Basic Color Theory

One of the biggest problems I have with my designs is the use of my colors in my design. When I look at colors and themes, I don’t try to use them to enhance my message or show certain emotions in the website, I just pick colors that I think look nice, which is why I am researching color theory so that I can use my colors to bring out my message more clearly. There are three things that I am looking at today, the Color Wheel, Color Harmony, and Color Context.

The Color Wheel

The color wheel shows the traditional basic colors that is fundamental to all artists. The color wheel shows the basic colors that all other colors are made out of. A basic color wheel has primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. 

 

As you can see above, primary colors are Red, Blue, and Yellow. These are the main three colors in art of which out of these all other colors are created. Secondary colors are Green, Orange and Purple. Secondary colors are formed by mixing combinations of the three primary colors. Tertiary colors are formed by mixing primary and secondary colors together, forming colors such as Yellow-Orange, Red-Orange, Red-Purple, Blue-Purple, Blue-Green, and Yellow-Green.

Color Harmony

Harmony is defined as a pleasing arrangement of parts, whether its music, poetry and color. It creates an inner sense of order, and a balance in the visual experience. It can be hard to make something harmonious, because if its too bland, its boring and yet if its too overdone, then its chaotic and confuses the viewer. There are several theories about different formulas to find a harmonious match of colors. 

Analogous Color Scheme

The first theory is a color scheme that is based on analogous colors. Analogous colors are three colors which are side by side on the 12 part color wheel, such as yellow-green, yellow-orange, and yellow. 

Complementary Color Scheme

Complementary colors are any two colors that are directly opposite from one another in the color wheel, such as Red and Green, Red-Purple and Yellow-Green. These colors create maximum contrast between objects and colors.

 

Nature Color Scheme

Nature provides perfect harmony in itself, so using colors that can be found in nature can be used for designs. In the example below, green, red and yellow create a harmonious design even though it doesn’t fit into the technical formula for color harmony.

Color Context

Colors look different when paired with certain colors. In the example below, it shows how differently the same red block looks when against different colored squares.

 

When looking at the red square with the black background compared to the red square with the orange background, it looks completely different. With the black background, the red square looks more brilliant, compared to the white square which makes it look more dull. With the orange background, the color appears lifeless, but with the blue background, it looks brilliant. Also the black background makes the red square look larger than any other background color.

This shows how the appearance of colors changes depending on what background it is on and what colors are also used in the design.  When colors are overlapped with varying shades of the same color, it makes the color on top look like a different shade when in reality it is the same color. Looking at the affects that colors have on one another is the beginning point of understanding relativity of color. The relationship of values, saturation's and the warmth or coolness of respective hues can cause a noticeable difference in the way that people perceive that color.

NOTE:

Information and graphics on this page are taken from Color Matters, Basic Color Theory at http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/basic-color-theory.