Different Methods for Choosing Color Schemes in Web Design
Published in Design ProcessOne of the most challenging aspects of design for many web designers is color selection. The color scheme of a site can have a huge impact on the overall look of the site, and it will have an impact on visitors as well. There are a number of different methods that can be used for finding the right color scheme for a particular project, and in this post we will look at several of those methods. Throughout the post you will find links to helpful resources that you may appreciate.
Getting Colors from Existing Marketing Materials
In many situations the client will already have an established color scheme from an existing website or from other marketing materials. In some cases they may want a change, but frequently you will need to work from the established color scheme. Sometimes making slight changes to the shades of colors but sticking with the same basic color scheme can make an impact, and combined with a fresh design of the website it can help to give the company some added interest to their identity.
In situations where you are not working with a client that has an established color scheme, here are some methods that you can try for finding the right one on your own.
Online Color Palette Resources
There are a number of websites and online tools available for selecting color palettes. Many of these sites allow users to upload color palettes that they have put together, and the rest of us benefit by being able to browse through those that have been uploaded. Most of these sites allow you to search or sort the color schemes by a particular hue or by keyword, which can be helpful if you have one color that you want to use but you are looking for others to use with it.
Here is a quick listing of some of the best places to find color palettes.
Others:
Other online tools exist for helping you to put your own color palette together. Here are some of the best.
Taking Colors from Photographs
Photographs are a great source of color inspiration. You can easily and quickly browse through photos either of your own or random photos from sites like Flickr and deviantART. When you find one that includes a beautiful color scheme, you can upload it to one of several different online tools that will help you to determine the specific colors that are used, providing the hex value so that you can use them in your design work.
Here are some of the best resources of this kind.
Others:
- Color Palette Generator from jrm.cc
- Palette Generator from Big Huge Labs
- Color Palette Generator from DeGraeve.com
At From the Couch David Perel has a nice video tutorial where he goes over his process for choosing colors from a photograph. This is a method that can easily be applied by designers with impressive results.
Design and development blog Build Internet has a series of posts that showcase color schemes from Photographs. Check out their Motivation category to find the color scheme posts.
Taking Colors from Magazines and Other Printed Materials
Online resources aren’t the only place to find color schemes. Magazines, books, flyers, posters, brochures, cards and any other type of printed material can be another source of color inspiration. You can either find a scheme that you like and try to come close just by eyeballing it, or you can scan it in and take the colors directly from the scan in Photoshop or another program.
Browsing Web Design Galleries
One of the best ways to find color schemes that work well for the web is to browse through design galleries. As you do, you will come across some color schemes that you really like and it may give you some ideas for your own work. Of course, what is good for one site may not work very well for another, so it is a good idea to keep your particular project in mind so you can find some colors that will work well for your situation.
You can search around and take one color from a few different websites, or find a scheme that you like and work with Photoshop to find a similar color scheme that will work for you but will avoid copying the colors of the other site. One of the downsides to this approach is that you can wind up doing more copying than you intend, so be careful to make your scheme unique even if it is inspired by other sites.
I Like Your Colors is an online tool that allows you to enter a URL, and it will give you the hex value of the colors in use.
Based on Psychology of Colors
One of the factors that should be considered when choosing a color scheme is the psychology of color. There is a great deal of research that has been done over the years to indicate meanings and messages that are associated with various colors. In many cases this will vary from one culture to the next, so be sure that you are paying attention to information that is relevant to your client and their audience.
Here is a list of some online resources and articles regarding the psychology of color.
- Color Psychology in Online Marketing
- Color Wheel Pro: See Color Theory in Action
- The Meaning of Colours
- Why Color Matter
- Color Psychology
- Color Symbolism and Psychology (from Wikipedia)
Nature
Color is everywhere in nature. Step outside, look around, and you are bound to find some inspiring color schemes. Plants, animals, sunsets, color schemes can be found from just about anything in nature. Of course, getting the exact colors and shades isn’t as simple as when you are working with a photograph (although you can always take a picture) or an inspirational website, you can still get many ideas simply from observing nature and the colors that appear.
What’s Your Approach to Choosing Colors?
If you have a method that works well for you, please share in the comments.
54 Responses
A lot of very useful apps, I will be using these in the future for designs I have.
My favorite part though was the resources and articles regarding the psychology of color, I find the psychology behind colors and why they matter very interesting.
Post really interesting! Psychology of Colors is fantastic! Important for who create a design!
Thanks for the list of resources, some of these I was not aware of!
thanx a lot. very usefull.
Great set of resources .. many thanks for sharing them.
My zebra scheme is pretty straight forward black and white
Thanks for all the resources. I thought colors are just colors. Didn’t realize there is so much more beyond colors. Very interesting and will try it on my sites.
Ok, wow! I had heard about Adobe Kuler and was going to look into it a bit more for some of my sites and businesses, but now it looks like I have a whole afternoon booked going through some of these additional links I had no idea about!
Very thorough list here!
thanx a lot. very usefull.
Post really interesting! Psychology of Colors is fantastic! Important for who create a design!
Colors are very nice mechanism did not expect that much ..Thank you.!
Great stuff! Lots of good info.
Very useful. I love that CS4 has Kuler integrated within the program.
Wow! This is an amazing list of useful apps. It will take a little while to check them all out, but I looking forward to seeing everything they have to offer. Thanks for the Great Post!!
Its interesting to see how few follow the “psychology of color”. People gravitate toward certain colors for different reasons.
I think this very interesting post. It ‘important for any web designer to have a correct color table, the user will be interested in the site thanks to the colors.
That 3-d one was awesome! That’s just impressive, right?! The look itself, while seeming like it would be harder to use, could really impress clients. I mean, they won’t know what you’re using!
I love it!
I just do some small stuff on the side but I’m going to look into it and see exactly how it works and what the cost is.
Thanks
Great article. There are so many color resources out there. It’s almost overwhelming. I read an article (can’t remember where) that said people, women in particular, dislike web design schemes where purple is the primary color. Now I have a client who just sent me a new logo to use in her redesign job and it is purple. And her users are probably 75% female. I felt compelled to mention that she might want to think twice about making purple her primary color. Does anyone recall the recent article that referenced the women & purple thing???
I have been looking for information about the methods used to find the right color scheme for a particular project.
You write very great.Thanks!
Really interesting article…..
It’s very helpful to us !
Thx for the color picker list. its very usefull!
Thank you for the article, I just last week used the ColorSchemer to get my colors.. Wish I had seen your blog before, I cetainly would have had a greater selection in resources.. Now I need a logo designed!
while designing my site http://www.shopfordesigns.com I was just looking for such tools. Great article.
This is very important. I admit that if the colors are not right for me, I leave the page without giving it a chance. Teaching people what colors will help get more traffic to stay on their pages longer.
Very good point. I use mostly white backgrounds, but I do like using different colors in my texts, as well as, my self generated ads and banners. Very good post!
I like to think that all colors make a difference. Dark colors have their good points and soft colors have theirs. I use every source that I can get my hands on and I even make up some. I like to be creative.
I have found that your designs have helped me out. I like the new design that I have made. I think that eveyone else does, too because they are staying longer on my pages. Thanks.
Color is the best way to get and keep your traffic coming to your site. If, the customer likes what he/she sees, then they will return or stay on the page longer. I also, think that the font size helps to keep cutomers on the site longer. When the print is, too small or, too busy, this will keep them jumping. Great info.
You always have wonderful, neat ideas. I do not know what I would do if, I could not follow what you have suggested. I love the colors and contrast that you show. You make me look good.
When designing websites, picking the color scheme has always seemed to take me a while. I usually try to remember what I learned about color theory from my art classes (e.g. two colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel form the most harmonious combinations). These color palette resources are very helpful. Thanks for the helpful reviews. I’ll give some of these a try. One that I’ve recently found that could be added to this list is an online application is called Color Scheme Generator (http://www.colorschemetools.net/colorschemegenerator). It seems like all of these applications can save me tons of time!
Wow, What a marvelous things about colors. Really very interesting and extremely useful for web designers. All the resources are simply fabulous.
Thanks a lot for great article.
Damn,
I read it
I understand it
But the power of awesome color still eludes me =(
I remain just a hack developer. I keep trying.
Thanks for help =)
This is very nice and fantastic tool for designing for creative people.thank you so much……