23 Color tips, tutorials, techniques & resources
History Of The Color Wheel
"Using text from Sarah Lowengard’s The Creation of Color in Eighteenth-Century Europe we’re taking a look at the progression of color organization systems and how the color wheel came to be."
55+ Color Tools for Color Palettes, Color Combinations, Color Schemes & More
"Although, we all have a unique sense of what colors go together, many of us tend to use the same color schemes over and over again because they are safe. What these color tools do, in my opinion, is help us find new beautiful color schemes that we haven't tried to use before. Look below to find a huge list of online color tools and utilities to find new color schemes for your layouts and designs."
Examples of Color Schemes and Color Combinations Within Designs
"Are you having problems thinking of new color combinations? Do you wish that you could have a reference file for evaluating new color combinations for your website? There area many helpful tools and websites out there that list good combination colors but wouldn't you prefer to look at designs implementing these colors? I would. I have created about 45 different simple designs implementing workable color combinations, and I will add to this list at regular intervals."
Find Out How to Combine Colors the Right Way
"For a graphic designer, the world of color is where we thrive. The more vibrant the color, the better I like it. With that being said though, color invades every nook and cranny of our lives. It infuses us with emotions and subconscious messages, creating pizzazz and passion wherever we look. As graphic designers we have to know which colors send the right message."
A guide to top color combinations in web design
"Are you having problems thinking of new color combinations? Do you wish that you could have a reference file for evaluating new color combinations for your website? There area many helpful tools and websites out there that list good combination colors but wouldn't you prefer to look at designs implementing these colors? I would. I have created about 45 different simple designs implementing workable color combinations, and I will add to this list at regular intervals."
Choosing color combinations
"Sometimes finding the right color combinations can be really hard, especially if you have to start a project from scratch. If your client already has a logo, a house-style or branding guidelines, you have a starting point. But if it’s your job to design that house-style, the first thing you should do is decide which style the logo should reflect. Color plays a major part in all this."
Learning to Use Color on Your Web Site
"We often think of a good eye for color as something innate rather than something learned. But in fact, given the proper tools, and possibly a few electrical shocks along the way, even a person who's colorblind can pick color schemes that are pleasing to the eye."
Find the Perfect Colors for Your Website
"Color choice is a crucial decision in every website design. Sometimes you may be designing a site for an existing business that already has an established color scheme, but many design projects will require development of a color scheme. Fortunately, there are almost endless resources online to help you find that perfect color combination."
Five Simple Steps to designing with colour
"Designing with colour is perhaps the element of graphic design which is the most difficult to get right. Why? Well, because it is the most subjective. For some, a palette of dark grey with splashes of bright pink will be just great; to others it would just be all wrong. Too many designers, whether schooled in colour-theory or not, end up making subjective decisions about colour and then when it comes to explaining those decisions to a client, things begin to unravel."
Color and Typography in Good Design
"Typography is a significant issue for designers. On many projects, finding just the right font, size, spacing, etc. can require considerable time and attention. In addition to typography, color is also a major factor in the success of the design. What is sometimes overlooked is the combination of color and typography and the effect that it has on the overall project."
The Red Queen Color Theory
"Here I'd like to use the Red Queen concept to describe what goes on in your psyche when you color your website, and its relationship with what goes on in the psyches of your users when color makes an impression on them."
Questions to Ask Yourself When a Design is Coming Up Short of Your Expectations
"In this post we’ll take a look at some questions to ask yourself when a design is not living up to your expectations. These questions focus primarily on the design, not necessarily the effectiveness of the site overall, the usability, or the content."
Color: An Investigation
"We will explore the subject of color, including the historical underpinnings of contemporary color theory, key color theories, theorists who have been influential over the past few millennia, and the current state of color—including color in digital environments."
Elements of Great Web Design: The Polish
"When I put together designs I usually do so in two phases - Layout and Polish. During the layout phase I place the main objects on the page usually finishing with something that looks relatively complete. In the second stage - the Polish - I go over the design and adjust colours, type treatments, shadows, layers, and generally clean it all up."
The Business of Blue
Tutorial demonstrating various blue color schemes, with examples.
Color Theory for the Color-Blind
"I’m going to give a brief overview of color theory and provide practical advice for the color-blind designer."
Essential Colour Checklists For Web Design
"This article introduces the basics of cognitive psychology around colour and patterns -- what you need to know, and how it affects Web design in a nutshell."
Color for Coders - Color and Design for the Non-Designer
"Just like having a knack for programming concepts, some natural ability can be advantageous when you're working with color, but most of the skills can be gained from a basic understanding of color theory."
Cheating Color
"Jason Santa Maria continues our mini series looking at colour as he trips the light fantastic with your corporate brand guidelines."
Photographic Palettes
"Dave Shea casts a critical eye over the process of choosing a colour palette – in particular, techniques for picking tones from a photograph."
Knockout Type - Thin Is Always In
"Shaun Inman reveals a powerful method for keeping light-on-dark text looking lean, mean and fighting clean. "
Color Theory Tutorial
"If you are involved in the creation or design of visual documents, an understanding of color will help when incorporating it into your own designs."
Designers' color chart cheat sheets
Links to various colour charts for web designers.