Colour Theory

Colours are paramount to an effective and successful website design. They influence the mood, the tone and can if used wrongly turn users away from your website. A way to avoid turning users off is to not use too many colours, as it often makes it harder to find information on the page. Too few colours potentially makes a page boring and plain, however it is better to have too few than too many.

A common practise is to have three main colours on a page.

• Primary - This will take up the most area on the page and generally sets the feel of the entire design
• Secondary - Used to back up the primary colour, its usually this is pretty close to the primary but in a different shade or tint.
• Highlight - To be used in moderation, this is used to emphasise parts of your design as it is contrasting to the previous two colours. An example of its usage could be an important button on a website or the logo on a print advert.

 In order to achieve a good colour scheme there are key conventions and tools that are available to help. Firstly a good knowledge of how the spectrum works, this is used with a "Colour Wheel". It shows the Primary Colours in key locations:

Primary Colours are Red, Green and Blue

In addition to this, it has the Secondary Colours which are the adjacent primary colours blended together. These sit in between and are Magenta, Yellow and Cyan.

Finally the Tertiary Colours are a further blend of the adjacent colours to produce even more colours.

Finally producing the full wheel, as shown below.

After we have our full wheel, we can begin to devise colour schemes using a variety of methods to pair up colours with one another. The first one is Analogue, whereby the 2 adjacent colours of a chosen colour are picked. This can in design terms, lead to one that feels harmonious.

The next method is Complimentary. This is where the colour directly opposite a chosen colour. As its a contrasting colour, this is usually how the Highlight colour is picked.

Split-Complimentary combines Analogous and Complimentary together to produce a colourscheme with a degree of contrast, that does not have such a jarring impact as straight complimentary. By having two analogous colours, it allows the design to feel more harmonious.

Finally there is Triadic. This involves selected three hues of equal distance apart to gain your colour scheme. This has the benefit of having a more balanced colour scheme, while staying colourful.

In order to designate a colour scheme for my Website, Ident and Print Advertisement I will be using these techniques and conventions in order to ensure it's both colourful and not irritating to the eye.