Color theory is vastly underrated in most aspects of life. But the human subconscious develops an opinion of the subjects it views based purely on its visual qualities in the first five seconds of viewing it. This is the reason why web designers and developers are spending more time on finding the right color combination while creating a WordPress blog for their client. The easiest way to enhance this first impression on your blog is through a well planned, dynamic and harmonious color scheme.
There are a number of aspects to consider when picking out colors. First and foremost is the mood or tone you’re trying to convey or the subject matter. Once you have a clear idea of this, you can move on to which colors portray the message you’re trying to get across. Don’t go crazy with loud, bright, hard shapes in attempt to grab attention. It will get attention, but probably not in the way that you want. Too often do product designers sacrifice a clever scheme and layout in order to influence the customer eye into viewing, like overly active banner ads. Your eye is shocked into looking, but you’re never really happy about what you see.
History of Color
The color wheel was developed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666 and has been an invaluable tool to artists and designers ever since. The main triangle of colors is the primary colors: red, yellow and blue. They are so named because none of them can be created by mixing together any other two colors. When you combine two primary colors, they create a secondary color. They are orange, green and violet. Finally, when a secondary color is mixed with an adjacent primary color, they become a tertiary color whose name is a hyphenated combination of the two colors, starting with the primary color. Red-orange or yellow-green, for example. Two colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel (meaning they are complete opposites) are called complimentary colors, like blue and orange. Any three colors next to each other are called analogous colors, like red-violet, violet and blue-violet.
Visual weight dictates how much a particular area draws the eye. A small complex image will have the same visual weight as a large simple image. In a single image, you want a balance of visual weight in all quadrants. For instance, a newly-wed couple off to the side of the shot with a grand impressive sky filling the rest of the image. The people are small compared to the sky, but the image is balanced because they are more complex and are also the obvious focal point. Complimentary colors are going to build up a large amount of visual weight in a small space. They are attention grabbing but they also get obnoxious quickly when used in excess. Analogous colors have a lower visual weight but are still very interesting and pleasing to the eye so they are great to build patterns with and use as a background. Try to make your key points of interest have a higher visual weight but not so heavy that it’s the only thing your audience can look at.
Finally, your layout or image must have good harmony. An image to simple will be ignored and an image which is too complex will as well. When an image doesn’t have enough going on, the mind discards it as unimportant and moves on to bigger and better things. When an image is too complex, the mind is initially drawn to it but, upon viewing, becomes confused or overwhelmed and discards it to find something more pleasing to absorb.
Pick your colors, set your mood, assess your visual weight and establish a harmony. Understanding these fundamental coloring concepts is essential to all forms of design.