- Why is working with color so intimidating?
There are just so many colors to choose from.
And if you don't know what you're doing,
it can be downright frustrating.
If you're struggling with the color wheel,
well, my friends, today is your lucky day.
What's up everybody?
I'm Katy,
and today, we're back with another Canva short video.
Today, we're gonna give you four tips on how
to become the color guru you were always meant to be.
So let's get started.
Tip number one, color theory.
You could be asking yourself
how do I even get started with color?
And that's a good question.
The answer, color theory.
Color theory is a little bit art
and a little bit science
used to determine which colors look good together,
therefore creating color harmony.
In case you didn't know,
the color wheel was invented by Isaac Newton.
Yep. The guy that discovered the laws of gravity and motion.
You're also probably familiar with some color harmony terms,
like complimentary, monochromatic and analogous.
There's also triadic, tetradic and split complementary.
These basically just describe the relationship
between colors and Canva has a great tool for this.
Just go to the Canva color page
and click on the color wheel,
where you'll see different color combinations.
Say you like this blue,
but you're not sure what to pair it with.
Color theory will do it for you.
You can play around with different combinations
and see what you like and then adjust.
So if you're not sure where to start
with color combinations, remember color theory.
All you need to do is choose one color
and then let science do the rest.
Tip two, contrast.
Science makes pairing colors easy
but proper contrast is also important,
especially when text is involved.
Colors have tints and shades of light and dark.
When your colors are all too bright or all too dark,
it becomes difficult to read.
They're fighting for dominance,
which can really frustrate your audience.
This is where hue, saturation and value come into play.
In the color picker, you'll see a bar and a rectangle.
Rectangle?
Sure, let's go with that.
The bar with the rainbow colors is actually the hue.
Hue is basically how you would describe any color
in the color wheel like red, green, blue, and so on.
Fun fact, did you know that magenta doesn't actually exist?
The science behind it
is that there's no specific wavelength of light for magenta.
Our brain simply tries to make sense
of the red and violet wavelengths that it sees
and it averages out to create magenta.
Now back to the color picker.
The larger rectangle is where saturation and value are.
Value is the lightness or darkness of a color.
If we were to move the color picker from top to bottom,
we can adjust the value.
As you go to the bottom, you're adding more black,
making your hue darker,
while moving to the top you add more white,
making it lighter.
Saturation is the intensity of a color.
So if we place the color picker to the right,
its intensity is the strongest,
giving you a more vibrant red.
As you move to the left,
the intensity gets weaker, resulting in a paler red.
Understanding the role of these three
in the color picker will greatly help you
in creating color contrast.
Tip three, neutral colors.
Let's now talk about neutral colors.
Neutral colors are usually overlooked
but they play a huge role in your designs.
Think of it this way.
Colors are like a cast in a movie.
Your lead actors are your main colors,
while neutral colors are your supporting characters.
They tend to recede in the background,
making your lead actors stand out more.
But without them you're left with a very boring story.
Neutral colors are your blacks, whites, grays, and browns.
And they can be dark, light, warm or cool.
Their most distinct trait
is that you don't really know what the underlying color is.
Is it blue?
Is it red?
Is it orange?
We don't really know.
And the great thing about neutral colors are,
they make way for your primary colors
to really shine through in your designs.
They're the perfect compliment
to your brighter, bolder colors.
Tip four, the 60-30-10 Rule.
Have you heard of the 60-30-10 Rule?
It's been used by interior designers for years,
but recently adapted to graphic design,
especially for web design.
This is really useful
when applying your chosen color palette
in a design project
and will actually help you determine
your "how much to how much" ratio.
When you first started creating your color palette,
you started with one color, like this blue.
Then have the help of the color wheel for the rest.
The first color should be 60%.
Your primary color.
This color will be used the most.
The 30% will be your secondary color.
It's used half as much as your primary color
but still visible enough to be seen.
I generally like to use a neutral color
as my secondary color
so my design can breathe a little bit.
Your remaining 10% will be for your accent.
This can be a brighter, more vibrant color.
But what if you have more than three colors,
like say a tetradic color combination?
You can still apply the 60-30-10 Rule.
Here, the blue is still the 60%.
The 30% is split equally with the white and the magenta
and the bright green and the yellow for the remaining 10%.
This rule is applicable to any color palette you choose.
Just remember to stick to the ratios
when you have more than three colors.
Now, let's see how these two color palettes
actually look on a poster.
By applying these two different color palettes
and applying the same ratios,
these two posters look very different from each other.
They have different vibes,
just because of the 30-60-10 Rule.
Now, you may be a bit of a design rebel
and you wanna make your own rule.
I say, go for it.
I encourage you to create your own formula,
like say 40, 40, 20
or maybe even 30, 30, 20, 20.
Whatever the formula might look like,
just make sure you find the right balance
and ratios for your color palette.
With these four tips,
working with color isn't as intimidating
as we first thought it would be.
And I'm sure in no time,
your inner color guru is going to come through.
If you'd like to learn more about color theory,
we have two great videos available on our channel.
Wanna learn how to design with color?
There's a great learn and play workbook
that you can use from your desktop or mobile.
Also check out our Canva Shorts playlist
for more videos just like this one.
And hey, why not subscribe to our channel
for more great content on design while you're at it?
You won't regret it.
(upbeat music)