monochromatic: This type of color relationship is simple. It is merely different shades, tones, or tints of one color. 

-Analogous: This color relationship uses three colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. The color in the middle is the primary color for the design with the color on either side is used to complement the design. Also, the color directly across from the main color is usually a great color to pair for an aesthetically pleasing blend.

-Complementary: This color relationship is defined by two colors that are directly opposite of each other on the color wheel. It usually provides for a high contrast/high impact combination. 

-Split Complementary: This color relationship is a little more interesting and involves three colors. You start with one color and find its complement; however, instead of using the complement, you use the colors on either side of it. 

-Triadic: This is another color combination that uses three colors. In this type of relationship, you use three colors that are spaced evenly around the color wheel. 

-Tetradic: This color combination uses four colors. You use this one by finding two colors next to each other on the color wheel and then pairing them with their complementary colors. 

-Square: Lastly, a square combination is simply four colors spaced evenly around the color wheel. 

Color or its lack of it is essential to every design. Our hope is that we can simplify the elements of a design a little bit by understanding the elements of colors and the relationships between them. Stay tuned to the blog throughout September as we lay out more aspects of design, and if you are in need of graphics, check out how we can help here.