choosing the right color schemes on your designs can be pretty tricky right well I actually have
five different ways that are proven to help in doing this and they actually work in combination
together but that starts with the 60 30 10 rule and I'll also show a slight variation very soon
so 60 30 10 relates to percentages 60 30 and 10 respectively and these percentages are for
the three main colors you will choose so you want your dominant color to make up 60 of your
design the secondary color to make up 30 and the accent color should make up the remaining 10 the
uh the dominant color can actually be chosen via the research in your brief and project and yeah
you should be doing research and then perhaps contrast that color with the 30 option if you
want a more subtle and relaxed design you can choose a color that is less contrasting the 10
color is the accent color and this should for sure contrast the dominant color the accent color can
make up things like your typography your call to actions and other small details that you want the
viewer to recognize at a glance the variation of this would be the 50 30 10 10 rule with two
accent colors this variation works really well if the two dominant colors are quite similar
and of course these are just actual guidelines you can adjust the percentages a little bit depending
on your preference the project and all that good stuff the next method for generating color schemes
is color harmonies but it goes deeper than you think this can be seen similar to the 60 3010 rule
but it's not as strict and regimented in some ways choose your base color and then we can focus on
a specific scheme such as complementary analogous split complementary and so on you can save time by
hopping onto Adobe color which is free or you can use something like Adobe illustrator's built-in
color system for harmonies that's a game changer for me personally so yeah once you actually know
design message and what it wants to convey then you can choose the harmonies that will fit that
message for example complementary color schemes work well in designs where you want to create
a high contrast and impact they're often used in branding and advertising because they grab
the viewer's attention and they create a memorable impression analogous is a different story entirely
this is because analogous colors are located next to each other on the color wheel and
they share similar Hues this creates a natural and pleasing visual flow on a design that then
means they are used mainly to create calming and soothing effects as you can see right here
so the third method for generating color schemes on your designs is one of my favorites our graphic
designs are so much more effective the viewer can actually feel emotion from our artwork but
importantly the emotion that we want to convey the message on our design so when choosing a
color scheme you can start with the emotion as an example right here if you're designing a piece of
artwork aimed at youthful audiences then bright vibrant colors such as yellows oranges and pinks
might be a good starting point and that's because these are energetic and fun colors to look at
also side notes notice how the typography choices also match the younger audience right here and we
can also focus on combinations as well for example a blue and green color scheme can actually evoke
a sense of calmness and relaxation well a red and yellow color scheme can actually create a sense of
urgency and energy remember that the saturation tints and shades also play a role in Emotion as
well now the fourth approach this will depend on your design audience you might be working on a
design that is aimed specifically at one part of the world say for example you're making a design
aimed mainly at people in Brazil the Brazilian flag features green yellow and blue which are
commonly used in designs related to Brazil and so yeah this might actually be an option
for your design going forward also take the color red which is very polarizing in the western world
it's often seen as an impulsive color one that can express danger or emergency but in China however
it resembles good luck and Fortune the fifth method for choosing color schemes is perhaps
something you should really think about before anything else so when you get a brief from a
client you can ask yourself do they have a strong brand identity do they have a strong color scheme
within their company they may even tell you directly to use their brand colors and send
you the hex or Pantone codes now you don't have to use their brand colors alone unless they tell
you to of course you can try and incorporate the color scheme in combination with something else
but what about using color theory on real designs in real time what you can watch me do just that
by clicking the video on screen and until next time guys design your future today peace foreign
foreign