1. Create a Mood

The most effective designs have the ability to make us react a certain way, to feel happy or sad or comfortable or on edge or whatever the situation calls for.  With innate emotional connotations, the right colors can be the single most important factor in creating the right feeling for a particular project.

The McDonalds website makes great use of its iconic red color.  Red, besides being one of the colors most effective at stimulating the appetite, can also create a feeling of energy and happiness if used in the right palette.

The logo of the The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation uses a warm palette of orange, gold and pink to create a real feeling of positivity and energy, which combine with the lively icon to create a real message of forward movement.

2. Make an Association

In addition to making us a feel a certain way, the right colors can also make us think of and make associations with certain things, an important consideration if you really want to create the right look.

With its deep brown and dark rustic red, the Sky’s Guide Service website immediately makes you think of rough and tough outdoorsmen.  The rich textures enhance the site to create a great visual for the visitor.

Designed by Jacob Cass, one of our favorite reads on the web, the logo for UKE utilizes a strong, deep purple to make a visual connection with royalty.  Selling chocolate gift baskets to an upscale market, the logo effectively communicates a refined, sophisticated image.

3. Create Emphasis

Through brightness and contrast, color can also be valuable tool to create visual interest in strategic areas and direct the viewer’s focus.

The Taami Berry website utilizes a simple layout and soft, earthy, off-white background augmented with punches of red to direct the visitor’s eye to key elements such as the logo, slider and shopping cart.

The colors of the British flag are used cleverly in the UK Space Agency logo.  Juxtaposed with blue, a calmer, more static color, the powerful red directs your eye to the UK and the focal point of the upward-pointing arrow.

4. Unify a Design

One of the most important functions of a strong and consistent color palette is to unify a design, to give it the appearance of being a single, purposeful, cohesive unit.  Furthermore, across a variety of different materials, a consistent use of color can really strengthen a brand.

The Product Superior logo, website and business card all make use of a bright, distinctive blue and green to create a strong brand for the business.  Perhaps more importantly, these colors are used consistently across all of their materials to create a unified message.

5. Define Structure

Color can be used for organizational purposes as well, to define certain elements of a design and distinguish them from others.  Especially in web design, this can be a useful strategy for creating a clear site structure and hierarchy and for clearly communicating to the visitor where they are within your site.

Cubicle Ninjas has a collection of six different one-page websites, each devoted to a different type of print material. The sites make use of a common navigation across the top of the page, but each site is assigned a prominent background color to clearly separate it from the others.  We also see a good selection of color in terms of connotation and emotional reaction; the brown of the white paper site immediately communicates a more restrained, professional tone than the intense red or punchy blue of the poster and business card sites.

]]> http://www.keywebconcepts.com/blog/2010/07/5-ways-to-use-color-to-enhance-a-design/feed/ 2 http://www.keywebconcepts.com/blog/2010/07/how-do-i-look/ http://www.keywebconcepts.com/blog/2010/07/how-do-i-look/#comments Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:53:16 +0000 J Ivy http://keywebconcepts.com/blog/?p=414

Note: this post was inspired by a post by Gareth from Down With Design, the original can be read here

Custom VS. Pre-Packaged Designs

Your logo is the first impression customers have of you. Maybe they see it on your website, or on a business card or mailer they received. Wouldn’t you want to be represented by something that says “you”? This is what branding is all about. You want imagery that is unique, interesting and memorable. You want something that will stick with your customers long after you have provided the goods or services they were looking for, so that in the future they will return and want to do more business with you.

On the Internet there are millions of images, clipart and pre-created logos just floating around. They were created by someone at some point to serve some purpose. The issue with these pre-packaged designs is not only are most of them copyrighted, but also they were created with someone else in mind…not your company.

It’s like walking into a bakery and looking for a wedding cake that will look beautiful, fit with the ceremony, make you happy and fulfill all of your needs but settling on that 3 day old doughnut. To get the cake of your dreams you would need to talk to the pastry chef. A pastry chef has studied cakes and knows exactly what to do to make your cake look and taste great. A pastry chef will take his or her expertise and work with you to make your dream come true. The two of you would sit down and plan: How many guests does the cake need to feed? What colors are in your ceremony? What ideas do you have as far as patterns and designs? And after that they would bake a cake just for you, not for Debbie down the street or Joe your plumber, but you.

Switching back to design….

This is where designers come in. We listen to your needs, and find how you want to be represented, and what demographic you want to appeal to. Then we create. We create things just for you. Whether it’s a brand new logo, business cards, brochure, or website, it being designed specifically for your needs. You’ll get that dream cake, not a stale doughnut.

J Ivy
Graphic Designer at Key Web Concepts

Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations.
–Paul Rand