Color Schemes

There is something so deliciously wonderful about color and color schemes—whether for a room in a house, a website page or pages, an outfit or a wardrobe, or involved in a piece of art or craft. There is a divine joy in observing, planning, and working with color schemes as they fit aesthetically, as they send a message, or as they speak to a trend, a tradition, or a theme. Before I get too groovy or gushing, allow me to go into some examples, and hopeful some helpful ideas or suggestions (as just blathering does you little good, right?).

Every spring, I think back on the most innovative of color schemes to come out for clothing: in the seventies, someone started the trend of neon: pink and green for spring tunics and shifts and even skirts and pants. The two solids together created a popping, if not psychedelic, display that if you wore them, you will always be catapulted back to that spring whenever you see those colors together now.

The careful and complex color schemes of a needlepoint pattern are something to be acknowledged, too. Hundreds of shades of threads (or yarns) exist, and the artful designer makes use of the color palette by integrating several shades and hues of each color, so that the needlepointer can create fluid lines, fine detail, sharp angles, shadows, and degrees of (colored) light that make for a photographic reproduction.

Color schemes for interior decorating are just as complex and demanding of careful attention and a bit of study. Everything from where the sun hits to how big the space is and looks (two different phenomena) to placement variables are factored into color schemes and color decisions. There are, because of the auspices of internet communication and facilities, some awesome tools for pre-planning color schemes. You can set color #1, then the generator will figure in the appropriate range, hue, etc. of the complimentary and accent colors. The true color wheel is also available at a number of sites, as is information on the psychology of color and the impacts/effects of certain color combinations.

The above color tools are most helpful in another design area: website design. As with color schemes for interior design office, home, and other projects, color schemes for websites are just as important (or maybe more important…as you sell online but you may not need to sell your living room or your bath). There is much psychology involved in the way users receive the color information, so much so that when designers plan, they take into consideration such demographics as age, ethnicity, educational level, financial status, and other specifics that will help them sell the site—through presentation, layout, font, navigational buttons, and, of course, color schemes.