Design tips: How to choose the right color scheme

Article Description: So far , you should be familiar with what colors are, what each color represents, and have a good understanding of different color schemes. But anyway, you know it doesn't work, if you don't know where to start or how to use it.

So far, you should be familiar with what colors are, what each color represents, and have a good understanding of different color schemes. But anyway, you know it doesn't work, if you don't know where to start or how to use it.

The effect of color on your project

Color is something that looks fairly simple but very difficult to handle. And because it's the most visually-focused part of any design (it does), it's so noticeable when it's not handled well. If such an important part of your design feels bad, or if you don't perform your company, service, or brand well, it can make the people who stay in the audience disappear.

Because of this, when choosing a color scheme, you need to be very clear about the effects of color in your design-good and bad.

Discarding these default styles (such as complementary colors) and using your own color scheme is definitely a good thing, but when you start creating your own color scheme, it's probably best to follow the mainstream color scheme. In this way, the wrong path to create a bad color scheme is not easy, although it is difficult to eliminate.

Select the appropriate color scheme

First, let's look at how to choose an appropriate color scheme for your project.

Here you need to think about what the color scheme is for your brand, company or industry. There is an article fantastic infographic over at Column Five Media introducing the color use of the world's top brands.

This is very interesting, not only let us see the world's top brands and business color trend, but also let us see in specific industries, which color effect better, or more widely used.
As you can see from the information graph, all of the main colors you use are available in a variety of industries, and these possible colors can be interpreted in a common sense, as previously discussed by an article.
The way I like it is to create a mind map for the project to explore all the different shades and ideas I can think of, and to search the Internet for this kind of information that fits the brand strategy. Then, convert these mind mapping ideas to the meaning of color to determine which is the best match, which will help you find which color is best for the project or brand.

How many colors should I use?

Sometimes, this question is really just a matter of personal preference. In any case, this question is not worth mentioning in column Five Media's information graph, because only 5% of the hundred brands choose to use more than two colors in the color scheme.

Note: In recent years, the budget for print is more important than online exposure, and the number of colors used in branded print is really worth careful consideration.

Even so, it's good to use as many colors as you want, and in some cases you can use colors to create differences in different chunks of the page. In this case, you may have 4 or 5 different colors to add to the color scheme so that each part of the page is coordinated.

Although the final option is yours, I would suggest that you use at least two or three colors in the primary color scheme, which does not contain the light or dark neutral color of the text or background. A color scheme with two to three colors, rather than using monochrome with gradients and shading, gives you the opportunity to try to create a richer contrast between the blocks.

Choose a color scheme from the photo

Have you ever looked at a picture and thought how wonderful and amazing its color was? Sometimes these beautiful colors can be converted into usable color schemes and are used for you. Get a great set of color schemes from the photos, just a little training and patience, and if you're a perfectionist like me, then you'll spend quite a bit of time fine-tuning the colors until they're just fine.

Choose your photos

The key to choosing a good photo is to diversify and it's best to shock you. Whether your pictures are retro or monochrome (that is, the whole picture runs through similar tones and colors), or more vivid colors, you can always find a useful color scheme somewhere.

Once you have one or more photos, if you immediately want to try to create a few color schemes, then use your favorite image processing software to open it, and then start crazy. I have a template that I love in Photoshop (including a few small rectangles) as a pointcut to place my chosen color.

When choosing a color scheme from a photo, I try to stick to just one (such as a monochrome or complementary color) and then try to pick a matching color in the photo. So for example, I would look at the photos and try to find out what colors were most prominent to me, not that they were bright and bright, they might be soft or just a fraction of the picture, but I would try to pick out the few colors that made the picture.

In this photo, because of these similar purple tone, we can easily choose a monochrome system color scheme.

This photo is very full, so we can spend some time creating a more personalized color scheme, which is subject to some rules and is equally appropriate.

Once I started to look at the photos, I had a better idea of the style I wanted, and I would continue to try it out (using the Eyedropper tool) to see what the best colors were. For example, choose only one color as the main body, and then choose two other colors as foil.

Then, start putting the colors in the template and moving them back and forth until you're satisfied with the color's position and level. I usually try to put a dark color (near or almost pure black) and a bright light (close to white) on the side of my chosen main color. This helps the page to achieve a color-and-fabric balance, or it can provide a possibility when there is no suitable text color in the color scheme.

To be honest, the main purpose here is to give it a try, sometimes you don't get the right color, and there are times when you can't find a decent color scheme in your photos, but make sure you try out a variety of colors until you find a more consistent color scheme for your design.

IPhone App Adobe Kuler

If you're struggling with creating your own color scheme from a photo, Adobe has recently released an iphone app Adobe Kuler, bringing a very handy way to create a color scheme from photos. You can switch to camera mode to choose from an existing photo, or shoot something directly at the location.

The beauty of the Adobe Kuler app is that it offers a very innovative way of choosing colors. If you take pictures directly from the "live" view of the Kuler app, you'll see a small circle moving around in the picture. What is happening here is that the app is constantly looking for and selecting the color that it thinks is most valuable in the photos, just where it stops and then helps you combine them into a small color palette.

If you have no confidence in choosing your own color scheme from a photo, using the Kuler app is a good way to help you understand what makes a good color in a photo. Take a lot of photos at random (monotonous, plain tones and rich, bright-coloured tones) and then use the Kuler app to carefully analyze why these color schemes work and why the app chooses them.

You can then start creating your own color scheme from the photos and be more confident about your choices.