Home | Computers | Security | Web Site

Designing With Color Theory

By: brunolima5662@yahoo.com

Read More About Web Site

What is Color Theory?

Color theory is an essential idea that every designer should know. It's how you use colors together to achieve what you want to achieve in your projects. Colors go together in something we call color schemes. Color schemes are just group of different colors that go together in some sort of way, in which people like to say it's "pleasing to the eye." Color schemes can be broken down into four basic schemes. Mono-chromatic, complimentary, analogous, and triad. Beyond those color schemes there are more specific color schemes that make the four color schemes above more complex, such as tetra-triad. In this article I'm just going to explain the basic four color schemes and the theory behind them. The rest you should probably be able to figure out after you know everything about the first four color schemes.

Why should I care about Color Theory?

If you're a designer of any kind or inspiring to be one, the real question would be how can I not care about color theory. Color theory is an absolutely essential idea for any kind of designer. If you pay attention to it very carefully it can definately achieve what you're trying to achieve with your projects. In other words, color theory is an essential tool to a designer. Think of it like color theory is to a designer as a flight control tower is to a pilot, without it you'll have some serious problems trying to achieve your goals. Even though there are a lot of other factors that come into play when working on a design project, especially a specific design project, (web designing, interior designing, etc..) color theory is one of the most essential factors a designer should pay attention to.

Color Theory and the meaning of colors

The first thing you should know when trying to understand color theory is that every color has specific meanings. The meanings are feelings that people feel when they see these colors. For example, the color red is supposed to strike a feeling of anger, passion, and excitement when people see it. White represents purity, peace, and innocence. I could go on an on, but the point is that every color has a meaning. (You can research more details on color's meanings on the internet) You can use these meanings to strike up a feeling in people when designing a project that could work towards your advantange.

The most classical example of a company that uses color theory to their advantage is McDonalds. If you walk into a McDonalds today you'll notice that there is a lot of red and yellow going on in there. The theory behind this is that back in the day of the birth of fast food there was a lot of business going on in a typical fast food restaurant. They would get an overwhelming number of customers to a point where they couldn't even immagine of serving everyone. So they made the design of the restaurants with the colors red and yellow to strike up a feeling of danger and excitement in you so you won't want to hang around for very long, therefore they could serve everyone and earn more business. Not only did this use of color theory work, but it worked so well that now we don't even walk inside fast food restaurants anymore, we just drive beside them.

Color Theory and the use of color schemes

Color schemes

Now that we understand the basics of color theory and the meanings of colors, we should move on to the good part, color schemes. Colors schemes, like I said before, are ways that colors go together in a way that is pleasing to the eye. Each type of color scheme has a specific formula in which they are calculated and created. Below I will explain each of the four basic color schemes and the theory behind them. One thing to be noticed is that every color scheme is calculated by using the color wheel. More specifically, they can be calculated with the HSV color cylinder pictured below. With it, you can calculate color schemes by obtaining their hues (circumference of the cylinder), saturation or "whiteness" (distance from the center of the cylinder), and their value or "brightness" (heigth of the cylinder).

Mono - chromatic

The first type of color scheme that I want to talk about is mono-chromatic. the mono-chromatic color scheme is a color scheme that is calculated by obtaining an initial color and changing its brightness values to generate the other colors. This color scheme should be used if you want to emphesize a certain color in your design. For example, if you're designing a web site for kids you could create it with a yellow mono-chromatic color scheme to emphasize the yellow, since yellow represents joy and happiness.

Complimentary

The complimentary color scheme is calculated by obtaining the initial color and obtaining the color exactly 180º from the inital color in the color wheel, or sometimes called the "opposite color." The complimentary color scheme should be used when you want to emphesize a certain color, but then contrast it with its opposite color; making neither of the colors too overwhelming. For example, if you were to design a web site for a dating service. You might want to use the red color as it represents love and passion, but the red color can also represent anger and danger. You probably don't want an angry dangerous image to your dating web site. So you can use a red complimentary color scheme to contrast the emphasis of the red with its opposite, cyan. Bringing the effectiveness of the red that you want, while the cyan discards the effects of the red that you don't want.

Analogous

The analogous color scheme is calcutated by getting the initial color and obtaining the colors right beside it on both of its sides on the color wheel. The exact angle away from the initial color is dispulted between different people, but it should be somewhere between 10º to 30º away from the initial color on both sides. The analogous color scheme should be used when you want to emphasize a certain color, but want to vary it at the same time. The theory is that when all the three colors in an analogous color scheme are put together, they together give off the same meaning as the initial color alone. This gives you the same meaning of one color but with many colors to take away to dullness or boringness of using just one color.

Triad

The Triad color scheme is calculated by getting an intial color and the two colors exactly 60º away from the initial color on both of its sides on the color wheel. (think sort of like a peace sign.) The triad color scheme should be used when you want to create an overall balance of the color wheel, but without making it too overwhelming. The triad color scheme is best used in a design project that is neutral in nature and its not trying to spark any emotions or give off any feelings overall.

Color Theory Conclusion

That information should get you going with color theory. Just remember to research more detailed information on color meanings and the more specific color schemes.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

by Bruno Lima - www.soliswebgraphics.com

Please Rate this Article

 

Not yet Rated

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Web Site Articles Via RSS!
Additional Articles From - Home | Computers | Security | Web Site
Sign Up for a free account.
Our other websites
All about SEO
Beauty Tips Forum
Submit Articles
Member Login
Link Us
Submission Guidelines
Ezine Notifications
Article RSS Feeds
Sitemap
New Stuff
About Us
Developer
Good shopping portal
Link to Us
Contact Us
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service

counter easy hit

Powered by Article Dashboard