What Is Colour Theory & Why Is It Important?

Graphic Design Course Online – Colour Theory

What is color theory and why is it important? Colour theory is both a science and an art form. It covers how people perceive colour as well as the visual consequences of how colours mix, match, and contrast with one another. Colour theory also includes the signals that colours convey, as well as the techniques employed to recreate colour.

Colours are arranged on a colour wheel and classified into three groups in colour theory: primary colours, secondary colours, and tertiary colours. More on it in a moment.
So, as an entrepreneur, why should you be concerned about colour theory? Why can’t you just slap some red on your package and call it a day? Didn’t it work for Coke?

Colour theory will assist you in developing your brand. And this will assist you in increasing your sales. While learning graphic design software is essential for graphic designers, you can’t really design attractive illustrations if you are unaware of graphic design basics, design thinking and colour theory. Which is why we, at Blue Sky Graphics teach our students these essential skills, graphic design software and provide certification along with a strong portfolio so that they are not only masters in their crafts but also have the necessary backing to get hired easily after the completion of the course.

What exactly is Colour Theory?

Instead of turning this blog into a small book, we’ll focus on only a handful of the essential colour theory concepts and why you should surely consider them when creating anything! First and foremost, it is critical to comprehend the colour wheel. The colour wheel may be divided into the following sections:

The primary colours

The Primary Colours are red, yellow, and blue, and they may be blended to form any other colour.

Secondary colours

Our secondary colours are orange, green, and purple! Secondary colours are generated by combining two basic colours.

Colours that go together

These colours are diametrically opposed on the colour wheel. Orange and blue are complimentary colours since they are opposite each other on the colour wheel!

Tertiary hues

Tertiary colours are generated by combining primary and secondary colours. These are the hues that make up the remainder of our colour wheel.
Knowing the fundamental concepts of colour theory can assist you in identifying remarkable visuals that are naturally attractive to the human eye. Knowledge of the various portions of the colour wheel enables us to recognise where different hues and saturations fall on the colour wheel, which in turn helps us understand which colours work well together to produce a pleasing palette!

Colour Recognition

In 90 seconds or less, people determine whether they like a product and 90% of the choice is based purely on colour.
Colour is associated with perception; our eyes perceive something (for example, the sky), and info transmitted from our eyes to our brains tells us it’s a certain hue (blue). Objects reflect light in various wavelength combinations. Our brains detect these wavelength combinations and convert them into the phenomena known as colour.
What do you look for when you wander down the soft drink aisle, examining the shelves crowded with 82 million cans and bottles in search of your six-pack of Coke? Is it the written logo or the well-known red can?
In 90 seconds or less, people determine whether they like a product and 90% of the choice is based purely on colour. As a result, colour must play a significant role in your branding.
Colours are seen by humans as light waves. Mixing light, also known as the additive colour mixing model, enables you to generate colours by combining different intensities of red, green, and blue light sources. The brighter the colour combination grows as more light is added. When all three hues of light are combined, pure white light is produced.

Red, green, and blue are the main colours used in televisions, displays, and projectors, and they are then mixed to generate additional colours.

Why should you be concerned?

Assume you have a strong brand with a bright yellow logo. If you share the logo on Facebook, Twitter, or your website without using the proper colour procedure, it will seem murky rather than brilliant yellow.

The colour mixing model using subtractive colour

The subtractive colour mixing paradigm is used for whatever colour you see on a physical surface (paper, signs, packaging, etc.). This colour paradigm is more recognisable to most people since it is what we learnt in nursery while mixing finger paints. In this example, “subtractive” merely refers to the fact that adding additional colour subtracts light from the paper.

Subtractive colour mixing is similar to the paint mixing we practised in primary school. This video does an excellent job of illustrating the “subtractive” aspect of it.

Historically, the main colours utilised in the subtractive process were red, yellow, and blue, since these were the colours that artists blended to create all other colours. Since colour printing became more popular, they were gradually supplanted by cyan, magenta, yellow, and key/black, as this colour combination allows printers to create a larger range of colours on paper.

Why should you be concerned?

You’ve made the decision to produce a full-colour brochure. You expect your printer to get the colours correct if you’re spending so much money in your marketing (printing isn’t cheap!).

Because printing employs the subtractive colour mixing process, correct colour reproduction can only be obtained by using cyan, magenta, yellow, and key/black. Using RGB will not only result in incorrect colour, but will also result in a large charge from your printer if you are forced to reprint your whole run.

The colour wheel and colour theory

Have you ever wondered how designers and painters come up with the right colour combination?

They use colour theory which is a practical application of art and science that is used to discover which colours work well together. Isaac Newton developed the colour wheel in 1666, when he mapped the colour spectrum onto a circle and because it depicts the connection between colours, the colour wheel serves as the foundation of colour theory.

Colour harmony refers to the combination of colours that appear excellent together, artists and designers utilise them to achieve a certain style or feel. Colour harmonies may be found using colour combinations rules and a colour wheel. Colour combinations are used to establish the relative placements of several colours to discover colours that provide a beautiful impression.

A colour wheel may be of two sorts the RYB colour wheel, which stands for red, yellow and blue which is often used by painters to aid in the mixing of paint colours. Then there’s the RGB, or red, green and blue colour wheel, which is intended for online usage since it alludes to combining light – such as on a computer or television screen. Because it is meant for online usage, Canva’s colour wheel is a great colour wheel.

Colour wheel fundamentals

Sir Isaac Newton created the first colour wheel in 1666, thus it predates your exposure to it in nursery. Colour harmonies, blending, and palettes are still developed using it by artists and designers.

The colour wheel is made up of three primary colours (red, yellow and blue) three secondary colours (green, orange and purple are generated when primary colours are combined) and six tertiary colours (colours made from primary and secondary colours, such as blue-green or red-violet).

Draw a line in the centre of the wheel to divide the warm (reds, oranges and yellows) from the cool hues (blues, greens and purples).
Warm Hues
Cold Hues
Warm colours are commonly linked with vitality, brightness, and movement, while cold colours are often connected with quiet, tranquilly, and serenity.

When you realise that colour has a temperature, you can see how using all warm or all cool colours in a logo or on your website might affect your message.

Colour, shade, tint and tone are all terms used to describe the hue, shade, tint and tone

Let’s go back to our first day of school and that 64-pack of crayons. Although, you may be wondering how we went from our basic colour wheel’s twelve hues to all those crayons. This is when tints, hues and tones come into play.

• hue
• shade
• tint
• tone

Tints, tones and shades are simply variations of hues or colours on the colour wheel. A tint is a colour that has had white applied to it, for example red + white equal’s pink. A shade is a tint that has had black applied to it red + black makes burgundy. Finally, a tone is a colour that has had black and white (or grey) applied to it. The original hue is darkened while the colour seems more subtle and less strong.

Because of the stark contrast between the two hues, they can truly make pictures jump, but utilising them too often might get tedious. Consider any December retail shop using a complimentary colour scheme in your company marketing, providing crisp contrast and obvious difference across pictures.

Colours that are similar

Analogous hues such as red, orange and yellow are adjacent on the colour wheel. When designing an analogous colour scheme, one colour will dominate, another will support and one will accent. Analogous colour schemes in business are not only attractive to the sight but may also successfully advise the customer where and how to take action.

Colours in threes

Triadic hues are uniformly distributed over the colour wheel and are particularly vivid and vibrant. Using a triadic colour scheme in your marketing generates visual contrast and harmony at the same time, allowing each item to stand out while also making the whole picture shine.

This colour palette works well for Burger King. But honestly, why should you be concerned about colour theory?

Branding, marketing and sales are three terms.

With this fundamental understanding of colours and colour schemes, you’ll be able to make more successful branding selections. For example, what colour should your logo be? Or the feelings that colours generate in a customer, as well as the psychology of colour selections on your website.

Colour theory expertise may assist you not only manage your own marketing, but it can also help you better comprehend what your competitors are doing.

In a side-by-side examination of three legal firm web sites, you’ll see a range of colour schemes that are similar. Blue is often connected with reliability, whereas brown is associated with masculinity and yellow with competence and enjoyment. All of these are positive connections in an area where negative connotations, such as dishonesty or hostility are stereotypical.

Making your brand stand out and appeal to your target audience, as well as realising that terrible colours may lead to poor sales—therefore, colour theory is important.

Colour’s Importance in Graphic Design

Graphic design use visual elements to convey ideas and solve issues. Colour is a constant component in all designs, whether they are for product design, advertising, marketing, editorial design or web interface design. Colour is one of the most significant parts of design since it is what draws the attention and what people notice immediately. Colour has the power to elicit emotion in a spectator or customer, whether consciously or unconsciously. Because the business is continuously changing and expanding, a professional designer must understand colour theory to adapt and enhance their skill set. Whether you are an aspiring graphic designer or are looking for design services for a personal or commercial venture, knowing the importance of colour in graphic design can help you reach your goals.

Choosing the appropriate colour

Choosing the appropriate colour combinations is critical to producing any effective design and designing starts with a grasp of colour theory. Colour schemes begin with an examination of the colour wheel. The colour wheel is divided into three sections: primary colours, secondary colours, and tertiary colours. Red, yellow and blue are the primary colours. Primary colours cannot be formed by combining any other colour combination together. Primary colours, on the other hand, may be blended with one another to generate secondary colours. Secondary colours are then combined to create tertiary colours.

The Colour Wheel: An Introduction

Colour theory can tell you how to blend colours for the best effect in design, and it all relies on the format and content you’re working with. Colours may be blended from the same or separate palettes, but they should never be overly distracting from the text. The relevance of selecting the proper colour scheme for designs originates from the profound effect that colour has on the human mind. Colour has the power to develop ideas, pique people’s attention, convey messages and elicit emotions. Some colours have universal meanings for example, green is commonly understood to imply go, while red is a colour of caution or to halt. However, when these two hues are combined, one is immediately reminded of Christmas. Bright and colourful colours tend to reflect a more cheerful attitude, whilst darker hues do the reverse. Warm colours, which are located on the left side of the colour wheel, represent enthusiasm, inventiveness and optimism; cool colours which are found on the right side of the colour wheel, represent peace, harmony and a sensation of being quiet and relaxed.

Neutral hues

Neutral hues are another major area of colour that is not represented on a traditional colour wheel. Shades of black, white and brown are examples of neutral hues. When mixed with brighter accent colours, variations of these hues are often used as backdrops. Neutral colours are frequently employed to produce more complex designs. The meaning and application of neutral colours are usually influenced by the colours that surround them.

Comprehending chroma

Comprehending chroma, values, and saturations is another important aspect of understanding colour in design. The purity of a selected colour is referred to as chroma. A colour with a high chroma has no black, white or grey, this is a colour in its most natural state. A colour with more white, black or grey tones has a lower chroma. The simplest way to conceive about chroma is as the brightness of a colour in compared to pure white. A colour’s value relates to how bright or dark it is. Colours that are lighter and brighter have a greater value, whilst black has the lowest value. When using colour values in graphic design, it is necessary to prefer colours with varying values. Colours with a high value contrast are believed to provide a more visually attractive design. Saturation describes how a colour will look under different lighting conditions. This is best understood in terms of colours that seem faint or powerful. Colours with equal saturation levels create a more coherent design.

The impact of colour in graphic design

It is critical to understand the impact of colour in graphic design. Colour combinations should not be selected purely on the basis of one’s preferred colour or what colour combinations one believes looks attractive. Colours used in graphic design must be able to boost the text and brand. A hue that works well and is aesthetically appealing on its own may not be as appealing when mixed with another colour. The right and most effective colours may be determined and utilised in any design by looking at colours through the lens of both arts, seeing how colours function to elicit emotion and science, understanding how colours work well together via the colour wheel.

Colour contrast between text and background

When developing a graphic design job using colours, be sure to use contrasting text and backdrop colours. This improves text readability, which is critical for successfully communicating your company message. The contrast between the colours’ darkness and luminosity should be shown.

When choosing text and background colours, be sure to include contrasting hues for better text readability. Increased contrast also aids in the reduction of eye strain. One strategy used by designers is to choose a dark colour from the bottom half of the colour wheel and combine it with a bright colour from the top.

Use Online Colour Tools to Choose the Best Colour Scheme

Choosing the appropriate colour combination for your graphic design project is a time-consuming procedure. Designers, on the other hand, can now pick the appropriate colour scheme in a flash owing to the abundance of web resources. These tools are a terrific method to experiment with alternative colour combinations or individual colours before settling on the best ones for the design.

Paintbrush and Pencil

The Paintbrush and Pencil tools are the Draw tools in Adobe software’s. These tools are used to create lines on the artboard. Calligraphy, scatter art, and patterned brushstrokes are all done using the Paintbrush tool. By double-clicking on the Paintbrush tool’s icon, you may adjust its settings. The Pencil tool is used for freehand line drawing (as opposed to the Pen tool). The extended Pencil tools include more possibilities, such as the Smooth tool, which smooths out edges in an object, and the Erase tool, which erases parts of an object’s path.
To use such draw tools in Adobe programs, you need to be acquainted with Colour theory in detail. For this reason, we at Blue Sky graphics online graphic design course teach our students graphic design software, design thinking colour theory, etc to make sure they are the perfect addition to any firm that hires them after the completion of the course, we also provide our students the necessities to create a strong portfolio so that they can get hired easily after completing the course.

Why is colour theory essential in graphic design?

If you’re wondering why your marketing isn’t working, have a look at your graphic design. Isn’t it appealing? How much does it help you stand out from the crowd, and what message does it send to your target audience? If you are unimpressed by the end product, chances are your consumers will be as well. After contemplating how harmonious colours may be the difference between your leaflet being picked up or ignored, and how colours can elicit emotional responses, it is easy to understand why colour theory and excellent graphic design go hand in hand. By carefully selecting your colours, you can ensure that every piece of material you provide your consumers works in your favour!