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Tips on Using Color

Color is a very important part when designing & marketing.  As a company or a person with a message, you want to make sure the person seeing your work gets the feeling you are trying to convey.  This area of Digital Tropic will continue to be updated with even more facts about color.  So check in from time to time to see what has been added to this very important page.  In the coming weeks I am putting together a color chart for you to use.  So come back and check it out.  The color chart may be one of the most important things you learn how to use.

Red shows energy and passion.  Appears to advance. Excites appetite, conversation and thought.  Also means heat or love.  A primary color.

Blue is the color of trust and calm. Blue appears to recede. Pale blue amplifies space. Soothes. Also means cool, power, dignity or heavyness.  A primary color.

Yellow is most difficult for eye to take in, but is friendly. Speeds metabolism and encourages concentration and memory. Warmth, inviting or cowardice. A primary color.

Green is even more calming than blue. Easiest color to focus on, and blends with almost anything. Calms nerves. Also means nature, health and money.  A secondary color.

Orange always is intense. Stimulates appetite, especially with red.  A secondary color.

Purple or Violet is healing and romantic. Gives you that drowsy feeling.  Also shows wealth, royalty, sophistication or intelligence.  A secondary color.

Black is death, rebellion, strength or evil.

White is purity, cleanliness or emptiness.

Beyond specific color-meaning relationships, there are also some general interpretations.  Cool and warm colors convey specific emotion to most viewers. A web site designer who wants to sell rock CD’s to a young audience probably would prefer warm, high saturated, bright colors. A site selling to older more affluent buyers might prefer cooler, more sedate colors. In general, objects of similar hue form a common group while objects of different hue belong to different groupings. 

Mixing primary with secondary colors, when creating color schemes for websites, brochures, ads, etc, will produce some very eye pleasing designs.

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©2000-2002 Steve Stierwalt, Jr. All Rights Reserved.

If you want use any of the material from this site please ask permission, although no permission neccessary for the free stuff area, just link to us somewhere on your site. Want to submit some info, graphics, tips, etc., email it to sstierwalt@digitaltropic.com