-
Lauren Atherton
My all-time favorite class in college was color theory.
We spent an entire semester learning how colors are made, why we assign colors meaning, and even mixed paints by hand to match swatches and build complex palettes.
It was a tough course, but many of the lessons I learned still apply to my work today.
Color is one of the strongest visual cues in your design toolbox because each hue has strong associations and meaning. After all, one of the first things we learn as children is to identify and name colors, right ? You can tell your story through color.
But choosing the “right” colors on paper doesn’t guarantee that they’ll work together.
If you’re experiencing this at your organization, the hidden culprit may be contrast.
Your color palette needs a balance of light and dark tones for visual interest and accessibility to create an amazing first impression.
Take this color palette as an example:
These colors may look good on their own, but together they lack contrast.
You can see all of the values (amount of light or dark in a color) are pretty close together. Here’s how to fix it, and the 3 things that may help your color palette too:
Use one accent color at a time
Add neutrals
Deepen the darks
Contrast is not only important for your color palette but also ensures that your designs are accessible. Good contrast allows colors next to each other and still be readable, even if the reader has a visual impairment or color blindness.
