| Choosing An Effective Website
Colour Combination |
| Posted: 4-05-2006 |
| Author: Paul Coulter |
An aesthetically
pleasing colour scheme can make or break your website.
After all, in advertising, colour accounts for 60% of
advertisement's acceptance or rejection. Therefore, colour
plays a pivotal role in determining whether or not a potential
customer will choose to conduct business with your firm.
A web designer needs to ensure that all of your website’s
colours work in harmony, while keeping the client’s identity
consistent with other marketing efforts.
Quick Rules of Thumb
•Stick to 3 to 5 colours
when planning a website
•When in doubt, use white
for the background colour, and black for the text colour
Using Your Company’s Logo Colours
If your company already has a logo designed by a professional
– great! This is the best starting point for choosing
your website’s colour combination. You may choose to use
the exact colours found in your logo, or even add some
complimentary colours. But, it is important not to stray
too far from your logo’s colour scheme in order to keep
your company’s identity consistent.
Colour Defines Mood
The colours of your website are important because they
can elicit different emotions from your visitors. Colours
can make us happy, excited, angry or sad. Below is a list
of colours along with the corresponding moods which they
evoke:
Warm Colors
Red: aggressiveness, passion, strength, vitality Pink:
femininity, innocence, softness, health Orange: fun, cheeriness,
warm exuberance Yellow: positive thinking, sunshine, cowardice
Cool Colors
Green: tranquility, health, freshness Blue: authority,
dignity, security, faithfulness
Purple: sophistication, spirituality, costliness, royalty,
mystery
Neutral Colors
Brown: utility, earthiness, woodiness, subtle richness
White: purity, truthfulness, being contemporary and refined
Gray: somberness, authority, practicality, corporate mentality
Black: seriousness, distinctiveness, boldness, being classic
Choosing a Color Scheme
Once you understand the colours and their connotations,
the next step is to choose a colour scheme for your website.
Below is list of different types of colour combinations:
Monochromatic colour combinations use a single color.
Variations in lightness of the selected colour can be
used to create the sense of different colours. Monochromatic
colors go well together, producing a soothing effect,
and are very easy on the eyes. The drawback however, is
that, it can be difficult to highlight the most important
elements on your website.
Analogous color schemes use colours that are related,
but not the identical, to create visually attractive combinations.
Choosing this type of colour scheme is accomplished by
picking colours that are close to each other on the colour
wheel. For example, a selection of blues and purples,
or reds and oranges would make a good analogous combination.
One colour must be picked as the dominant colour while
the others are used as accents.
Complementary (or contrasting) color schemes are comprised
of 2 colours that are opposite each other on the color
wheel. This combination is most appealing when a warm
and a cool colour are used. For example, red with green
or blue work well as contrasting colours. Using one colour
for your background, and its complementary color to highlight
key elements will give you colour dominance and colour
contrast. One word of caution: it is difficult for the
human eye to focus on contrasting colours at the same
time. Therefore, it is best to avoid using strong contrasts
for background and text colours.
About the Author
Paul Coulter's company,Cost Effective Web
Design provides low cost, custom web design services for
small businesses in the Windsor Ontario area. To view
more of Paul's articles, visit his website: Web Design
Related Articles
|
|
