Color Theory for Designers, Part 1: The Meaning of Color. Color Wheel Pro: Color Meaning. Red Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. Red is a very emotionally intense color. It enhances human metabolism, increases respiration rate, and raises blood pressure. It has very high visibility, which is why stop signs, stoplights, and fire equipment are usually painted red. In heraldry, red is used to indicate courage. Red brings text and images to the foreground. Light red represents joy, sexuality, passion, sensitivity, and love. Orange Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. To the human eye, orange is a very hot color, so it gives the sensation of heat. Orange has very high visibility, so you can use it to catch attention and highlight the most important elements of your design.
Dark orange can mean deceit and distrust. Yellow Yellow is the color of sunshine. Use yellow to evoke pleasant, cheerful feelings. Green Green is the color of nature. Blue. Reinventing the Wheel: Why Red is not a primary color. 7 Books About Color Every Designer (and Color Fan) Should Own. Color-fans: I’m motoring for the next few weeks in the final push to write my book about color. So naturally I can’t move an inch without my laptop and a burstingly full backpacks of reference books…which got me thinking: how full are your bookshelves with THE best color reads?
Here’s your hit list of 7 faves: Let’s start with the brand-new: PANTONE: The 20th Century in Color. Leatrice Eiseman, Pantone’s chief color guru, has just published a gorgeous compendium of color trends spanning the twentieth century (with naturally some sly winks into our own 21st century). Our good buddies at COLOURLovers just released their first book (published by F&W Publications, Print’s mama-site). Kelvin: Colour Today was published in 2007 by my heros at Gestalten in Berlin – four years later, it’s still a practically unbeatable resource.
You can’t talk about Mack-Daddy color compendia guides without mentioning Jim Krause’s Complete Color Index. So much for color theory and inspiration guides. ColorMatch Remix - Color Mixer, Colour Mixers - Free Color Matching Tool. Color Fitting - not just the rainbow. Colour management and UI design. Color Harmonies: complementary, analogous, triadic color schemes. Color Explorer • Color Matching. A Look into Color Theory in Web Design. Unarguably one of the most important aspects of any design is its colors. Designers create the style of a site, as well as the movement it makes, the emotion it creates, and its purpose based largely upon the color choices they make. Colors are powerful tools and an important thing all designers should understand when creating websites. Color Terminologies Many of you may have learned some color basics in school, but let’s quickly review some terminology in order to get a better grasp on colors and how to use them.
Color Wheel Main Groups Colors are traditionally shown in a color wheel, and from this wheel, we can separate colors into three main groups: primary, secondary and tertiary. The three primary colors are red, blue and yellow. Mix the primary colors together, and you get the secondary colors. Tertiary colors are comprised of the middle colors like yellow-green and blue-green. Relationships of Colors Color Groups Based on Emotions Warm colors evoke warmth like red, yellow and orange. Popular Color Theory Books.