Colour plays an essential role in both everyday life and design. Certain colours can draw attention to a layout or image, other colours can trigger an emotional response in the viewer or even communicate something important without using words.
In this article we’ll explain the basics of colours in graphic design and how you can use them.
What is colour theory?
Colour theory means the basic rules about using colours to create effective and aesthetically pleasing images. Elements of colour theory can help you analyse the logical structure of colours so that you can use them strategically to convey your message effectively and arouse an emotional response in the viewer.
Most brands use colour psychology to find out how colours influence decision making and adapt their design. Therefore, knowledge of colour theory is important, but it’s good to know that it’s not enough to choose harmonious colours, but you also need to know colour theory to suit moods and emotional responses.
Primary colours
Primary colours are those colours that cannot be made by combining two or more colours and are: red, yellow and blue.
Knowing the primary colours can help you not only to use them, but also to identify colours that go well with other types of colours, which we will talk about next.
Secondary colours
These are colours made by combining any two of the primary colours and are orange, purple and green and are obtained as follows:
- Red + yellow = orange
- Blue + red = purple
- Yellow + blue = green
As mentioned above, knowing the primary colours, we can easily know which colours can harmoniously blend with these secondary colours.
Tertiary colours
They result from combining a primary colour with a secondary colour. It is very important to note that not every primary colour matches and can be combined with a secondary colour to create a tertiary colour. Tertiary colours result from mixing a primary colour with an adjacent secondary colour.
Colour palettes
To make it easier for you to find a harmonious colour scheme, you can use a colour wheel or look at some ready-made colour palettes. They usually use complementary colours and can help you find the most suitable version for your design.
Contrasting colours
When you combine two or more colours, good contrast is essential. If your layout has a spectacular background, you need to choose a suitable and contrasting additional colour that is not dominated by the background, otherwise the message will not be easy to read and the overall look will be cluttered.
One possible option is to choose a colour in a darker shade of the background colour, thus achieving the necessary contrast. Often the background doesn’t have a uniform colour, so it’s possible that the new colour you choose won’t match across the whole layout, so sometimes it might be better to choose one overall colour, making sure it will work for the whole design.
Natural colours
A good way to make sure you use colours in your design that harmonise well is to study nature and the colour combinations found in nature. By using natural colours you can create your own colour palette to help you achieve more projects without risking colour disharmony.
The meaning of colours
Colour perception is very subjective and a particular colour can cause different emotional reactions depending on the person. Therefore, you need to study well the meaning of colours and the kind of reaction they can generate, but until you master these complex notions, keep in mind that all colours can be divided into two major groups: cool colours and warm colours.
Warm colours, such as red, yellow or orange, often inspire passion, enthusiasm and happiness, while warm colours, such as green, blue and purple, evoke less intense reactions, inducing calm, meditation and relaxation.