Designing with Color

Color is a terribly important thing for a graphic designer to consider. The same is true for a web designer. Certain colors evoke emotions in their viewers, and when one is designing a site, he must consider how he wants the viewer to feel about the product he is presenting. Do you want your viewer to be excited? Do you want your client to be viewed as trendy and young or more mature and responsible?

The Psychology of Color does a great job of explaining the emotions that certain colors are meant to evoke in viewers, and how members of different cultures can view colors differently. Designing for Americans is different from designing for the Chinese, for example. While white evokes purity and cleanness for us, it is also the color of mourning in some countries.

Once you've decided what your primary color is going to be, you need to select other colors to use along with it... Your text, accents and imagery all need to "get along" with your primary color. Colorblender.com has a wonderfully simple tool to help you accomplish this task. By selecting any color on the RGB scale you will be presented with a color blend that you can use to design your site around, complete with Hex Codes.

However, if you don't really understand what the heck a blend is (I had to Google it myself) you can go a more direct route. Color Scheme Designer allows you to take a more proactive approach to your color design by selecting a primary color and finding the accent colors by using the classic rules of complimentary color. You can also see how the colors might come together in a site with just the click of a button. This also provides Hex Codes to help you on your way.